A Time to Heal(9)

When Mary continued to just stand there, tears welling up and splashing down her cheeks, Phoebe turned to Joshua. "Get the ice, go, quick!"

"I'll do that," Jenny said. "Matthew, get the first-aid kit.Annie, you go on upstairs and brush your teeth and get ready for bed."

"But I want to help," Annie protested.

"Annie, listen to your mamm," Matthew told her.

He retrieved the kit from a cabinet near the stove and then moved to the side of the sink.

"That looks really bad," Matthew said, studying the skin that had already bubbled up and blistered.

He turned to Jenny. "Do you think I should call a driver to take him to the emergency room?"

"No need to fuss. It's just coffee," Chris insisted, embarrassed by the attention but in a lot of pain. It hurt like someone had just pulled the skin off him, but compared to what he'd been through when he'd been injured overseas, it should feel like a cakewalk.

"Jacob Yoder got a third-degree burn last year when he knocked a coffeepot over and the hot coffee spilled all over his hand," Hannah told Chris. "You don't have to pretend it doesn't hurt because you're a man."

He raised his brows in surprise. As he'd noticed earlier, this was no shy, docile, Amish miss.

"I'm not pretending," he said, staring at her directly. "I'll be fine."

She kept splashing his skin with cold water, and once, when her fingers accidentally brushed his skin, she pulled them back as if she'd been burned and looked away.

Chris clutched the edge of the sink as Hannah continued to splash water on his blistered skin. He willed himself not to curse in front of the kids.

Then, in the midst of all the pain, he felt a small hand pick up one of his. When he glanced down, he saw that Annie pressed it to her lips.

"I kiss it make it besser," she said and grinned, showing a gap in her two front teeth.

He looked at Hannah and she nodded and smiled slightly."She's a sweet child."

"Here, try this," Phoebe said, dampening the towel with ice in it and handing it to him.

Chris sat down at the table and held the icy compress to his chest. He felt a little uncomfortable sitting in the kitchen with his shirt off. He heard a gasp and looked over his shoulder.Hannah stared at his back, her eyes wide. When her glance flew to his, he saw the shock in them.

"What—" she began, then she shook her head. "How did you—" She stopped but he saw the curiosity in her eyes.

"Like I said, the coffee's nothing," Chris said. "Really, there's no need to fuss."

His words came out more harshly than he intended, and he watched her flinch and turn away. He started to apologize and then he heard a sniffle and saw that Mary stood by the door, her cheeks wet with tears.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she whispered.

"It was an accident," Chris said. "Just an accident. And I'm fine."

But she'd already spun on her heel, and then he heard her running up the stairs.

"I'll talk to her," Jenny said. She hurried after Mary.

"I'm sorry that I've gotten everyone upset." Chris started to his feet, but Matthew's hand descended on his shoulder, staying him.

"Sit. You saved my daughter from a really nasty burn," Matthew said. "Let's make sure you won't suffer the effects from it too much yourself."

Chris glanced down and lifted the ice away from his chest.The skin had reddened where the coffee had spilled on him and a few blisters had formed, but it didn't look as bad as he expected. The cold water Hannah had splashed on the burn had helped even if the pain still took his breath away. But no one needed to know that.

He looked around. "What happened to my shirt?"

Hannah lifted the wet lump that was his T-shirt from the sink and squeezed the water from it. "I'll wash it and hang it on the line to dry. Do you have another with you?"

"Yeah, in my backpack." He pushed it out from under the table with his foot and started to reach for it.

"I'll get it out for you," she said as she bent down.

"No! I can manage."





Hannah blinked at his brusque tone and slowly straightened."I'm sorry. I just meant to help."

She chided herself for her impulsiveness. Why hadn't she thought he might not like her rooting around in his backpack? But as she watched him unzip it and pull out a shirt, she thought he'd overreacted.

Then again, she didn't know any Englisch men. Maybe they were different from the men in her community.

"So what do you think, Phoebe? Should I take Chris to the emergency room?" Matthew asked.

Phoebe studied him. Her eyes were kind but shrewd. "We should let him decide that. What do you think, Chris?"

"I'm fine. It feels much better now."