A Texas Promise

by Laura Conner Kestner

  Nathaniel uncorked the bottle and poured some of the contents into the water, before soaking a piece of cloth, squeezing it out and washing the woman’s face. He then raised the long, loose sleeves of the gown and ran the cloth up and down her arms. Eli was impressed with the delicate care he took. Nathaniel’s big hands were gentle, and his brown eyes full of concern. And anger. What was that about?

  A moment later Eli understood. A chill slid down his spine when he spotted the first bruise. The woman’s thin arms were covered in them.

  “Yes, she’s been beaten,” Nathaniel said before Eli could even respond. “Severely, and more than once.”

  Eli’s head snapped up. “How do you know it was more than once?”

  “Some of the bruises are older, others more recent.” Nathaniel’s voice was matter-of-fact, but Eli could tell he struggled to maintain his professional demeanor.

  “Whoever did the beating was real careful like,” Peg added. “There’s no bruising on her face. All the marks were covered by her clothing.”

  With a deftness born of long practice, she placed a blanket over the lower half of the woman’s body and then reached under and raised the hem of the gown so that a small portion of the ribs and abdomen were showing. “It ain’t pretty,” Peg said, pointing to the vivid blotches of purple and blue, and the fading green and yellow.

  Eli’s stomach churned. Had this happened to her at the asylum? He’d heard horror stories about some of those places, but he found it difficult to believe this kind of abuse would be allowed to happen at all, let alone more than once.

  His gaze drifted from the bruises to her face. So young. He couldn’t imagine her in a situation that resulted in these kinds of injuries. He glanced at her left hand. No wedding ring.

  Some people couldn’t afford them, of course, so it didn’t mean for sure that she wasn’t married. If she was, where was her husband? Did he beat her?

  Eli averted his gaze while Nathaniel finished washing the woman, and turned back when his brother assured him she was covered up again.

  Nathaniel then uncorked another of the brown bottles and began daubing some foul-smelling liquid onto the scratches and cuts. He started with her face. When the woman began moaning, Peg hurried forward to sooth her. “Poor dear,” she murmured.

  After applying medication to the scratches on her hands, Nathaniel moved to her feet, remarking on the fact that one of the scratches on her right foot seemed deeper than the others. When he touched it she flinched and cried out, but still didn’t open her eyes. He bent to examine her foot more closely. “There’s a thorn in here.” He moved to a tray of instruments and selected a pair of tweezers.

  Eli’s concern and confusion grew by the minute. “Why was she outside without her shoes?”

  “Maybe she was running from something worse than briars, brambles and thorns,” Nathaniel said.

  Eli grunted his agreement. “Did you get any idea about her mental condition since you brought her in?”

  Nathaniel looked at him, brows raised. “No, she’s mumbled a few words, but never really said anything.” He finished with the tweezers, daubed medicine on the puncture wound and began wrapping a bandage around the foot.

  Peg gently pulled a leaf from the woman’s tangled hair while Eli tried to decide what to do next. He confided in Peg and Nathaniel about the wire he’d received.

  Eyebrows drawn together, Peg moved closer to the woman. “You’re not sending her back to Fair Haven.” It wasn’t a question. She was ready to fight him over this. It didn’t bother Eli one bit; it looked like the woman needed someone on her side.

  Eli shook his head. “Don’t worry. I’m not doing anything until I find out what’s going on. That means we have to keep her presence here a secret for now. Except for Silas, you’re the only two who know about her. So keep it to yourselves. Since there was no mention of a baby in the message, I’m not positive this woman is the missing escapee.”

  He had a deep suspicion she was, though.

  “The question now is what do I do with her?” Eli said.

  He couldn’t keep her at the jail or his house—not that he had much of one right now—for her reputation and his. And Nathaniel couldn’t keep her here, for much the same reason.

  That left Peg. “Is there any way you could take her and the baby to your place while I do a little checking on things? I’ll pay you for their keep.”

  Peg smiled as she walked toward the drawer where the baby was nestled. “Sure, Eli, I can do that. Don’t worry about paying anything. I’d planned on taking care of the baby anyway.”

  Picking the infant up, she swaddled her tighter. “I managed to get a little milk into her. I know a woman who’s got a nursing bottle that she doesn’t need any more. Her baby’s weaned now. I’ll go see if she’ll let me borrow it.”

  “Thanks, Peg.”

  Nathaniel returned the medicine bottles to the cabinet. “I’ll help Peg get them both over to her house as soon as we’re done here. The woman was obviously in pain when I touched her ribs earlier, so I want to wrap them. I don’t think they’re broken, but they may be cracked.”

  Eli nodded, glad Nathaniel and Peg knew what they needed to do…and wishing he did.

  Chapter Three

  Eli headed straight to the jail after leaving Nathaniel’s office. He needed to talk to Deputy Bliss Walker before the deputy talked to anyone else.

  The man’s main goals in life seemed to consist of napping, drinking coffee, and talking. About everything. If he’d gotten wind of the woman’s presence here in town, and mentioned her to anyone else, it could end up causing a world of hurt for her and the baby.

  Eli entered the jail to find Bliss in his usual position—leaned back in a chair with his boots propped up on Eli’s desk. And in his usual condition—asleep. No sign of Brody. The boy must be off running another errand.

  After checking to make sure there was still coffee in the beat-up pot atop the wood stove, Eli nudged the old fellow awake.

  “Open your eyes, Bliss, I need to talk to you.”

  Without moving at all, the man mumbled, “Use my ears for that, not my eyes.”

  Eli bit back a sigh. He’d inherited the deputy when he’d taken the sheriff’s job, more than a year ago. He’d gotten used to both, although it had taken some time.

  He gave the deputy another nudge. “Well, maybe you could do me a favor and use both. This is important.”

  “Shoulda said so.” Dropping his feet to the floor, Bliss stretched, yawned, took the cup that Eli handed him and slowly began to sip from it. Most of the time, the man did everything at a snail’s-pace, including talk, which proved downright excruciating. Yet Eli had also seen that lazy, lackadaisical demeanor change in the blink of an eye.

  Despite his age, Bliss was a crack shot, could hold his own in a fight, and sat a horse like he was born to the saddle. But unless those skills were needed, the man didn’t feel it necessary to exert any extra effort on day-to-day activities.

  Eli waited until Bliss had swallowed about half the hot brew and his faded blue eyes were opened all the way, before telling him about the woman and the baby.

  By the time Eli finished talking, the man was wide awake and sitting upright. Nothing except the grim set of his mouth and narrowed eyes gave away how upset he was.

  Placing the cup on the desk, Bliss stared at him and blinked a couple of times. “What are we going to do to the fellow who beat her? And when can we do it?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Bliss eyed him with a certain wariness he’d never seen before.

  “What’s on your mind?” Eli asked.

  The deputy lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “Wondering if you being a church-going man, all of a sudden, is going to keep you from taking care of things around here.”

  Eli shook his head. “Nope. Being a church-goer may have changed me, but it hasn’t changed my job. However, there are a few other things standing in my way. First off, I don’t even know who it w
as that beat her.”

  Bliss ran a hand through his unruly gray hair. “Yeah, that does present a problem. What about her husband?”

  “Don’t know that she has one. But I’ll be looking into every possibility.”

  Bliss gave him a brisk nod.

  “The most important thing I can think of right now,” Eli said, “is to keep her hidden, and safe, until we figure out what’s going on. We best not talk to anyone else about her or the baby, at all.” Eli added extra emphasis on the last two words, making sure he got his message across.

  “Got it,” Bliss said. “What about the babe? Will she make it?”

  “I don’t know. She sure is a tiny little thing.”

  “Has Nathaniel looked her over yet?”

  “Yep.”

  Seemingly satisfied with that, Bliss relaxed back in the chair.

  Before Eli could say anything else, the door opened and Brody hurried inside, crossing straight to the stove and spreading his hands out toward the heat. “That wind has got a bite to it.”

  “Sure does,” Eli murmured, stepping around the boy to add another log to the fire.

  “Ain’t it early for it to dip down like this?”

  Eli looked at Brody. This wasn’t idle chitchat, the boy’s tone held real concern. Did his family have what they needed for the winter? He’d best check on them at the first opportunity.

  “It’s only a spell,” Bliss assured the boy. “It’ll warm back up in a few days. I expect we’ll even have us an Indian summer before old man winter gets here for good.”

  “Bliss is right,” Eli said. “This is probably only temporary. It could warm up, quick.”

  “Good,” Brody said with a little shiver. “I don’t care for the cold.”

  Bliss snorted. “Cold? Why, son, this here don’t even come close.”

  “It doesn’t?”

  “Nah. I remember a time when the temperature dropped so low that everything around here froze solid.”

  “Really?”

  Bliss leaned forward, hands on his bony knees, settling in for a long story-telling session. “Yep, a blue norther whipped through one year. Froze the wells, the crick, even the coffee in the cups. That frigid wind whistled in through the cracks around every door and window in town, down chimneys and stove pipes, and wrapped solid round pert near everything.”

  The old man shivered as if experiencing it all anew. “Right then I hurried outside to get my horse and dog. Figgered I’d better move them into the house with me for the night. Anyways, there was this owl sitting on a limb of a live oak tree when I stepped outside. That owl hooted, and the hoot just hung there. The norther had froze that, too.”

  Eli groaned. The old man was laying it on thick this time.

  Brody was enthralled, eyes wide as he listened.

  “I didn’t think too much about it at the time,” Bliss drawled. “I was too busy dancing to pay it much mind.”

  Even Eli couldn’t resist asking about that remark. “Dancing?”

  “Yep. I was afraid if I didn’t keep moving, my blood would freeze. So I danced a jig all that night.”

  Eli grinned at Brody’s rapt expression.

  “Well sir, I danced until the wee hours of the morning,” Bliss said. “I finally fell down, plum tuckered out. The next day the sun was a-shining, so I went on about my work and tried to get that whole ordeal outta my mind.”

  “You’re right,” Brody said. “I guess it’s not that cold yet.”

  Bliss held up a hand. “Wait a minute, I ain’t done yet.”

  The boy shot a look at Eli and then turned his attention back to the old man. “Oh.”

  Before Bliss could continue, Jamie Wilson, another young boy who ran errands, pushed through the door. “Hey, Sheriff.”

  Eli returned the greeting, and waited while the boy greeted the deputy and Brody.

  “What brings you in?” Eli asked.

  “Looking for Brody. Silas Martin said he has work enough for both of us for the whole day, if we’re interested.”

  Brody’s eyes lit up. “He did?”

  “Yep, for some reason he’s all in a dither about getting his store sorted out. Said stuff’s piled up.”

  While Brody talked with Jamie, Eli studied the two boys. Even though Brody was twice Jamie’s size, he seemed less sure of himself, more timid. Both boys were hard workers, and sought out odd jobs at every opportunity, but Brody seemed almost…desperate.

  At that moment Brody tugged on his shirt sleeves and it occurred to Eli that it wasn’t a nervous gesture. They were too short. At least an inch of arm was showing. And the boy didn’t have on a jacket.

  Without being too obvious about it, Eli leaned back in his chair, and glanced at Brody’s boots. Ragged and worn. Wouldn’t surprise him to find out there were holes in them.

  While the others talked, Eli walked to his living quarters at the back of the jail. His room wasn’t much different than the cells, but it held a bigger cot, a chair, and more importantly, a door without bars.

  Eli grabbed a jacket off the hook, returned to the front of the jail, and tossed it to Brody, all while trying to figure out what to say. The boy was proud. Whatever the family’s problems might be, his folks were raising him right.

  When Brody caught the jacket, and looked at him questioningly, Eli chose his words with care. “Since you’re helping out around here so much, I need to see to it that you’re properly outfitted.”

  Brody hesitated for a moment, then grinned and shoved his arms into the coat without a second prompting. “Thank you, Sheriff. Does this mean I get a gun?”

  Visions of the boy tripping and accidently shooting himself flashed through Eli’s mind. He shuddered. “Nope.”

  “What about a badge?”

  Eli’s reply was the same. “Nope.”

  “Okay, I’ll be back to see if you need anything as soon as I’m done with Silas.”

  “Sounds good,” Eli said.

  Bliss had been observing everything in silence. As Brody turned to follow Jamie out the door, the old man spoke up. “Hey, wait a minute. You didn’t let me finish my story about the big freeze.”

  “It’s finished as far as I’m concerned,” Eli mumbled.

  Wielding an injured expression as easily as he did a gun, the old man declared, “I didn’t get to the part where the hoot thawed out and scared me plum nearly to death.”

  Brody paused in the doorway, but Eli waved him on. “Don’t worry, I imagine Bliss will still be telling this same story when you get back.”

  Bliss grumbled good-naturedly as both boys laughed.

  As soon as the door closed behind them, the deputy’s expression sobered. “There’s something strange going on with that boy.”

  “I was thinking the same thing myself,” Eli told him. “I’d better ride out and see his family. What can you tell me about the Flynns?”

  Bliss shrugged. “Not much. Brody’s said very little about his folks.”

  “You’ve never met them? I thought you knew everybody.”

  “I do know most folks, but I can’t recollect that I’ve crossed paths with them yet. The way Brody talks they live way out in the sticks, and they’ve only been here a few months.”

  “Well maybe it’s time we made an effort to get acquainted with them. I’ll try to get out there soon.” Eli stood and stretched. “I got some stuff I need to tend to. Keep your eyes and ears open. Let me know if you hear someone asking about a woman or baby.”

  “Will do. When will Caleb be back?”

  “Some time in the next few days.”

  “Good, been kinda quiet since he’s been gone.”

  “Yes, it has.” Even though Eli hadn’t known he had a second brother until a few months earlier, he’d gotten used to having Caleb Calhoun around pretty fast.

  Caleb was a Texas Ranger who’d blown into town with outlaws on his mind, but had also managed to fall head-over-heels for a local girl, get married, and take off on his honeymoon in short order. I
t would be good to see him again.

  “Plus,” Bliss added, “wouldn’t hurt to have another gun-hand in town.”

  He made the statement with a quiet intensity—unlike his usual drawling commentary—that caught Eli’s attention.

  “Do you know something I don’t?” Eli asked.

  “Course, I do,” the old man snorted. “Been alive more’n twice as long. Bound to know things you don’t.”

  Eli growled under his breath. “I mean, are you expecting some kind of trouble?”

  The old man grinned—knowing full-well what Eli had meant—yet he still seemed uneasy. After a moment, he shrugged. “Just a feeling I’ve had for the last few days. Nothing I can put a name to, so don’t let it vex you. Trouble comes and goes, may be time for the next round of it, I guess.”

  Eli nodded. Although he wouldn’t lay claim to being vexed, he could admit to the same unease the deputy felt.

  He wasn’t sure what to expect, or when to expect it, but he suspected whatever “it” was, it was following close on the heels of a young woman named Maggie.

  * * *

  A gentle tugging on her hair pulled Maggie Radford from a deep slumber.

  Seconds before she lashed out at whoever was beside her, soothing whispers penetrated her mind. “Everything’s all right. I’m trying to get some of the tangles out.”

  Maggie’s eyes were heavy but she managed to open them enough to see a gray-haired woman standing nearby. “Who are you?” Throat dry, the words came out in a harsh rasp.

  “My name’s Peggy Harmon. You can call me Peg.” The woman placed the hair brush on a small table next to the bed. “I imagine you could use a drink of water.”

  At Maggie’s nod, the woman helped her raise up, then held a glass to her lips. Maggie drank greedily. “Easy,” the woman said. “Don’t want to make yourself sick.”

  Maggie managed a few more words as she was lowered gently to the pillow. “Baby all right?”

  “She’s asleep. I’m not going to lie to you, though. I’m not sure she’s going to make it.” The woman’s words were spoken in a clipped tone, but there was compassion in her eyes. “Right now about all we can do is keep her fed and warm. I’ve gotten her to eat about an ounce, and she’s snug in some little gowns I had on hand. Other than that, all we can do is keep praying for her.”