Johnny had his moments of restlessness, as well. Jane tried to give him a few responsibilities to make him feel needed, but he was quick to detect any that were unnecessary. Shopping for her seemed to be his greatest joy. The first time she handed him a few coins and asked him to run to the store for something, he hadn't been able to hide his surprise. Now she tried to forget at least one important item when she shopped.
Each time she set the table, she wondered if Adam would be there to eat with them. When he wasn't, she kept food warm on the stove, in case he came later. If he hadn't arrived by the children's bedtime, she and the children took dinner to his kitchen, lit a fire in his stove and left the food there.
When he did join them, he told of homes smelling of onions, which were supposed to cleanse the atmosphere, of children sleeping in the same bed as their sick siblings, and of mothers, exhausted from caring for ill children, taking to their beds with even worse cases of the disease.
Jane wished for it to be over. When she took the children with her to shop, she noticed worried glances leveled at Peggy. It wouldn't be long until the children noticed them, too. Other children were no longer allowed to play in her backyard. Though she knew this was wise, that children together were likely to pass the flu around, she also knew it was primarily because of Peggy that the children weren't allowed to come.
One morning, a week into the epidemic, Ferris didn't come down for breakfast. No one seemed particularly alarmed. "It's Sunday." George said. "He doesn't have to work today."
Much as a young man his age might like to sleep, Jane knew he also liked to eat. She couldn't recall a single meal he had missed since he had arrived. When the others were finished, she left Johnny in charge of Peggy and went up to Ferris's room.
Her light tap on the door got no response. She knocked louder and heard a groan. Perhaps Ferris had been out celebrating the previous night and was paying the price this morning. But that didn't sound like Ferris.
Jane opened the door a crack. "We missed you at breakfast," she said gently, mindful that he might have a headache.
He groaned again. "I'd rather die than eat," he said plaintively. "Did the doctor come to breakfast?"
"No, I'm sorry. He'll be around sometime today, I'm sure. You've caught the flu, haven't you?"
Ferris nodded weakly.
Jane stepped up to the bed and placed a hand on the young man's forehead, gauging his temperature.
"I'll bring you some water and a cool cloth.".
He nodded again.
Poor Ferris was not much more than a boy. and far away from his family. She left him and returned to her kitchen.
"Ferris is sick," she told the children. "Play as quietly as you can and don't go upstairs."
"Upstairs?" Johnny was incredulous. "With them Cartland women livin' up there, you couldn't make me go up them stairs. Peggy neither."
Peggy shook her head. "Neither."
"Good," Jane said. "It wouldn't be fun to be sick like Ferris."
"It wouldn't be fun to be chased away by them Cartland women, neither."
"Neither!" Peggy said.
Jane checked on Ferris several times as the day passed. By midafternoon, Peggy started to ask after Adam every few minutes, needing to be reassured that "Docka Hart" wasn't gone forever.
Jane set a place for Adam at the table, but none for Ferris. The Cartlands noticed immediately. "He's down with the flu," Jane told them.
"The flu! My dear woman," Nedra said, "we should have been told."
"I don't know what you could have done," Jane said, knowing there was little chance she would volunteer to sit with the boy.
"Done?" chimed in Naomi. "We would have left."
"Left?" Jane found herself holding her breath. The others, including George, were standing beside their chairs waiting for the women to be seated.
"We most assuredly can't stay here," Nedra agreed.
"We must pack up at once."
They eyed the table a moment, then reached a decision simultaneously, taking their places. They weren't in so big a hurry to leave as to pass up dinner.
Jane took her seat also, casting a questioning glance at George. He knew how important it was that they stay.
"I don't think you need to do anything hasty," he said. "Besides, where would you go?"
"We may just go to Ames," Naomi said. "There's a hotel there. We might take our business there, as well. The prospects here haven't been what we were hoping for, anyway."
Nedra immediately agreed. "We can pack up after dinner and still catch the evening train."
It must have been worry that brought to Jane's lips exactly what she was thinking. "Isn't it nice you never got around to ordering any merchandise for your shop? So much easier to move this way."
The women looked at her, aghast. George chuckled and tried to cover it with a cough. "Five miles isn't far enough to escape the flu, ladies. You might end up next door to another case."
"Might is the key word," Naomi said. "Here it's definite. Besides, at the hotel we won't be eating with the carrier." She leveled her glare at Peggy, who stared back, horrified. Johnny bent and whispered in his sister's ear. They both giggled, and Peggy went back to her dinner. Naomi's eyes narrowed, and she gave an audible sniff.
Jane ate the rest of the meal in silence. There were
no words she could think of to make the Cartlands change their minds, especially after her own remark. By the time they had finished dessert, the ladies had talked themselves into believing they were about to embark on an adventure as grand as their original move to Clyde.
Two empty rooms. Jane's budget had not allowed for this. It would be difficult, but perhaps not impossible, to make the next payment. She could rely on her own garden a little more and save at the grocer's. But she would have to fill those two rooms as soon as possible.
George lingered a moment after the boarders had gone. "There's no need to worry, Jane," he said.
She assumed he was speaking of their vulnerability to the flu. No, she and the children were healthy. They would be fine.
Jane sent the children out to play in the yard and took some broth up to Ferris. She had a feeling the boy would have liked her to stay with him, and she did for as long as she felt she could. She considered moving him downstairs, to Grams's old sickroom, but didn't want him that close to the children. After feeding him as much broth as he would take, and sponging off his fevered face, she placed the cool cloth across his forehead and left, promising to return soon.
She was half finished with the dishes when she heard the Cartlands on the stairs. She dried her hands and went to see them off, determined to collect half a month's rent. They had the money ready, figured to the day.
"We'll send someone over for the trunks," Nedra said.
That was as much of a farewell as they were going to give Jane. She tried to be gracious and wished them luck.
They were no sooner out the door than Lawrence Bickford descended the stairs, his suitcase in hand.
"You're leaving also?" she asked in surprise.
"Naomi convinced me."
Of course. Jane should have thought of that.
Bickford at least had included a small tip in his payment. "The school board has postponed the opening of classes because of the epidemic. I'll return before the term begins," he said.
She wouldn't be here by then, she thought. The loss of his rent left too much of a hole in her finances. The bank would own the building in approximately two weeks. Her revenge, she thought, could be applying for his job, but that wasn't really what she wanted.
Disconsolate, she returned to the kitchen. What else could she have done? She couldn't have turned poor Ferris out. The boy had no one to count on except for her and George.
The children came in as it started to get dark. They had been waiting for Adam, she learned, missing him as much as she was.
"Docka Hart gone," Peggy said sadly.
Johnny rolled his eyes. "You can't explain nothin' to her."
"He'll come back," Jane said, lifting the child. But she was worried, too. What if he had fallen ill somewhere, perhaps along a lonely road? Peggy must have felt some of her distress because she put her head on Jane's shoulder and started to cry.
"Brother!" Johnny grabbed his book and sat down at the kitchen table. "She used to be fine when it was just us. Now she's got to have everybody she knows right beside her all the time."
"She's only little," Jane said, rocking the sobbing child, wanting to cry as well. Her home, her business were gone. Her last boarder was upstairs sick and lonely. Adam had been gone all day. She was worried about him, she wanted to tell him all her troubles and she just plain wanted to see him again.