Mandy’s heart began pounding.
Oh, Lord, protect me.
She’d never left Mosqueros before. She’d never seen a town like this. She’d read Beth’s letters and thought she knew what a city was like, but nothing had prepared her for this reality. She didn’t know how a person lived in a town. How did a person hunt for food? Grow a garden? Find lumber to build a log cabin?
A man stood on a box or something to boost him higher than the surrounding mob. He was yelling.
Mandy could hear the anger in his voice but not the actual words over the locomotive’s blasting whistle and screeching brakes. The roiling crowd shoved and grumbled. She saw someone draw a gun and aim it straight up. The sharp crack split the air.
Mandy’s hand went to her Winchester, leaning on the seat at her side. Her blood cooled as it did in times of danger. Her senses sharpened until she could swear she smelled that crowd of men and the burn of gunpowder. She rubbed on the callus on her trigger finger while sleet shot through her veins and she waited to fight, protect, defend. It was what she was best at.
As they drew closer, Mandy realized that the only place to leave the train was going to be right into that crowd. Cool, she turned to her new husband, the man who had vowed to love and cherish her. And protect her. Though she probably would be the one doing the protecting.
“I’ve never been in a city this big before.” She kept her eyes flat. Even watching Sidney she was aware of all that went on around her. The growing noise, the anger in the crowd. “If we get separated we might never find each other. I don’t think we should step out into that crowd.”
Protect me, Lord. Protect us both.
“Don’t be childish. You’ll be fine.” Sidney scowled.
Then the gun fired again and again. A woman screamed.
Sidney flinched. “Maybe you’re right. Just looking at that building makes me wonder. Denver isn’t the way I heard it was. They might not be so interested in a man with a few lawyer skills.” Sidney gave her a weak, nervous smile, then cleared his throat. “I don’t know what’s going on, but we can’t go out into that mess.”
Mandy would have gone. She had her hand tight on her rifle and she’d have done it if Sidney insisted, but she was delighted not to step out into that mob scene. “You can be a lawyer anywhere, can’t you? Let’s find a smaller town. A place where we can homestead. We’ll check the land offices in the towns up the trail. I’ll help get a place set up for us. I know the land. We’ll live close enough to town for you to go in and earn money while I get us settled. I’ve even helped build a cabin before. Ma and Pa saw to it that all of us learned survival skills. I know how that works in the country but not in the city. I couldn’t hunt a deer or find firewood in a city.”
Sidney looked between the shoving crowd and Mandy. He finally turned to her and said, “I think you’re right. It’s … it’s different from how I thought it’d be. I was going to find us a hotel. Someone gave me the name of a lawyer he heard wanted help.”
Sidney’s eyes shifted as he said that, and Mandy wondered if Sidney was so sure about that job. “But I’d have to find work fast. We don’t have a lot of money to live on until some starts coming in.”
“Surely you have enough to pay for another day’s fare.” Mandy had some, but her ma had recommended not mentioning that, saving it for emergencies. Mandy wondered if that was dishonest, but Ma had talked about hard times and the years they spent living a meager life before Pa—Mandy’s second pa, Clay—had come and taken them out of their awful little shack hidden in a thicket.
“Hard times can come on a family.” Ma had pressed the paper bills into Mandy’s hand during a private moment before the wedding. “My pa sent me off with some money, and now I’ll do the same for you. But it’s just between you and me, Mandy. It’s best to always lay a bit of money up and try your best to live without it. And it might—might hurt Sidney’s pride to think I helped you. Best not to tell him, not unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
Now that rather large roll of bills lay tucked in the bottom of Mandy’s shoe. An uncomfortable lump that suddenly seemed to offer security in a world gone mad.
Mandy hadn’t counted it and she didn’t intend to for a while. Not if she could convince Sidney to leave this awful, dirty, sprawling city. If she could just find a patch of land to homestead, with good hunting nearby. Mandy had heard Pa, Luther, and Buff talk about the mountains. She thought she’d picked up enough details to know what to look for, come hunting time. And maybe she could even do some trapping, have fur pelts to sell. She had her rifle and a Colt revolver in her trunk. Pa had packed in a hunting knife, a whetstone, and a few basic tools, plus enough ammunition to start a war. Mandy and Sidney could live without the money for now.
Sidney turned and looked at her. “You want to homestead? I’ve heard it’s a hard life.”
“I’m used to hard work. It doesn’t scare me. Maybe we can ride until we find some flat land tucked right up against the mountains. I could grow a garden. The mountains are covered with trees to build a house. And the Rockies are rich hunting land.” Mandy felt devious, but she decided to add, “Maybe we could even find a bit of gold if we’re lucky. My pa’s father found gold and left it to Pa when he died. It helped us buy our ranch back after some bad men took it from us. You’re always hearing about gold strikes in the Rockies.”
Sidney’s eyes took on a strange gleam. She’d finally said the magic word to persuade him to continue on.
The train conductor walked through the half-filled train car. “We can’t pull in here, folks. The engineer has decided not to face that mob at the station. Those of you who wanted to get off here, we’ll let you off farther down the rails a bit and we’ll find wagons to transport you, or if you can, just ride on to the next stop.”
All of the passengers stared at the ruckus then stayed firmly in their seats. Because of the irregularity of the train avoiding the mob, the conductor didn’t ask for tickets after they’d let the passengers off who were staying in Denver.
Mandy was content to leave the city far behind. She and Sidney went to the land office in each little town. They’d ask questions about homesteading and come away disappointed each time at the distance they’d have to live from town. Mandy wasn’t worried about living far out of town. She liked the idea. But Sidney wouldn’t hear of it.
Nothing was just right, even as they passed Laramie and headed into Montana. The days began to fade together as Mandy waited for Sidney to find a place to suit him. There was no money to leave the train, even for a day or two, so the wedding night Sidney had so longed for seemed to be long forgotten.
He did finally decide to leave the train though. Not because it suited him but because the rails ended in Butte, Montana. With a sigh of relief, Mandy saw the beautiful landscape and thought they’d be able to find a nice place near Butte.
And then the land office manager said the exact wrong thing to Sidney about little Helena, Montana, the territorial capital. “Gold.”
Sidney decided their journey wasn’t yet over. Helena was yet another day’s ride by stagecoach. There, Mandy hoped and prayed they’d stop.
Mandy needed to write her family and tell them where she was, except first she needed to know where this journey would finally end.
Nineteen
Doctor, where are you?” The voice from downstairs almost sounded like the woman was singing.
Alex cringed. Beth rolled her eyes. They were finishing a quick noon meal in their rooms above the doctor’s office.
“That woman is not sick.” Alex gave Beth a look so comically painful, it was all she could do not to start laughing.
“She just needs the attention.” Beth, thanks to Ma and Pa’s help, now felt nearly at home. Her family had brought in some furniture and her clothing. Ma had even scrounged up some clothes for Alex and stocked the cupboards. Beth and Alex had been too busy to give it a thought.
Now Beth sat in a white shirtwaist and dark gray riding skirt.
Alex had a change of pants and shirt. All of it had been provided by someone else. Not out of financial need, but because in the week they’d been married, the rush hadn’t stopped, day or night.
“Well, you go down and pay attention to her,” he hissed. They had to whisper because Mrs. Gallup was already coming upstairs. There was no hiding from Nora Gallup. Fastest Whimper in the West.
“Me?” Beth rested her fingertips on her chest with playful grace. “Why, I’d love to, you generous man. But of course—”
“There you are, Dr. Buchanan.” Nora barged right into their living quarters.
Beth smirked at Alex. No one would do for Mrs. Gallup but the doctor. The real doctor. Beth had never been so happy to be a woman. She let it irritate her a tiny bit that the woman invaded their living space, then shrugged. If they wanted to stop the woman, they were going to have to buy a lock and that was that. Beth looked at the determined woman. Nearly five foot nine, over two hundred pounds, fast moving, and as healthy as a horse.
It would have to be a sturdy lock.
“I’m frantic, Dr. Buchanan. I’ve had a terrible stabbing pain in my chest all morning. I’m afraid it’s my heart again.”
Beth doubted it. “Go on down, Doctor. I’ll clean up here then join you.”
Alex’s hand landed on Beth’s wrist in its usual vise-like way. But in this case, Beth didn’t think Alex was actually turning to her for strength and courage. Well, courage maybe, but only because Nora was seriously scary. By the end of this woman’s complaint-filled visit, Beth would be ready to cry for her mama.
“I can use the assistance, Mrs. Buchanan.” Alex smiled but his eyes were pathetic. Begging. He did not want to be alone with Mrs. Gallup.
Beth knew why, too. The woman seemed bent on being examined from head to foot. Closely examined—everywhere.
It wasn’t as if the middle-aged woman had designs on Alex. Beth knew that. The woman was just determined to discover an illness. She brought a well-worn medical book along to the exams and gave Alex suggestions.
She didn’t insist on the extremely close examination if Beth was around, but Beth had stepped out back to the privy one time and Mrs. Gallup had come in during Beth’s absence. Alex had barely lived to tell the tale. Beth came along quietly, to spare all three of them the embarrassment of watching Alex beg.
Mrs. Gallup was cosseted and encouraged and given treatment for stress. Alex suggested soothing baths, chamomile tea, long walks, and he’d even lent her Beth’s beloved copy of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. For a while, Beth clung to the book desperately. But, being the next thing to a doctor’s assigned treatment, Mrs. Gallup was desperate to read it and promised to care for it and bring it back soon. Beth finally acquiesced, quietly gloating because Alex had just ensured yet another visit, which was inevitable in any case. Sense and Sensibility was no medical textbook, but Beth didn’t underestimate Mrs. Gallup’s ability to find something within those pages that she could mangle until it alerted her to a new illness. All told, it took Alex and Beth an hour to convince the woman she wasn’t dying.
“You know, Doctor,” Beth said sardonically as the woman closed the door behind her, “one of these days that woman really is going to be sick, and you’ll miss it because you’re so used to ignoring and patronizing her.”
Alex groaned out loud and rubbed his face. “You’re probably right.”
Beth snickered and poked Alex in the ribs.
He grabbed her hand to stop her. “She’ll come in with a broken arm and I’ll pat her on the head and send her on her way.”
“I’m picturing how it will be at her funeral.” Beth swept the hand Alex wasn’t restraining grandly in front of them.
“In the unlikely event that woman doesn’t outlive us both.” Alex tugged Beth toward him.
She was spun to face him and gasped in surprise at how close they were and how comfortable being close felt. “The parson will stand there and talk about that poor, poor woman and how nobody listened to her.”
Alex clamped his arms around Beth’s waist. “Then he’ll spend an hour yelling at me for prescribing hot tea for a woman whose heart was failing.”
Beth settled her hands on his chest, fighting a smile. “They’ll forbid you to ever practice medicine again.”
“No chance.” Alex shook his head with a mock scowl. “I would never be that lucky.”
Beth laughed and a smile bloomed on Alex’s lips. He didn’t smile much and when he flashed his shining white teeth and lifted the dour expression he so often wore, Beth felt like it was a personal victory. She enjoyed coaxing an upturn out of his lips.
Then those smiling lips leaned close and kissed her. Freezing like a startled animal, Beth drew in her breath until Alex’s lips sealed her away from air.
They’d been so busy. Running day and night since they’d gotten married days ago, but Beth had wondered when this might happen. She was her mother’s daughter after all. Ma had told her what marriage meant. And how it could be.
Then Alex deepened the kiss and pulled her closer. Beth quit thinking and wound her arms around her husband’s neck with a small sound of pleasure. Moments passed and Beth enjoyed the touch of her husband.
“Beth,” Alex whispered against her lips, “I feel like I’m alive again.”
Beth ran one hand into his dark, closely shorn hair. “You’ve always been alive, Alex.”
Nodding, Alex said, “I just haven’t been living. I look back on my life and see that I’ve wasted so much time. I just couldn’t handle all the bad things I’d seen.” His eyes darkened.
Beth spoke quickly to keep her husband from sinking into the morose thoughts that plagued him. “I’ve been praying so hard that you’d find peace.”
“Peace. Yeah, maybe that’s what this is. I haven’t had a nightmare in days.”
Beth knew he’d been pulled into some kind of waking nightmare when he’d doctored Mr. Farley. But she slept beside him every night and his sleep hadn’t been disturbed. “Peace with your memories and, I hope, peace with God.” Beth waited, hoping her husband would really talk to her for once. If he could talk about the emotional scars he carried, maybe they’d lose the power to haunt him.
“God.” Alex ran one finger down Beth’s cheek while his arm stayed wrapped tight around her waist. “Yes, I started praying again the day I met you. I believe I’ve found Him again. I started believing that maybe, just maybe, I deserved God’s forgiveness for all that I’ve done.”
“None of us deserves forgiveness. None of us is guiltless. ‘For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.’”
“But there’s sin and there’s sin. Mine were very close to unforgivable. But I’ve always believed in God’s ability to forgive. It’s just these last days that I’ve felt like I even had a right to ask.”
“So you’ve asked at last? You’ve come back to your faith?” Beth had a hard time imagining softhearted Alex doing something truly awful.
“No, but I’ve been praying for my patients and for you.”
“For me, really?”
“Yes, all prayers of thanksgiving.” Alex’s eyes caressed her face as gently as that one finger. “If you’re willing, maybe you could pray with me now, while I finally dare to ask Him.”
“I would love to pray with you, Alex.” Beth leaned close and kissed him gently.
They held each other while Alex turned and faced God, for himself and his own sins. Beth felt him stand straight, as if a weight lifted off his shoulders. He didn’t speak aloud exactly what burden he carried, and Beth hoped it wasn’t because he was still harboring guilt.
When Alex’s prayer ended, Beth asked, “Do you want to tell me what you’ve been through? Would it help?”
“Maybe someday.” Alex pulled her closer and lowered his lips to hers, returning the kiss she’d given him. He raised his head. “But right now, I feel like being close to my sweet, new wife. Would you like that, Beth? Do you want a real marriage to me?”
She
smiled and curled her arms around his neck.
He surprised her when he swept her up into his arms. She broke the kiss and their eyes met. Their bond was as strong as ever, but it had changed. For the first time what passed between them was laced with something other than Alex’s need for her strength. He gave instead of took. He leaned closer, lowering his lips to hers.
The office door slammed open.
Alex as good as dropped her as he turned to face the Armitages. Fortunately, Beth was clinging to his neck and only her feet swung to the floor.
Mr. Armitage. Due to have his arm checked.
Beth gave Alex a quick pat on the back. She said, “Have a seat, Mr. Armitage.” His wife came in right behind him.
Beth walked away from Alex quickly to keep herself from grabbing him and abandoning the Armitages to doctor themselves.
As she began removing Mr. Armitage’s sling from his perfectly healing arm, the door slammed open again. They were lucky not to have lost a window.
“Doctor, my boy’s got a fever and a rash.” A young woman rushed in, nearly staggering under the weight of a young child.
Beth saw Alex’s shoulder slump, then he got hold of himself and hurried to the woman, relieving her of the burden of her little boy. “Looks like measles.”
Highly contagious. They’d soon be overrun.
Beth gave up on stealing away with her husband and rolled up the sleeves of her white shirtwaist to get back to doctoring. With a quiet sigh, Beth reminded herself sternly that this was what she’d always wanted.
Mandy stepped off the stagecoach and her legs buckled.
Sidney caught her, but he stumbled back and let the stage catch him.
Mandy looked behind her. “Thank you.”
Sidney set her on her feet with a wan smile. “We made it.”
She nodded. They hadn’t quite made it really, but it was finally close. Sidney had found the place he wanted to be.
Thank You, Jesus.
Mandy squared her shoulders, hooked her Winchester over her shoulder where it belonged, and oversaw the unloading of the things her parents had sent along. Not a lot, but Mandy knew her folks. Even while they were trying to convince Mandy to stay, they’d been planning for if she went. Ma and Pa would have seen to the right supplies.
Sophie's Daughters Trilogy Page 13