The Doctor's Newfound Family by Valerie Hansen Read Free Book Online

that the air itself caused illness, but he did know from experience that the more children who were housed together, the greater the chances that they would catch whatever diseases their companions suffered from. That was a given. And as long as the Reese children and their sister resided with the other orphans, they would be in mortal danger.
     
    The day sped past. Sara Beth saw to it that her brothers were settled in the boys’ dormitory and had gone with their fellows to afternoon classes at a nearby school. This new life seemed to suit them a lot better than it did her and Josiah. The little boy had fussed most of the day, wearing her patience thin until she had finally agreed to let him be taken to spend the daylight hours with the other babies under the age of three.
    Their parting had brought tears to her eyes, especially when he had begun to sob and reach for her. “No, you need to go with Mrs. McNeil,” Sara Beth had said firmly. “Sister has work to do and I can’t do it if I’m toting you around.” She’d patted his damp cheek in parting. “Be a good boy, now. I’llpick you up after I finish my evening chores. I promise.”
    Now, up to her elbows in dishwater, she started to yearn for her former life, then stopped herself. “Don’t,” she said softly. “That’s gone. Over. You have to make do. Mama did and you can, too.”
    “That’s the spirit,” Clara said as she added more soiled tin plates to the stack by the sink. “Never give up and you’ll be much happier. I know I am.”
    “Have you worked here long?” Sara Beth asked.
    “Since my Charlie passed on. Cholera got him right after we arrived. We was goin’ to start a little restaurant and get our share of the gold dust the honest way.” She sighed, her ample chest rising and falling noticeably with the effort. “I figure at least this way, my skills in the kitchen aren’t going to waste.”
    “I wish I were talented in some special way,” Sara Beth said. “Mama had been training me to keep a nice house, just as she did. Beyond that I know very little.”
    “You can read and write, can’t you?”
    “Yes. Of course. As a matter of fact, there is a letter I plan to pen as soon as I have a spare moment. Do you know where I can find paper and ink?”
    “Ella can give you whatever you need,” Clara said with a smile. “I swan, that woman could make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”
    “She is amazing, isn’t she? I don’t know what I’d have done if she hadn’t let me stay.”
    “What about your parents? Are they both gone?”
    Sara Beth nodded solemnly. “Yes. I shall have to pay to have them buried and I haven’t a cent.”
    “There’s plenty of paupers’ graves in Yerba Buena Cemetery. That’s where my Charlie is laid to rest. The only thing that bothers me is not having a headstone. Practically no one does, so I guess that makes us all equal, rich and poor.”
    “I suppose so. Mr. Warner has promised to make the arrangements for me.”
    “Old Abe Warner? Then let him. He may live like poor folks but that saloon of his has to be rakin’ in the gold dust by the bucketful. How’d you come to know him, a fine lady like you?”
    That question amused Sara Beth. “Mama loved his menagerie. We used to take our constitutionals down by the waterfront and we’d often stop to feed the monkeys or those beautiful big birds he kept. I even saw a bear there once.”
    “I reckon he needs all those critters to clean up the garbage. From the looks of his place, he could use a few more, too.” She chuckled, then added, “That’s better. I know you could smile if you tried.”
    “I hate to. I mean, it seems wrong, somehow. My family has been decimated and we’re in such direstraits we may never recover, yet part of me feels a sense of joy.”
    “That’s the Lord tellin’ you He’s got the answers,” Clara offered. “They may be a while in comin’ and may not be the ones you asked for, but He’ll look after his