Sage: A Sweet Western Historical Romance (Walker Creek Brides Book 5)

by Miriam Minger

  Andreas shook his head. He imagined Sage had heard the whole altercation from her bed, but he was glad the investigation was now out in the open.

  “Might as well give the God-fearing women of this town something to chew on for a couple days, and maybe some of them will show some remorse and cross their names off that petition. If Beatrice is wise, she’ll spill the truth and get off with a slap on the wrist rather than a few years in prison. Come on, Doc, it’s cold out here. Let’s go back inside.”

  Charles nodded and led the way, while Andreas murmured his thanks to Sheriff Braun.

  “Glad to help, but it isn’t over, Andreas. In the eyes of the townsfolk, Miss Larsen’s a prostitute, and maybe always will be considered one no matter her innocence. That kind of label is almost impossible to overcome—”

  “If it’s advice you’re trying to give me, I don’t want it or need it,” Andreas said tightly. “When did you say that deputy will be showing up?”

  “I didn’t, but there’ll be someone stationed here night and day until she leaves the infirmary. You’re a better man than me, Hagen. Good luck to you.”

  Andreas was surprised that Luke extended his hand. The two of them had hardly spoken after the debacle with Daniel, who had been Andreas’s employee when most everyone thought him a no-account drifter.

  Judge not, that you be not judged.

  Dear God, was there no end to it? Sighing heavily, he shook the sheriff’s hand and then went back inside…the sound of inconsolable weeping the first thing he heard.

  Sage.

  “Everything’s going to be all right, dear…oh, please, Sage, it isn’t good to distress yourself so!”

  Sage knew Molly was trying her best to soothe her, but she couldn’t stop crying.

  She had heard everything—everything!

  The terrible things Mrs. Winchell had said about her, all of those ladies intent upon removing her from the infirmary and throwing her out into the street.

  The names they had called her…shameless hussy. Harlot!

  Yet worst of all was Andreas telling them about an investigation into that night at the brothel. How could he have possibly learned of it? She hadn’t said anything to anybody for eight long months, no, not even her kind benefactors, the Levinsons. Yet now those women knew what had happened, and Mayor Logan and his deputies, and soon the whole town—

  “I…I don’t…understand,” Sage barely managed through sobs, feeling as if her words might choke her as Andreas rushed toward her. He looked almost as stricken as she felt as Molly rose from the chair pulled close to the bed so he could take her place. “I’ve never said a word…not one word!”

  “You became delirious not long after you were brought to the infirmary,” Molly sought to explain while Andreas sat down and enfolded both of Sage’s hands in his much larger ones.

  “Sage, listen to me. Beatrice Dubois won’t dare to hurt you. We only know what you said when you were delirious, but it was enough—God help me, when I think of what you suffered! If I could find that man, I would break every bone—”

  “But she said…she said…” Shaking her head in desolation, Sage stared into Andreas’s eyes, such blue, blue eyes. She wanted so desperately to believe him, her sobs quieting as the warmth of his hands undeniably soothed her. “She said if I ever breathed a word to anyone about what she’d done to me, she would hunt me down and—”

  “She’ll sooner be hunted down and thrown into prison if she dares to lift a finger to harm you—but she won’t, Sage, do you hear me? Once she’s staring the law in the face, Mayor Logan and those deputies, she’ll come around quicker than you can blink and admit everything just to save herself. Now, do you trust me?”

  Andreas stared at her so intently, and he seemed to hold his breath as he awaited her answer.

  Her face wet with tears, she thought to wipe them away, but she didn’t want him to release her hands—no, never to release them! She nodded, and at once the tension she saw in his broad shoulders seemed to relax.

  “Yes, I trust you.”

  “Then you must tell me everything that happened, but quickly, Sage. I want to catch Joshua before he boards the train to Austin. He needs to know as much as possible—”

  “I was aboard a train bound for San Antonio when someone stole my reticule!” Sage blurted as if a dam had suddenly burst deep inside her. “My money was gone, my ticket. That’s how I came to Walker Creek. The conductor put me off here and told me I needed to find a job quick so I could continue on—”

  “You had no family you could contact? The sheriff could have helped you send a telegram.”

  Fresh tears filled Sage’s eyes, and she shook her head. “My parents, my brothers are gone—influenza last April. Our farm was sold to pay off debts. I had only enough money for my ticket to San Antonio and a week or so at a boarding house. I’d hoped to find work as a nanny…”

  Sage fell silent and swallowed against more tears as the beloved faces of her mother and father came to her, but Andreas’s gentle squeeze of her hands gave her the courage to go on.

  “I went to the telegraph office and the operator told me about a position for a lady’s maid at the Red Dog Saloon. I went there at once, and Beatrice seemed so kind at first, but then two nights later she gave me something to drink that made me feel so dizzy…”

  Sage went on even as Andreas’s hands tightened upon hers, the hard set of his jaw and the thunderous look upon his face ominous to see. Molly appeared upset, too, as she sank onto the opposite bed. Dr. Davis rested his hand upon his wife’s shoulder while he listened quietly, his expression somber.

  “I remember hearing something about five hundred dollars…and then I was taken to a room with a bed and someone undressed me. Beatrice? One of her girls? I don’t know, everything was spinning. Then he came in, stumbling, and kicked off his boots. I smelled whiskey. I think I screamed. Then he fell on top of me, but he didn’t move. Thank God he didn’t…didn’t—”

  “Andreas, please, I think that’s enough for now,” Molly interrupted as she rose abruptly, looking even more distressed. Dr. Davis, though, shook his head.

  “Molly, we need to let her finish. Go on, Sage. When did Beatrice threaten you?”

  Sage nodded, swallowing hard. “I heard all the commotion—an hour later, maybe two—but I couldn’t get out of the bed. He was so heavy. Then Beatrice came in and pushed him off me, and told me to get dressed. I wasn’t so dizzy anymore…I’ll never forget what she said.” Sage closed her eyes against the raw memory, her voice falling to a whisper. “Breathe a word of this to anyone and I’ll find you and cut your throat, do you hear me, missy?”

  Sage felt a tear trickle down her cheek and she sighed brokenly as Andreas stared at her in silence, and the Davises, too.

  “I knew from the way Beatrice glared at me, she meant it. We were herded outside, and it was the strangest thing. Something told me that if I climbed into that wagon with her and the rest of the women, I was as good as dead. Like a voice speaking to me, but no more than the softest whisper. I looked around me, but didn’t see anyone. Only Sheriff Logan standing a few feet away. The next thing I knew, I was begging him to allow me to stay in Walker Creek…and he agreed. By some miracle, he agreed.”

  Sage fell silent, still no one speaking, though Andreas had a curious look on his face now as if something she’d said had startled him. Yet it was quickly gone as he rose to lean over the bed, his thumb gently wiping the moisture from her cheek.

  “I need to speak to Joshua, but I’ll return straightaway.” Andreas glanced out the window, and then back to Sage. “Sheriff Braun’s deputy is already stationed outside. You’ve nothing to fear, I promise you. Not as long as I have something to say about it.”

  She stared up at him, her breath catching as he leaned down even further to press his lips ever so lightly against hers, and then he left her to stride to the door…Charles and Molly staring after him in amazement.

  Sage stared after him in amazement, too, h
er heart beating faster than she’d ever felt it.

  He had kissed her, Andreas Hagen had kissed her! Her face swollen from crying and her hair still matted with blood.

  A fervent look in his eyes that told her none of that had mattered to him at all.

  Chapter Five

  “No, Andreas, I’m afraid you can’t see Sage right now,” Dr. Davis said firmly, Molly standing just behind him at the infirmary door.

  “But…I don’t understand.” Andreas came a step closer, only to have several of the half dozen hired hands he recognized from Caleb Walker’s ranch move closer to him, as well as the young deputy too. He couldn’t deny he had been startled to see them as soon as he rode up on Thor, and he shook his head in confusion. “I’ve been gone less than two hours. What’s happened?”

  “Caleb and Seth are what’s happened. They came by not long after you left and brought these men to help Sheriff Braun’s deputy protect Sage.”

  “Caleb? And Seth, too?” As Dr. Davis nodded, Andreas had a sudden twinge of intuition that Anita must have had something to do with this unexpected turn of events.

  Maybe she hadn’t gone directly home last night after all, but had driven the carriage out to Walker Creek Ranch to tell Caleb and Lily, and Kari and Seth, what she’d heard Sage reveal in her delirium. He didn’t fault her for it; he knew Anita would have done so only out of concern—yet it was keeping him from Sage!

  His frustration mounting, Andreas took another step toward the door, only to have Molly ease past her husband to come outside to face him.

  “Sage needs complete rest for a few days, maybe even a week, and that means no visitors. I’m sorry, Andreas, not even you. I know you assured her that she had nothing to fear, but she began weeping again and turned so pale we grew concerned. Can you blame her? She needs time to allow everything that’s happened to sink in. She’s been living a nightmare with that terrible threat over her head—and the censure of the entire town making everything only worse for her. Please, you want her to heal, don’t you?”

  Andreas nodded, though it was all he could do to restrain himself from pushing his way inside so he could find Sage and take her into his arms.

  To hold her and reassure her again that everything would be all right, especially now that Joshua knew the full story and had more cause than ever to find Beatrice Dubois and hold her accountable.

  Andreas glanced toward the infirmary window where he wondered if Sage might be able to see him, but Molly laid her hand on his forearm, her hazel eyes filled with understanding.

  “She’s not there. Caleb and Seth helped us to move her upstairs into a spare bedroom at the back of the house. It’s much more comfortable and quiet, especially if we get more patients. I’m amazed we haven’t had more folks coming and going the past couple days, but sometimes it’s slow like that. We were able to give Sage our full attention just when she needed it.”

  “I’m grateful to you,” Andreas murmured, wishing he had been the one to help Sage and not his brother-in-law or Caleb. His sense of protectiveness overwhelming him, he had to fight again the urge to break past everyone determined to keep him from her side—and to accept what he clearly couldn’t change.

  “Did Caleb say if Anita—”

  “Yes, she let them know about Sage. Caleb said she was outraged, livid even, that Sage had experienced such cruelty in our town. He feels terribly as well, and holds himself responsible—well, you know why.”

  Andreas nodded grimly, Caleb’s decision to close the brothel had come too late to help Sage.

  Everyone in Walker Creek knew that the Red Dog Saloon had been Caleb’s second home for all the time he spent there, and who had kept him company—Beatrice. Then the daughter he’d never known existed, Kari, had arrived from Minnesota and helped to profoundly change his life for the better, and the town for the better, too. All of the prostitutes and their madam sent packing—except for one who hadn’t been a prostitute at all…

  “Will you tell Sage that I came back to see her?”

  “Yes, of course, Andreas. I’ll send you word myself when she can receive visitors again. I promise, you’ll be the first to know.”

  Andreas murmured his thanks, and then glanced from left to right at the young deputy and Caleb’s ranch hands. “You better guard her well, boys, or you’ll have me to answer to.”

  He stood so tall and broad-shouldered among them, stronger and more muscled by far than any other man in town except for Daniel Grant, that every one of them gave him a nervous nod. He could have taken them all on right then and there, he knew it—and so did they—but Molly’s words had swayed him.

  For now. Yet if this enforced separation lasted longer than a few days to a week, well, he didn’t want to even consider to what lengths he’d go to see Sage again.

  “Sage, are you awake?”

  Sage opened her eyes with a start, wondering if she was dreaming.

  She’d been dozing in and out all morning, but now she rolled over on the bed and stared at Anita Hagen in surprise. She had never met her before, but she knew who Anita was, the beautiful young woman sharing the same white-blond hair and startling blue eyes as her twin brother, Andreas. At once, Anita put her forefinger up to her mouth.

  “Shh, we have to be very quiet so no one knows I’m here! I came in through the kitchen and sneaked up the back steps, oh, my, it was quite exciting. The place is silent as a tomb! Thankfully Molly and Charles are busy in the infirmary, and I saw Dr. Grant driving away in his buggy to visit a patient, I’m sure—so it all worked out perfectly!”

  Still so astonished that Sage really had no words, she began to sit up only to have Anita rush around the bed.

  “Here, let me help you! Are you feeling better? You certainly look better than you did five days ago—there, how’s that?”

  With startling efficiency, Anita had assisted Sage to settle against a pair of pillows that she first plumped and arranged behind her, and then she grabbed a chair and set it beside the bed.

  “Oh, dear, I’m not being very quiet, am I?” Anita sat down in a whoosh of rose velvet cape and then leaned forward to take one of Sage’s hands. “You gave us a dreadful scare, you know, Andreas most of all. He’s quite head over heels about you—ah, there I go, spilling the beans before he’s even had a chance to see you again. He’s going to be so jealous that I got here first, but he’ll be glad in the end when he sees the dress Mrs. McMaster is going to make for you. She’s the best seamstress in town.”

  “Dress?” Sage stared in confusion at Anita, who bobbed her head and leaned closer as if to share a secret.

  “Yes, yes, I know I’m going very fast, but we haven’t much time. It’s nearly lunch, and I’m sure Molly will be bringing you a tray soon. No visitors, remember? Do you feel well enough to stand up so I might take your measurements?”

  Sage nodded, while Anita had already drawn a white measuring tape from her cape pocket.

  “My older sisters and I worked as seamstresses back in Faribault, Minnesota—that’s where we lived before we came to Texas. I was never very good at it, though, not like Kari and Ingrid, but none of us are doing needlework for a living anymore. Kari’s soon to be a mother and Ingrid teaches school, and I’m going to be an actress, though I doubt I’ll ever be as famous as Lily, Caleb’s wife—Sage, are you all right?”

  Again, Sage nodded, though she hadn’t yet made a move to leave the bed. She felt fine, truly, almost as good as new, but a whirlwind suddenly blowing into her room couldn’t have left her more bewildered than Anita.

  “I’m sorry, but you said a dress?”

  “Of course, for the St. Valentine’s Day ball! Andreas told me he plans to invite you, but he wants to make sure that you’re better first. He’ll be so pleased—well, jealous and pleased, when I tell him you’re doing so well. Now, shall we get started?”

  Anita didn’t wait for her to answer, but jumped up from the chair and drew aside the covers so Sage could climb out of bed.

  Her heart
raced, her breath caught in her throat, and her face burned over what Anita had just revealed.

  The St. Valentine’s Day ball? With Andreas? Never in a thousand dreams would Sage have imagined such a thing was possible. Yet here she was, standing in her stockinged feet beside the bed in a borrowed flannel nightgown while Anita made short work of taking her measurements.

  “Just as I thought, you’re even more petite than Kari—well, before she grew so round with child. I think it’s going to be a girl, but everyone else is saying a boy. Either way, it will be wonderful. I can’t wait to be an auntie! Do you have a favorite color? I’ve already spoken to Mrs. McMaster, and she has several bolts of burgundy silk that will look perfect with your brown hair and eyes, if that’s all right with you—”

  “Anita.” Her voice hushed, Sage reached for Anita’s busy hands to still them, and stared into her eyes as her throat tightened. “Why are you doing this for me? You don’t know me. We’ve never spoken until now—”

  “And for that I’m deeply sorry,” Anita said in as low a voice, tears welling in her eyes. “I saw you a time or two when I came into the mercantile, but I never greeted you. We’re near the same age, yes? I’ll be nineteen in April—”

  “My nineteenth birthday is in June.”

  “There, you see? At any other time we would have been fast friends already, but I heard the gossip about you and assumed the worst, just like everyone else in Walker Creek—well, except for Andreas. You’re so very lovely, I don’t know how he couldn’t have seen you until that time he said he nearly mowed you down in December.”

  “I stayed out of the way in the back room, especially when anyone came in. I’m surprised you saw me at all. I never went out during daylight, other than Sundays when everyone was in church…except for that one afternoon. Mary Levinson wasn’t feeling well and needed headache powder from the apothecary. I was in such a hurry, I didn’t look where I was going.”