Soon the last wagon pulled away. Maddie and Luke stood in the yard and waved. When they were out of sight, with Luke’s strong chest at her back, his muscular arms wrapped around her, Maddie collapsed against him.
“I am absolutely exhausted! But wasn’t the party a success? Oh, I am soooo happy.” A single, happy tear rolled down her cheek.
He tightened his arm around her. “I am sure you are tired. Other than when I insisted you sit to eat, I do not think you sat for a minute the entire day.” He squeezed. “Come, let us go inside. I’ll let the men take any of the remainin’ food to the bunkhouse—unless there’s somethin’ you particularly want for us.”
“Just some of the pork they roasted so I can use it in our meals this week if that is all right with you. Oh! And Mrs. McIntire’s chicken and dumplings, I think she called them, although there probably isn’t any of that left. It was delicious. I would love to try and make that one day.”
“After I get you inside and sittin’ in your comfy rocker, I will come out and check. Then I will head over and tell the men to gather everythin’ else. They will be pleased to have Cookie prepare somethin’ other than beans all the time. I will deal with the tables when we get home from church tomorrow. I am beat, too.”
The stars twinkled like diamonds in the black sky. As they walked inside, he bent his lips to her forehead. “It was an excellent day. As flawless as those stars above us in God’s heavenly masterpiece. Thank you.”
She hoped the smile in her eyes conveyed everything was perfect.
At this moment it certainly was.
The next time they went to town, Stan McAfee approached Luke. “Guylenhall, my wife wants Miz Maddie to help her. It’s her time.”
“I just saw Doc a few minutes ago.” He glanced down at Maddie, then toward Doc’s two-story house.
“I know he’s around, but the wife wants Miz Maddie.”
Maddie peered at him from beneath her lace-edged bonnet.
This was the first time someone had asked for her when Doc was around. Luke wasn’t certain how that would make Doc feel. He certainly didn’t want to offend the elderly man.
“Can you give me a minute while I talk with Doc? I jes’ don’t feel right not gettin’ his blessin’.”
The man spit a stream of tobacco into the dirt and nodded. “I’ll wait right here. Doc won’t mind.”
Luke hurried to Doc’s house and explained the situation. To his surprise, Doc smiled.
“I would be thrilled for any help your beautiful lady can give me. I am not a young man anymore, you know. Sister keeps naggin’ me about slowin’ down or quitting. Not quite ready to quit helpin’ folks yet, but I would be thrilled to relax a bit. You go back over there and fetch your wife. Knowin’ her, she is already champing at the bit to go help.” He chuckled. “If you don’t get back there soon, she will probably come stormin’ in here to see what the holdup is.
“Let her and Stan both know I am pleased for the help.” He escorted Luke to the door.
They burst out laughing when they saw Maddie stalking their way, a determined look clearly written all over her face.
Once again he’d spend his day waiting on Maddie while they awaited another man’s child.
When will it be my turn, Lord? He’d never fully realized how much he did, indeed, want children. His fear was she wouldn’t want them with him.
“Need your help, Luke.”
Luke’s eyes darted up from mending a fence in the north pasture when Matthew rode up. Seems like he’d just been out here repairing it the week before and part of it was down again. This time it appeared it had been helped. He wasn’t pleased at the prospect.
He’d been daydreaming about Maddie. He snorted. Who was he kidding? Thoughts of her intruded on his days often.
“What’s up?”
“Five scoundrels robbed the bank this mornin’, then hightailed it out of town. Do not want them to get too far ahead before a posse heads out after them. I got Jake back in town gathering some good men to round up the polecats. Want to come? The rest of the posse’ll catch up with us.”
Luke laid down his tools. “You got it. Let’s go. I’ll come back and fetch these later. Don’t want to wait until the trail’s cold.” He removed his hat, reached up and scratched his head. “Anyone hurt?”
Matt shook his head. “Nah. Thank the good Lord for that. ‘Cept maybe one of the robbers. Jeremiah thought he might have winged one of ‘em on their way out of town.
“Folks is gonna be mighty upset if we cannot reclaim their money. Heaven only knows, what little I got is all tied up in that bank. And I have been tryin’ to save up some money to get a house.”
“Know what you mean. I always try to keep a decent sum on hand at the ranch for emergencies, but the majority of our cash flow is tied up in town. Not sure what we’d do if we lost it all.” He placed his hat back on his head and jumped up on his horse. “Need me to gather any of the men? We can dash back to the house. Maybe I should warn Maddie.”
“Not right now. Let’s see how many men Jake rounded up.”
“Okay, then let’s go. I will follow you.”
Maddie had just put a loaf of bread in the oven to bake when a knock sounded at the door. Five men stood outside.
She started to greet them when she recognized one of the men—Granny Mac’s grandson. The hairs on the back of her neck rose.
“May I help you?” She tried to remain calm, not liking the look in the young man’s eyes. What was it about him that always set her senses on edge?
A man stepped forward, his eyes shadowed by the brim of his cowboy hat. “Yes’m. Heard you are the closest thing hereabouts to a doctor. My brother here’s been injured and we need you to help him.”
A young dark-haired man was being held up between two of the scruffy looking men. All the men had guns at their sides.
She didn’t step back to allow them entry. The man’s tone and his men’s gun-ready stance behind him warned this situation wasn’t as it seemed. Her nerves went on alert. But the boy needed help.
“What happened?”
“We was out huntin’, ma’am, and my brother accidentally stepped in front of one of our guns.” He looked crestfallen. Was she misjudging them needlessly? “Not the brightest of moves, but it weren’t done on purpose.”
“Oh, I am sorry to hear that, but I really won’t be able to help. I never handled a gunshot wound. I would not know what to do. Have you been to town?” She pointed. “Just head straight out that road and keep going.” She wanted to add that Micah could show them the way, but she was trying her best not to make eye contact with him. “Doc Turner will be able to help.”
“No’m, we haven’t. He is losin’ a lot of blood and the closest town is an hour away from here. Not sure he would last that long.”
“How did you hear about me?” It had to have been from Micah.
The man didn’t answer, but moved forward to push his way inside. “Don’t much matter, ma’am. You are all we got—and you are the one that is goin’ to remove that there bullet.”
He called out to one of the men still at the door. “Move the horses around back and do what ya gotta do.” He cocked his head outside.
Maddie didn’t like the sound of that. Fortunately, Granny Mac’s grandson was one of the men not to come inside at that order. He made her uncomfortable.
She tried to block the men’s paths, but they were far too strong and easily moved past her. The stench of unwashed bodies assailed her. She tried not to gag.
“I really have never performed a procedure like this. I would hate to do your brother more harm than good.”
He leveled his eyes on her. “Then you had best do your very best, ma’am, because if my brother dies, you die.”
God, help me! I never should have opened the door without peeking out to see who was outside. When will I ever learn?
Luke’ll be furious when he finds out. He’s talked about keeping a gun handy at all times and teaching me how to
shoot to protect myself when he’s not here. I should have let him do that.
Two men continued to hold the injured man upright. “He is gettin’ heavy,” the stockier of the two said.
The brother’s gaze bore into her. “Where do you want him? He’ll like to die if he don’t get some carin’.”
She looked around the room. “The kitchen has the best light. Lay him on the table.”
The two men obliged, and the young man groaned as his friends laid him flat on the hard surface.
Her heart tugged at the sound, but something warned their story didn’t ring true. Still, she had little choice. As she’d been so rudely informed, she either removed the bullet with success or they planned to kill her!
No! Please, Lord. Don’t let my marriage end this way. I haven’t even told Luke I love him. And I do, Lord. Why didn’t I tell him a long time ago?
It had been a long time since she’d actually spoken to God. She’d quit when she’d thought He’d failed her when He didn’t save Atlanta. Luke kept telling her that even though she didn’t understand it, it was all part of God’s future plan.
She didn’t quite see that, but right now she was willing to trust her husband’s judgment. Maybe she’d been a bit too rash to give up on God so quickly. He certainly did seem to be looking out for her since she’d married Luke. Was that because He really loved her, or because He loved Luke?
Or both?
Ignoring the prickly fingers of fear running down her back, she moved to the stove and poured what water she had in the bucket into a pot to heat. She addressed the men. “Someone needs to go outside and get more water from the well. I don’t have enough inside and I will have to ensure the area is well cleaned. Otherwise, even if I am able to remove the bullet, infection could set in.”
The brother tipped his head and one of the men grabbed the empty bucket and headed outside grumbling.
“Thank you.”
The leader nodded. “What else?”
“I need to go into one of the other rooms to get clean linens. They will need to be torn into even strips—as even as you can get them anyhow. Same as with the area by the wound, the strips need to be clean to ward off infection. You can do that after you wash your hands.” She scrunched up her nose as she appraised the young man. “What you have on there now is filthy. Depending how long that has been there, you may have already sealed his fate and there will be little I can do.”
Her ire rose. “I would certainly hate to die for something you did to him before you got here!”
His glare told her she’d best keep her comments to herself.
“I need to get my medical bag as well.”
He motioned her forward. “Lead on, little lady. I will follow to make sure you get just what you need and don’t try any stupid tricks.”
Figures.
She grabbed the cloths and reached down to get the black medical bag from where she kept it on the floor beside the wardrobe. “Is he really your brother?”
The man nodded. “He is. Why I insist you save him. I should not have let him join us. He is too young.”
She grumbled, “Well at least that part of your story is true.”
A smirk tilted up the corner of his lips. “Feisty one, aren’t you?”
She didn’t return his leer. “I have been told that before. In far less flattering terms.”
She flounced out toward the kitchen. He followed close behind.
The water was beginning to boil.
She reached inside the medical bag and took out several instruments. She handed them to the man. “Put these forceps and hemostat inside the water. I am not sure which I shall need to use, but they need to be sterilized before I can go poking inside your brother.”
She tore off a strip of the cloth and dropped it into the kettle as well.
Then she returned her attention to the patient. “His shirt and that filthy wrap need to be removed. I will let you do that. Your men can tear the strips.” She motioned to the men doing nothing. “Make yourselves useful. It is going to be a long procedure.”
The leader glared. “Thought you said you hadn’t done this before.”
“I haven’t. Did not say I didn’t observe someone else do it. With the world falling down around us during the war, many honorable men needed assistance. I watched as they screamed while bullets were removed, while arms or legs were amputated —all without benefit of morphine.”
“Did they live?”
She shrugged. “Some did. Some didn’t. It was not up to us. It was up to God. Many times He chose not to listen to all the prayers being sent His way. Either that or He just decided to ignore them.”
“A Reb, huh? Your speech gives you away.”
She returned his glare tenfold. “And proud of it. I assume the likes of you fought for the Yanks—if you even had the guts to stand up and fight. Probably turned tail and ran when the fighting got tough.”
He straightened his spine and took a threatening step toward her and slapped her across the face. “Watch your mouth, missy. Never did like Johnny Rebs—even if they do wear a skirt.”
She shot him a look. “I am not very fond of you either, nor am I afraid of you.” Liar!
“You should be. Lest you forget, I hold your life in my hands.” He pointed his pistol right at her head.
“So you have said.” Forcing herself to breathe slowly and evenly, she fought the rising panic. “But lest you forget, you need me to get this bullet out.”
He lowered the pistol.
“Just do not get any ideas to hurt him worse than he already is.”
“My aim is to heal people. Killing them is undoubtedly your profession.”
He shook his head. “Dang, you have a mouth on you.”
“Again, so I have already been told. None of your complaints will do much to rattle me. I have heard them all before.” Many of them from my own father. Nothing hurts as much as that.
When the men had both the shirt and the bandage removed, Maddie stepped forward and surveyed the wound. She tore another strip and doused it with fresh water just brought in from the well. After she had the area clean, she’d cleanse it even more with the hot cloth.
After all her preparations were complete, she used a long metal tong to reach inside the boiling water to retrieve the pointed tools she’d often seen her father and other doctors use to remove embedded bullets during the war. She’d never foreseen a day she’d be called upon to use either of them herself.
She pointed to a nearby lantern. “Light that and hold it directly over the wound. It is bright in here, but not enough. I need to be able to see exactly what I am doing.”
The leader motioned to one of the men. “Do what she says.”
When the man held it over the wound, Maddie said, “Move it a little to the right. It is glaring right where I need to see.”
He did as she instructed and she leaned forward and started to probe. The young man jerked and groaned.
Oh, God. Please! Are You really there? I cannot do this. If I ever needed You before, I need You now. Please don’t let this young man die because I foolishly walked away from You. He needs You. She uttered a guttural sigh. I need You.
She glanced to the other man standing negligently against a wall. “Hold him down. I cannot have him jerking around while I am digging inside his chest.” She glanced upward. “Please, God, let there be no major organs damaged.”
She motioned to his brother. “Find something to put between his teeth so he can bite down on it. Then pray he passes out so he does not feel what I am about to do. It won’t be pretty, but there is no help for it. He is going to suffer. I have no pain medicaments.” She shot the brother a pointed glare. “You needed Doc for that.”
She dug again, only to find no bullet. She eased the young man over to look at his back. “No exit wound. The bullet has to still be inside. Why can I not find it? Definitely deeper than I had hoped.”
A gun was pressed to her temple and the sound of a snick ec
hoed through the room. Terror gripped her as she fought to quell the panic building inside of her.
She stepped away from the table to breathe deeply and covered her eyes with both hands. Then opened them and stepped forward again. “All right. Let’s do this.”
After a few more probes, she let out a whoop. “I found it! Now I just have to try to position this contraption around the bullet just right so it comes out whole when I try to extract it.”
In. Out. In. Out. She breathed, forcing herself to relax. Never took her eyes from the area where the bullet was lodged. “Please do not let it have shattered.” God, are You there?
The wounded man’s brother drew a quick intake of breath and moved closer to the table again. His dirty denims and weather-worn chaps brushed against her.
Maddie met his eyes. “Do not crowd me. I need room.”
“And I need to know you ain’t gonna hurt my brother!” He squeezed his hand around her throat, cutting off her air.
Through her haze of fear and pain, her bloodied hand pulled against his fingers. Overpowering fear lent her a greater strength and she was finally able to release his hand. She drew in breath after ragged breath and bent over, one hand holding her chest, the other holding her stomach.
“You are a fool! Your actions today already did that,” she said when she could speak. “Whatever you were doing, somehow I doubt you were hunting. If you were, you were illegally on peoples’ land doing so. Now back up! And don’t touch me again!”
With his eyes sending one last unspoken threat, he backed away from the table.
“And thanks to your imprudent behavior, now I have to find that blasted bullet again!”
The click of his revolver resounded through the room. At least it wasn’t pressed against her head this time. She couldn’t focus on that now. If she made one wrong move, the young man on the table might die. And though she’d made some really ill-advised moves in her life, she did not want to be responsible for someone else’s death.
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