“We need to get the Doc babe.” He pleaded trying to edge his way to the door.
“No. No I am fine now.” Pushing the basin away Melody, with the help of her husband rose to her feet, and washed her mouth out. Though a little weak, she was relieved now that her stomach was emptied.
She felt guilty for Gabe's worry as touching as it was. For she had not yet told him the secret she had been harboring. Each time she had tried, something had happened in their busy household, and Melody had wanted the moment to be special when she told him the news.
Until now, she had been lucky that her bouts of “illness” had always come on after Gabriel had left their room.
“If you won’t see Doc, then you are going to get back in that bed and rest today.” He demanded.
“I have too many things to do today. With the bridal bidding in a few days, I have loads of pies to bake. Also, I promised Winnie I would help her finish the quilt she is making to auction off for the church.”
“There is no argument here. I...” Before Gabriel could finish his order, there came a loud banging at their bedroom door.
“Gabriel there's trouble in the back pastures… Some fences have been cut!” Recognizing his brother's panicked voice, Gabriel groaned. Torn between staying by his sick wife's side and protecting his family's land he hesitated.
“Just go Gabriel. I am fine.” Sensing her husband's inner conflict, Melody quickly assured him.
“Promise me you will not overdo it today Mel.” He ordered.
“I promise.” Melody agreed, as she allowed Gabriel to help her back into the bed.
“Gabe!” The pounding began anew.
Smothering a curse Gabriel wrenched open the door and stalked out. It seems that trouble found its way onto their door step after all.
“The lesson learned from tragedy is a lesson never forgotten”
An Irish Saying.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
Staying cooped up in the overly silent house, became too much to bear for Melody sometime around Two o’clock. Her promise to rest today was just too darn hard to keep, as boredom had set in. Planning to track down Lily and pick a few apples for the pies she had promised for the Bridal Bid, Melody decided to venture outside for a fresh breath of air and try to clear her mind. Melody stepped off of the wide porch and headed toward the barn in hopes of finding the errant child.
Lately Lily had been taking to hiding in the hay loft whenever she could not have her way. Although Melody was glad that the small girl felt secure enough to act out, she was quickly becoming more frustrated with Lily by the day. Today was another example of the little headstrong girl's antics. After Gabriel rushed out after the boys, it was all Melody could do to keep the child from following behind them. Lily wanted to help so badly that she could not understand the danger that was afoot. That no matter how many times Melody explained she would only be in the way, the girl had balked.
Delighted as she was that the O’Malley males had taken her sweet sparrow under their wing, Melody felt her authority over Lily’s parenting slipping away. Suddenly, everything she once had control over was now converted over to her husband. Her very soft hearted husband could easily be twisted around the child’s small finger. Just the threat of tears from her eyes and the big man caved to Lily’s tantrums.
Opening the side door on the barn took some effort on Melody’s part. It seemed to be stuck on something but after a few tugs it finally opened for her. The air inside was dank and humid it smelled of freshly laid hay. Though it was broad daylight outside there was a gloomy feeling to the darkness inside. A shiver ran down Mel’s back as she quickly located a lantern and struck a match. The light that flared brought some relief as it illuminated a path towards the stairs of the loft.
“Lily honey, you need to stop hiding and come down now. I’m sorry that I snapped at you.” She called toward the dark recess of the upper floor. “Let’s go gather some fruit to make pies. You can even roll out the crusts if you’d like.”
Silence remained from above, unnerving Melody further. “Lily, if you are hiding up there you really must come down here.”
A soft snuffling of horses brought a smile to Mel’s face. All of the young colts were tucked away in their stalls safe beside their mothers. From the back of the barn’s stalls she could hear the newest additions to the ranch munching on their feed and shuffling around in their bedding.
“While you decide if you want to come down, I’m going to visit with Mathew’s new baby goats.”
Carefully grabbing up the lantern Melody walked back to where Beatrice, Zeus and their twin baby kids frolicked. Sweet tiny things they were. Both were females. One was white with a patch of brown on her back. Mathew had named her Rosie. The other little one was a fawn brown with white spots and was after much debate between the children was honored with the name Poppy. They were both so adorable and at three weeks old already had little nubs that would one day soon be horns, on their sweet little heads.
Upon spotting Melody, Zeus trotted over to size up the intruder. He was protective of his little family, but soon recognizing his part time feeder he gave Melody a nudge on her leg an obvious ploy for attention. Patting the puffed up male, Melody laughed aloud.
“Well at least someone wants to see me.” Melody crooned over towards the babies and after direction from mother, made their way over to inspect her for food. Placing the lantern gently down in the corner, Melody knelt on the ground to play with them.
“Come look at Rosie and Poppy; Lily! Come see how big they are getting!”
A creaking sounded from above. Good Melody thought, finally a response from her. Hopefully the girl was done sulking and would join her sister soon. Melody was at a loss to fix this tension between herself and her sibling. Maybe ignoring this little episode of Lily’s might be best. Melody was weary today, though she felt better after her queasiness had faded. She really was not up to another round of arguments with the girl.
A crunching of straw sounded from directly behind her indicating the presence of another entering the open stall.
“So you finally decided to join me.” Melody chuckled.
Turning her head slightly to smile at her little sister, Melody was unprepared for the swift crack against the side of her head. Her body unable to hold itself upright slumped to the ground. Lying there in fetal position she prayed for the safety of her unborn baby as blood oozed from the side of her head, flooding the straw turning it into a sea of red.
Pain racked her body as she felt the repeated kicks to her back and legs. Melody prayed that the attack would soon be over. Before Melody passed out, her bleary eyes caught the horrific sight of Jack Dobbins tipping over the oil lamp onto the hay and dragging her frightened baby sister bound and gagged behind him as he fled.
“There is no dealing with a vengeful man”
An Irish saying
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
“It doesn’t look as if we lost too many head today. Thank god.” Gabe gave a sigh of relief. Losing a large number of cattle would have more than financially hurt the ranch. It would have meant that Gabriel would have been unable to pay his men their wages this month. He knew most of the men sent their wages home to help support their families. More than a few depended on the Lucky M to get by.
Thanks to Mathias Sinclair; Gabriel had not lost his family’s livelihood. A few stray calves with the Lucky ‘M’ brand wandered onto his land notifying Mathias that there was a problem. As a Good friend would he quickly gathered up some men and headed out to help Gabriel. Stopping the damage before it had become out of hand. Although the Lucky M received most of their operational income from the sales from their horseflesh, a large portion of their income was tied in with their cattle sales.
“Why cut the fences in this area of the ranch? There weren’t enough cattle here to even bother to steal?” Mathew posed the question to his older brother.
“If it’s a renegade Indian, they’d only be able to butcher one head or so
, since they couldn’t get too far on their own. Unless they were planning on selling the cows” Shorty reasoned.
“No one in this area would dare purchase a marked steer from a stranger let alone an Indian especially now with the tensions running so high around town. So I doubt that is the case.” Mathew denied.
“There is no evidence that there ever was a renegade Indian. We all have been over this damned country side today looking.” Kicking a stray rock from his path, Gabriel cursed aloud.
“The other option is that the vigilantes, who are out for Hunter’s blood, are tired of waiting for Alec to hand him over. There has been a huge cry to bring him to justice. The town is demanding someone pay for the murder. It was all Alec could do to keep the town from rioting.” He said his fists tightly clenched.
Something did not make sense about this move against the ranch. If the vigilantes had wanted Hunter bad enough to cut through this fence, why wouldn’t they have come at night? Why not cut through closer to the house and break in? He had known the folks in town for most of his life and Gabriel could not see any of them resorting to such tactics. Gabe had wanted to believe better from the close knit community that he thought he knew so well.
A frightening thought suddenly occurred to him. What if this was just a distraction to get the men away from the homestead? Jesus!
“I’ve got to get back to the house… Shorty you and the boys stay here and get this fence fixed. The rest of you split up and search the area, round up any missing steer you can find, but keep your eyes open for anything unusual. Mathias, Culver I need you to come with me, there might be trouble.”
Without any further instruction Gabe ran back to his horse and promptly mounted up. A sharp painful twist of fear stabbed into Gabriel’s gut. He had left his wife and little girl with only an unarmed doctor and an injured bedridden hand. No real protection if and when trouble reached the house. God only knew what could happen. Without knowing what they were up against, they couldn’t fight an enemy they didn’t know. They were sitting ducks. Not looking back to see if either man was behind him, Gabe set a grueling pace back to his wife’s side.
**********
“Fire!” Dr. Emory Fisher gasped from the window of the sunny little room Hunter was currently recovering in.
“What the hell?” Hunter struggled to his feet and joined the man at the window.
The black smoke rose high into the air, the flames blazing outward from the back of the structure.
“Jesus the barn is on fire!” Hunter exclaimed as he fought his way toward the foot of the bed and into pants. Half doubled over in pain and running down the stairs with the good doctor following. Aware that the men had all hurried out earlier Hunter knew the threat of fire reaching the house was almost more than doubled with so few around to fight against it.
“Melody… the barn is on fire! Get Lily we may need you both to man the well pump.” Hunter yelled out the order on his way. Painfully, stumbling through the front door he cursed.
“She’s not here. She told me she was going out to hunt down Lily and pick apples about fifteen minutes ago.” Emory informed the panicked man.
“Jesus the barn...Lily hides in the barn!” Hunter yelled toward the doctor. His legs carrying him as fast as he could the pain in his side forgotten as fear for the two ladies he had come to think of as family shot through him.
As he neared the structure he could hear the frightened noises from the horses within. The sound was so close to human screaming. It was all Hunter could do not to cover his ears to block out the sound. Visions from the past flooding through his mind fire, death and pain filling him with dread. Blackened, charred bodies lay before him in his minds’ eye. Bile rose to the back of Hunter’s throat.
“Hunter, open the door. We have got to get those horses out and check for the women.” Dr. Fisher ordered the stricken man who was frozen at the entrance of the burning building.
“Hunter, open it now!” All at once barking out orders and sounding like an Army general, Dr. Fisher pushed Hunter aside and firmly took charge. Shoving aside the latch on the door, Dr. Fisher pulled the wide door ajar; he stumbled, falling back as blazing heat poured out from within. A black fog filled the air nearly blinding the men.
“Mrs. O’Malley, you in there?” Dr. Fisher yelled.
Hunter forcibly shook himself out of the nightmare of the past, which had him in a tight grip. Covering his nose and mouth with the neck of his shirt to avoid the thick smoke, Hunter charged past the doctor and into the burning barn. He was not willing to wait a minute longer. Nearly tripping over the panicked family of goats running hell-bent for the now open doorway, Hunter grabbed for the nearest thing available to hold his weight. A wooden support beam not yet alight with fire, helped steady him. Near blind from the heavy black smoke he slowly made his way toward the occupied horse stalls unlatching their pens to allow Dr. Fisher to lead them to safety.
Bright Orange painted a ghastly light in the last stall from the back, as the wickedly dancing flames burned toward the roof. Within minutes the roof would cave, Hunter was sure of the fact. Embers fell like showers upon him, burning his exposed skin as he stumbled forward. The horrifying sight of a body slumped near the door frame greeted Hunter, nearly making his knees buckle from underneath him. Even through the blaze he could make out the unconscious form of his employer’s wife.
**********
“Your wife will be fine, but she will need bed rest for a while. A woman in her condition cannot be too careful after an accident such as this.” Doctor Fisher paused to replace the sheet over Melody’s legs before continuing. “She should regain consciousness soon I believe. Those burns that she did suffer were not as bad as I’d at first feared. The poultice I applied to her hands should ease her pain a bit.”
Gabriel was still in shock from arriving on the chaotic scene. Devastated at having watched as his limp wife, was being hauled like a rag doll from the inferno that was once his barn. He could only nod at Doc in response.
“Don’t worry son, there was no blood on the linens. The baby should be fine as well.” Emory patted the young man on his back in encouragement.
Emory could see Gabriel was scared out of his mind. Even after the fire had been extinguished and the carcasses of the few unfortunate animals removed, Lily had not been found in the rubble. Tears of joy had run unchecked from nearly all the eyes of the men present. Happy that they would not be burying the sweet child, though fear setting in with her disappearance. The only one who could shed any light on what had happened; lay upon the bed unable to.
“Baby?” Gabriel croaked. His voice was unsteady as tears burned the backs of his eyes and clogged his throat. The tight feeling lodging in his chest would not ease. He felt shamed by his failure to protect his family, however irrational the feelings may be.
“Yes. As I said before your wife will be able to deliver a healthy child, provided that she get plenty of rest and not overdo for the next six months or so.”
“Lily.” The hoarse sound of Melody crying out drew both men to her bedside, distracting Gabriel from the doctor’s revelations.
“Thank god you are awake. You had us all worried out of our minds.” Gabriel grasped her hand and pressed his lips to the back of it, careful not to disturb the thickly wrapped bandages surrounding it.
“You are a very lucky woman Mrs. O’Malley.” Doc Fisher informed her solemnly. “Any longer in the barn and I fear, you would have been overcome from the smoke and perished.”
“When I told you to rest today, I did not mean like this.” Gabe kissed the top of her head which was also tightly bandaged. “Why didn’t you tell me about the baby? I spent the morning worrying that you had eaten something Pop’s had cooked.”
When she failed to respond to his jest, her eyes glazed and unfocused, Gabriel looked to the doctor for reassurance. “What is wrong with her Doc?”
“Mrs. O’Malley can you hear me?” Emory questioned his patient. Examining her eyes for dilation he
was happy with their normal response to light. Emory was also relieved when although she remained silent; she had turned her head in his direction.
“Her hearing seems fine. It’s probably just shock.” Emory diagnosed. “I will give the two of you some privacy. Call me if anything changes.”
“Thank you Doc, for all you have done.” Gabriel said somberly.
Opening the bedroom door to quit the room, Emory was not surprised to see a grimy Hunter slumped wearily against the wall.
“Come on in and see for yourself that she is fine, but get yourself back in your bed immediately young man. I’m getting pure tired of patching you up.” Emory ordered firmly then scuttled off to bathe the filth from his own body.
“Hey boss, I just wanted to see how the missus was doing.” Hunter spoke softly as he approached Melody’s bedside.
“She is alive, because of you.” A shudder passed through the big man as he imagined his little wife trapped and burned alive. The gruesome image replayed over and over in his mind.
“I will never be able to thank you enough for saving her life.”
“You don’t need to thank me. I’m just glad we got to her in time.” Hunter responded humbly.
“What happened love? How did the fire start? Where is Lily?” Gabe gently questioned his wife. Even now though he knew Melody would fine, his heart still felt like it was in a tight vise grip. The ache was receding ever so slowly.
Running one hand down Melody’s arm, Gabriel allowed the warmth of her skin to quiet the rage he had boiling inside. Her small bound hand still rested in his palm. Large dark bruises marred the beautiful skin along her back and legs. Gabe had been shocked to find them as he was bathing the black soot from her body before the Doctor could examine her. The fire could not have caused these injuries… Gabriel knew his wife had been beaten.
A Bargain Bride (Brides of Liberty, Texas) Page 15