Worthy Brown's Daughter Read Online Free PDF

think, but he’ll need help when Mr. Hardesty has finished with him. Do you think your boys can help me carry Lukens to the river after the flogging so I can clean him up?”
    “I don’t know,” Farber said, looking around nervously.
    “Look, Glen, no one will think less of you if you help me. I’m your lawyer.”
    “It ain’t you. I don’t want nothing to do with that scum.”
    “No lawyer in Portland wanted anything to do with your lawsuit when they heard you wanted to sue Benjamin Gillette,” Matthew reminded his client.
    Farber looked embarrassed.
    “The boys will help,” Millie Farber said firmly. Millie was taller and heavier than her husband. Her wide hips and large breasts offered domestic comfort, but Matthew knew that her unwavering faith in God and the fortitude she required to raise her brood and deal with her husband had coalesced to form a will of iron.
    “Thank you,” Matthew said after waiting a beat to see if Glen would protest. “Do you think one of the boys could drive Lukens to a doctor in Portland in your wagon? I’d pay,” he heard himself say, knowing that he could ill afford any extra expense given the precarious nature of his financial situation, which provided barely enough money for rent and food. But the Farbers were poorer than he and could not afford to let an able-bodied worker go for the time it would take to go from Phoenix to Portland and back. And there was the matter of the guilt Matthew felt for failing to save Clyde Lukens from the lash.
    Glen cast a worried look at his wife, but she laid a hand on his forearm.
    “Mr. Penny’s gone out of his way to help us, Glen.”
    “I know, but I’m worried what everyone will think.”
    “They’ll think we’re good Christians. It’s easy to help someone who obeys the Lord’s word. But Jesus instructed us to show compassion to the sinner so he could be redeemed.”
    Farber didn’t look convinced, but he knew better than to argue with his wife on matters of religion.
    “I’ll talk to John and Peter about taking Lukens to the doctor,” Glen said.
    “Thank you,” Matthew answered, just as Abner Hardesty reappeared, alerting the crowd to his presence by cracking his whip for practice. Lukens, who was already stripped and secured to the oak tree, looked over his shoulder and began to weep in anticipation of the pain.
    “Excuse me,” Matthew said, walking away from the Farbers to position himself where Lukens could see him. He felt it was his duty to bear witness, and he wanted Lukens to know that there was at least one sympathetic soul in the mob.
    Matthew forced himself to watch every minute of the whipping, even though he wanted to close his eyes and cover his ears to block out Lukens’s screams. He suffered with Lukens, and every crack of the whip and cry of pain brought home how badly he had failed his client.
    Lukens did not stand up well. He fainted frequently and whimpered or begged while conscious. When it was clear that he’d had enough, he was cut down and left like a dog in the field. Matthew waited until most of the crowd had drifted away before nodding to Farber. Two of Glen’s sons—one sixteen and one seventeen—carried Lukens to the river while the youngest ran to the inn to fetch the salesman’s possessions and the eldest went for the wagon.
    Matthew was no doctor. Millie Farber, who had patched up her husband and most of her children at some time, stepped in when Matthew’s incompetence became obvious. While Millie worked on the salesman, Matthew penned a note to Dr. Raymond Sharp, explaining the situation and offering to pay for his client’s care. When Millie had done all she could, the Farber boys lifted the moaning victim onto the straw in the back of the rig, placing him on his stomach and giving him a rolled blanket to use as a pillow. Lukens had been delirious or unconscious since the whipping, but he came to just as Farber’s boys prepared to drive off.
    “Wait,” Matthew