“His name is Montgomery, and he doesn’t look all right,” Kevin said, taking another step forward.
“He’s bleeding from his head,” Tony chimed in, as if she couldn’t see that herself.
“I think he hit his head coming over the wall.” She tugged at the rope at Jackson’s waist. One-handed, she was helpless. “Tony, help me untie this knot.”
He immediately did. Tony never hesitated to help. He was too responsible by far. She’d give anything to see him misbehave. Just once.
“It’s not letting go.”
No, it wasn’t. “Just leave it.” With her good shoulder she pushed her hair off her face. She had to think. She had responsibilities. “Kevin, you go back and hold that mare.”
It was a measure of Kevin’s upset that he behaved rather than argued. Sometimes she despaired of them seeing her as the mother she was supposed to be. Maybe it was because she didn’t feel so much older than them. Maybe it was because of how they’d met. Or maybe it was because she just wasn’t that motherly.
She sighed in relief as the horse was secured. If the man didn’t live, they would need the horse. It was a horrible, practical thought in the middle of chaos, but she couldn’t let it go. She couldn’t let him go. She couldn’t do anything but keep moving forward. Her course had been set all those months past when she’d decided she was making the life she wanted rather than the one she’d been given.
Habit had her reaching to push her hair out of her face. Pain in her elbow made her regret it. Moaning again, she leaned her head against her shoulder and rode out the reality. They were in such trouble. Darn. Darn. Darn.
“Are you hurted?”
There was no point in flat-out lying to the child. “A little.”
The softest of kisses touched her shoulder. Melinda Sue was a big believer in kissing things better. Mimi wished she could muster a smile to go with her words. “Thank you, Mellie.”
She decided to leave the rope for now. Shifting her weight, Mimi knelt beside Jackson, shifting again as her skirts pulled at her legs. She was going to have to turn him over to take off his jacket to see how badly he was bitten. Her initial impression that he wasn’t a huge man took a tumble as she pushed on his shoulder. It was going to take more strength than she had to turn him over. He was all substance. She gave his shoulder a quick poke. “You would have to be all muscle.”
He didn’t answer. Naturally.
“He’s still bleeding.”
“I can see that, Mellie.”
Melinda Sue stuck her thumb in her mouth. “On his head.”
“I know.” It wasn’t the bleeding from the head wound that was fretting her, though. It was the snakebite she couldn’t see. “We need to get him out of this coat. I think a snake bit him.”
Tony squatted down and started tugging at the corner of the leather duster, only to discover what she already had. “It’s stuck.” Standing, he gave the hem another yank. It didn’t pop free. “He’s too heavy.”
“We don’t have much time,” Kevin offered from where he stood. “The book says you have to hurry before the poison spreads.”
Kevin was a big fan of frivolous Western novels. He devoured them like others devoured candy. He was so in love with the tales of high adventure, he wasn’t picky about whether he had the money to afford his habit or not. If he wanted a book, he just took it. Theft was a terrible habit for a child to have. She wondered if the benefit they were getting from it in this case justified the sin. She hoped so.
“How long does that take?”
He frowned, his green eyes narrowing. “A few pages.”
“That’s not an answer,” Tony scoffed.
“Is too,” Melinda Sue shot back. In Melinda Sue’s eyes, Kevin could do no wrong. Mimi expected it was because the boy had a spirit of adventure that made him her perfect cohort in crime.
The man began to shiver in barely perceptible tremors.
“Did those stories say how many snakebites it took to kill a man?” Mimi asked, fighting the creeping dread.
“They say rattler’s venom is so strong, one bite can take down the biggest of men.”
He didn’t have to report it with such relish. Gathering her courage, Mimi took charge. “Kevin, keep a hold of that mare.”
No matter what happened, they were going to need her. She checked the knot in the dirty rope wrapped around the man. It was tight. Her insides felt just as tight. And maybe, she thought as she took the rope with an equally grimy hand, just as dirty. No matter how many miles she put between herself and the “mistake,” the bad luck clung to her. She’d been such a fool.
“Is he dead?”
She looked up at Kevin. The horror and fascination in his voice ran rampant in his expression. She’d never understand men, no matter what age they were.
“No.” Yanking the annoying tangle of her skirts out from under her knees, she settled back down, telling herself that was better. It wasn’t.
Kevin sighed. “Oh.”
“Sheesh, Kevin. Don’t sound so disappointed,” Tony muttered.
“Tony,” Mimi cut in before a fight could start, “help me turn him over.”
Kevin huffed. “I’m strong, I can—”
“You can hold tight to that horse.” Mimi snapped. “We can’t afford to lose it.”
“But—”
As Tony knelt beside her again, she cut a glare at Kevin. “There will be no ‘buts,’ young man. You’ll do as I say.”
Tony grabbed the man’s shoulder. Once again, she instinctively reached out with her left hand. Once again, she regretted it. Three sets of eyes snapped her way when she gasped. She quickly switched arms. It still wasn’t easy. The man was all dead weight.
Tony wasn’t faring any better. His hand slipped. Catching himself before he toppled, he muttered, “He’s not making it easy.”
She had a feeling Jackson wasn’t in the habit of making anything easy. She kept tugging. “We just need to turn him on his side, get his arms free, and then we can see.”
“What?”
“If he was bitten.” She knew he had been, she’d felt it, but part of her just kept hoping she was wrong.
“Don’t forget you’ve got to suck the venom out of the bite,” Kevin said, still sounding entirely too excited about that event.
Dear God. Please don’t need me to do that.
“Are you sure?” She looked at Kevin and then Tony.
The latter just shrugged and braced himself. “Kevin is the one with the knowing.”
“I told you I read it in my book,” Kevin grumbled.
She pushed harder. Unfortunately, so did Tony, which just had them working against each other. “Do you think everything you read is true?” She forced the question out between gritted teeth and switched to pulling.
“Why would they write it if it wasn’t?”
Kevin had more sass than was healthy. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the knowledge or confidence to successfully counter.
“I don’t know.”
“His head sure is bleeding a lot,” Tony observed.
Kevin piped up. “Snakebite makes a man bleed more.”
“Wonderful.” She looked up at Tony. “On three, all right?”
“Turn him your way or my way?”
She was stronger. “Let’s turn toward me. You push. I’ll pull.”
He nodded. Mimi took a breath and anchored her fingers in the man’s coat. “One. Two. Three.”
Even with the two of them trying to maneuver his body, he just kind of twisted and flopped the way a conscious person wouldn’t. And they were severely handicapped by her damaged arm. Just when she was about to start cursing, Jackson rolled onto his back. He didn’t even grunt.
“Is he deaded?” Melinda Sue called with the same morbid fascination as Kevin.
“No. A
nd you stay right over there, young lady.”
Mimi might as well have been talking to herself, because two seconds later the scuffed toes of Melinda Sue’s shoes showed up in her peripheral vision.
“He’s still pretty.”
“Men aren’t pretty,” Kevin scoffed.
But this one was. In a purely masculine way. The sun, usually so cruel to others by ruthlessly highlighting imperfections, seemed to kiss the planes and edges of his profile, increasing even more the impression of an unholy angel. If one discounted the trickle of blood wandering over the cut on his cheekbone. Mimi couldn’t stop herself. She touched it with her thumb. The blood smeared across the dirt on his skin. A hint of beard abraded her flesh. Just an hour ago he’d been riding his horse on the way to somewhere. Maybe home. Maybe to a woman. Probably anticipating a warm greeting and a hot meal. And now he was here, in her front yard, snakebitten, dirty, bleeding, relying on her skills to make him better. She tugged off his right sleeve and then pushed him over so Tony could tug off the other.
Tony looked up at her when he was done. “What do we do now?”
“We need to get him into the house out of this dirt.”
So she could get a knife, suck out the venom. Her stomach heaved just at the thought.
Tony grabbed an arm. She went for the other. Melinda Sue hopped up. “He can sleep in my bed.”
Melinda Sue’s bed was a small makeshift mattress in the room she shared with Mimi. “That’s very kind of you.”
Melinda Sue frowned. “Mama said only good people are kind.”
“Well, that leaves you out,” Kevin snapped.
Melinda Sue’s rosebud mouth immediately went into a pout, giving her the look of a cherub with her curls and round cheeks. She really was adorable. “That’s not fair. I was only bad once.”
“Yes, you were,” Tony responded soothingly.
He didn’t look at anybody when he said it, though, because it was quite a whopper. If the circumstances had been anything but what they were, Mimi would talk to him again about the need for honesty, even when you were trying to be kind. But Mimi didn’t have that kind of time right now. The man was dying.
She looked up at Kevin, the closest thing to an authority they had on the realities of Western life. “Is there anything else in those books you read about what one can do for snakebites?”
Kevin shook his head with discouraging enthusiasm and trotted out his only piece of advice again. “You’ve got to suck the poison out.”
“How exactly am I supposed to do that?”
“You cut an X over the bite and then suck.” His cheeks sucked in as he demonstrated. Her stomach did another flip-flop as he motioned her on. “You’re supposed to do it as soon as possible after the bite.”
Of course she was. He could have said that earlier. It’d already been five, maybe ten minutes. Was it too late? “Kevin, go get a clean knife from the kitchen. Tony, help me roll him back over.”
Kevin dashed to the house while Tony grabbed the man’s arm. She grabbed the other. Her fingers slipped.
Now that she was hurrying, her one good hand was all thumbs.
It wasn’t two seconds before Melinda Sue announced, “He’s stuck.”
So he was. Right there in the dirt in front of her. And he was depending on her to save him. Her resolve quavered at the thought of sucking blood and poison out of a wound she first had to inflict.
Get a hold of yourself, Mimi Banfield.
To Melinda Sue she said, “Hush.” To Tony she said, “On three. Just like before.”
The procedure went smoother than she’d anticipated, which just worried her because when anything went well there was always a price to pay. Kevin arrived back just as they had the man balanced on one shoulder. As he started to slip, Kevin dropped the knife in the dirt and added his muscle to the mix. The man rolled over and planted face-first in the dust. She was very glad he wasn’t awake for this.
“You did it!” Melinda Sue cheered happily. Kevin let out a whoop. Tony just looked at her with those old eyes of his before turning the man’s face to the side.
Mimi eyed the knife in the dirt and sighed before picking it up. They’d be lucky if he didn’t get an infection. She started cutting the man’s faded blue shirt away. “How soon do we need to do this ‘sucking’ thing, Kevin? Did the book mention specifics?”
Like when it would be too late?
Kevin frowned. “Just soon.”
Then there wouldn’t be time to rewash the knife. Wonderful. Just wonderful. Pushing the shirt aside, she exposed the wound. Two evenly spaced puncture marks were surrounded by rapidly swelling, purpling flesh. She blinked. Only two? She touched the angry flesh, recalling the jerks of his body against hers as the snake or snakes had struck, once, twice, wincing with each memory. She’d been so sure he’d been bitten more than once, but had only one snake gotten through his clothing? And had that one only achieved a glancing bite? Optimism skimmed her horror. If so, Jackson might have a chance. She sucked in a bracing breath. He hadn’t failed her. She wouldn’t fail him.
Pressing the knife edge against the skin, she prayed in a disjointed gasp of desperation. Please. Don’t let it be too late. Don’t let me cut too deeply. Don’t let him die.
The dent got deeper, but the skin didn’t split. Her stomach turned. She gagged. Beside her Tony followed suit.
“I can do it,” Kevin offered.
There was no way Mimi was going to let an eight-year-old do what she, a grown woman, should be able to handle. Except she’d never done anything like this before. The closest she’d come was cutting up the meat from the butcher. However, the skill was applicable. She owed this man her life. She couldn’t repay him with cowardice. She wouldn’t.
“No. I’ll do it.”
Taking a deep breath and sucking her lower lip between her teeth, she pressed down harder, sliding the knife across the wound as she did. Blood welled. So did her gorge. She wasn’t cut out for this. The debilitating thought crossed her mind. Just as quickly, she pushed it away. What she hadn’t been cut out for was the life of penance her mother had set out for her. She didn’t know what she was meant for, but she knew she wanted more than a life on her knees apologizing for her existence. Her mother had made a poor choice in the man she’d loved. He’d courted her, promised her the moon, seduced her, impregnated her, and then abandoned her to a life of ill repute. Mimi didn’t understand how as an illegitimate child it was her responsibility to atone for her mother’s sin. She was finished with even trying. Especially after she’d found herself trotting down the same path, repeating her mother’s story in some warped continuance of an unfinished destiny, even taking it a step further by ending up the wife of a brothel owner.
She shook her head. But she’d broken free of the pattern her mother had set. And she’d taken Kevin, Tony, and Melinda Sue along with her. She’d told herself there was no need for them to pay for the accident of their births, either. Or maybe she’d just wanted to be a hero more than a martyr. Whatever the truth that drove her, they were where they were, doing what had to be done. She made the second cut across the wound, this time more competently. Sometimes, that was just how life was.
Besides, who knew and who even cared what force brought the children and her together? They were a family now. She was their mother. Whatever they needed to learn, they’d learn together. They might trip, they might fall, but they’d get up together. And she’d give them the best future she could. Without guilt. Without making them feel like they needed to apologize for their existence to anyone, least of all to society. She looked at the ugly wound she’d just made—at the welling blood. She had to suck poison out of that mess. Her stomach heaved harder. Not for the first time she thought she didn’t have the fortitude for frontier living.
“I can do it.” Tony offered this time.
She mentally sighed. Carefree mi
ght be harder to deliver for Tony. He seemed to naturally carry the responsibility of the world on his shoulders, but if she could temper that, he’d be a fine man. A happy man.
“I can do it, but you need to take care of Melinda Sue. She’s too young to see this.”
As if on cue, Melinda Sue gasped again. “He’s deading?”
The child was too perceptive by far.
Tony took Melinda Sue’s hand. “Mimi will make it better.”
“What can I do?” Kevin asked, not sounding the least bit skeptical that she would work miracles. While Mimi was nothing but skepticism. She’d thought her upbringing had been hard. It was only since coming out West that she’d realized how fortunate she’d actually been.
She got in a better position. “Just stay here and try to remember everything you’ve read about treating snakebite.”
He looked as worried as she felt. “All right.”
There was nothing to do then but lower her mouth to the wound. As she did, a bitter copper taste filled her mouth. She imagined she could taste the poison threaded through the life. She spat it out as fast as she took it, shuddering internally, but sucking and spitting as quickly as she could until the flow of blood became a trickle and she could no longer taste the difference between life and death. Wiping her mouth on her sleeve, she sat back on her heels and looked up at Kevin. “Now what do I do?”
Kevin just shrugged and bit his lip. “I don’t know. Wait?”
Lord, she hated waiting. “All right.”
“I think we should check his head,” Tony called from the porch.
As always, Tony was the voice of reason. The wound on the man’s head was still bleeding, but she had no idea if the amount was too much or normal. She parted his hair gingerly, revealing the wound just above his temple. The gash was about two inches long. The edges looked clean. The bleeding was sluggish. He probably needed stitches, but she didn’t even know if she had anything appropriate with which to stitch. She knew enough that regular thread wouldn’t do it. Sitting back, cradling her elbow in her hand, she sucked her lower lip between her teeth. Her head began to pick up the throb in her elbow. She wasn’t qualified to make any of these decisions, but she had to lead them somewhere. “I think that wound just needs to be dressed.”
Promises Decide Page 4