The doctor’s face showed a brief flicker of sadness as he surveyed the angry face of his younger daughter. He stood with his hands in his pockets rocking back and forth on his heels.
“What’s that?” Pauline asked trying to bite back her grin.
“What’s what?”
“What you just called Mrs. Lindstrom.”
“I don’t know, but that’s what she is. I wish you would get rid of her, Papa. She hates Jesse and makes her life miserable when you’re not here. Todd stays away from the house because she’s always on him for his stuttering. One day she had him cleaning out from under the back porch because he sassed her. There wasn’t even anything there but a few weeds. He’s just a kid and needs time to play.” Susan’s voice was a pathetic croak at the end and tears began to flow again.
Doctor Forbes put his arm around his youngest daughter. “I didn’t realize you were so unhappy with her, punkin’. Be patient just a little while longer and we’ll work things out. Hmmm?” He went back into the room to stand beside Jesse’s bed.
Wade wiped his forehead with his sleeve. He was embarrassed to be a witness to what was a family affair. Things were going on here that he didn’t understand, especially the part about the housekeeper’s dislike for Jesse. Susan had said that the housekeeper hated her. Now he understood why Jesse didn’t want to move out of the house and leave her brother and sister at the mercy of the woman.
“Wade,” Doctor Forbes called from the patient’s room. “Jesse’s awake and asking for you.”
Wade’s feet couldn’t carry him fast enough. He was beside the bed in a half-dozen strides. Doctor Forbes left the small room.
“Wade… are you all right?” Jesse’s eyes were concerned, and she looked as if she would cry.
“I’m fine, sweetheart.” He took her hand and held it to his lips. “Not a scratch on me.”
“I’m so glad. I was worried about you.”
His heart flooded with love for her. Not since his granny had anyone worried about him.
“I was the one who was worried half out of my mind. I never dreamed that being with me had put you in danger.”
“I… loved being with you.”
“How do you feel, sweetheart? Are you in pain?”
“I’m not in pain. Papa gave me something for that. I just feel like I’m all by myself and lost in a fog.”
“You’re not lost, honey. I’m here, your father’s here… and Susan and Pauline. Everyone is anxious about you.”
“I wanted to see you before I went to sleep. I was afraid the bullet hit you before it hit me. It was Mr. Merfeld, wasn’t it? I think I heard you tell Papa it was him. Why did he shoot me, Wade?
“He meant to shoot me, honey.”
“Oh, no!” She squeezed his hand and tried to lift it to her lips.
“Don’t worry, love. He won’t try again. He was mad because I brought his kids and Mrs. Merfeld to the store to get the vaccinations. He knows that everyone will be up in arms about what he’s done to you. I bet he’s left the county by now.”
“Poor Mrs. Merfeld.” She began to doze. “Wade, I love you.” Her voice trailed but she forced her eyes to stay open so she could see him.
“I love you too, sweetheart.”
“Kiss me—”
He leaned down and gently pressed his lips to hers.
“That was… nice—” she murmured. Her eyes drifted shut and she didn’t open them again. Soon she was sleeping soundly.
Wade stood for a minute looking at her. She seemed so small and fragile with her hair loose and pulled back from her face. He spread it on the pillow, recalling how silky it felt when he had buried his face in it. Jesse’s eyelids were thin and blue-veined. They seem too fragile to hold the heavy weight of her lashes. Her mouth was relaxed and sweet. One arm was secured below her breast so that she couldn’t move it. He kissed the hand he held and placed it on the bed beside her. He looked at her a minute longer, then bent and kissed her lips again before he left the room.
“Doc, why is her arm bound?”
“The bullet went through her shoulder blade. She must keep her arm from moving so that it will heal.”
“Are you sure she’s going to be all right? She looks so pale. And her voice is… weak.”
“Of course she’s weak. She lost a lot of blood, but not as much as she would have if you hadn’t acted quickly. She’s a strong, healthy woman. I see no reason why she can’t recover completely.”
“Lordy! Those are soothing words to my mind, Doc. I was never so scared in all my life as when I saw the blood on her dress.”
“It’s natural. Shook me up some too.”
“Doc, listen. While she’s asleep, I’m leaving. Tell her that I’ll not be back. Because of me she was almost killed. I failed to protect her. A hill man can only bring her trouble and heartache.”
“You’re not thinking straight, Wade. Come back and spend the night.”
“Thanks, Doc. But coming down out of the hills, holding her in my arms, made me realize that there are a million miles between Harpersville and the hill country. It’s best to end it now so Jesse can get on with her life.”
“Jesse will be hurt—”
“Better a quick hurt now than years of hurt later. Would it be all right if I borrowed a horse to go home? Jody’ll bring it back in the morning.”
“Take the horse, Wade. I just hope you know what you’re doing.”
Dusty Wright sat behind his desk, a cup of coffee in his hand. From the look of him, he could have been sitting there since the last time Wade was in to see him. Dusty was a man who did a lot of thinking before he took any action.
“Come in, Wade. Figured you’d be down to tell me what happened to Miss Jesse.”
“You already heard about it?” Wade poured himself coffee from the pot on the round wood stove.
“No, but I got eyes. Miss Jesse left here this morning with Doc and Miss Susan. They came back with you holding someone that had to be Miss Jesse because Susan was in the boot.”
“Jesse took a bullet meant for me.”
“She going to be all right?” Dusty asked hastily.
“Doc says so. Bullet went into her right breast and out through her shoulder blade. Dammit, Dusty, it was that blasted Otis Merfeld. His mule had wandered out onto plowed ground and I saw him running for it. He was at the edge of the timber when he shot.”
Wade told Dusty the history of his run-ins with Otis and they discussed the possibility of his running scared.
“He could do more damage with that rifle. What’s he got to lose?” Dusty moved his chair back and his feet left the desk. “I’d ride up there tonight, but it’ll be pitch dark in a few hours and I don’t like the idea of that bastard standing behind a tree with his sight on me. I’ll leave at dawn.”
“Don’t worry, marshal. He’s not a very good shot.”
“That’s comforting.” Dusty snorted. “Now I’ve got a would-be murderer running loose as well as a pervert.”
“Any closer to catching The Looker?
“Got a couple of things in the wind.”
Wade rinsed his cup and turned it upside down on the shelf and headed for the door.
“So long, Dusty.”
“Tell Miss Jesse I’m mighty sorry about the shootin’.”
Wade nodded and stepped out the door.
The marshal watched him mount the doctor’s horse and ride toward the hills. If Miss Jesse was going to be all right, what had caused that dejected slump to Wade’s shoulders and the look of misery in his eyes? He looked as if he didn’t care if the sun came up tomorrow or not. He had been a changed man since he met Miss Jesse. There was no doubt that the man was totally in love with her. He had been glad for Wade. The boy, man now, had had a rough life, and it was time something good happened to him.
CHAPTER
* 20 *
Immediately after supper, Doctor Forbes called Louella into the parlor and told her, that while he wanted his younger children to h
ave some training, she was bearing down too hard on them. It was causing them to dislike her. He was especially concerned about her behavior toward Todd and its effect on his stammering.
“You are only making it worse, Louella. Do not mention it to him again if it takes him half an hour to say what he wants to say.
“Well… I only—”
Doctor Forbes cut off her words with a raised hand.
“I realize that this is a difficult position for you and unless things change, I’ll be forced to terminate your employment.”
“Very well, if that’s what you want. But, Hollis, you told me that the children needed a firm hand, and that was what I was trying to provide. You have a standing in this town, and I’d hate for you to be looked down on because of the rudeness of your children.”
“I doubt that someone who was sick would concern himself about how rude my children are,” he said drily.
“Furthermore, I don’t believe they’ve had much guidance during the last few years. Todd and Susan have had a free hand and they’ve not had to account for their time away from home. And they spend too much time with that nigger boy. It’s just too revolting to think about. My Lord! I hate to think what the Harpers would say if they found out.”
“Tell them, Mrs. Lindstrom,” the doctor said, his voice rising. “And then catch the next train out of town. I don’t give a hoot in hell what the Harpers think, but I do care about my children, Jody and Pauline, and the repercussions they would face in this town if it became known that Pauline was teaching a colored boy right here in my home and Susan was helping.”
“You know that I would never do any such thing. My goodness, Hollis, I thought you trusted me more than that.” Louella’s voice had softened seductively but she was shaken. Rivulets of sweat ran from her temples down the sides of her face, making little grooves in the coat of face powder she had applied so generously.
The kids had named her Ghost-face. By damn, the doctor thought, the name fit the woman like a glove. Dora, you’d be proud of the two smart kids we made together and also of Jesse, who has found herself a fine man who loves her enough to give her up because he worries he’s not good enough for her. And, to think, I felt for a while that Louella would be a good companion to help fill the lonely years after the children were grown!
“Hollis, I really do think that I have met the requirements for the job to the best of my ability,” Louella protested, intruding on his thoughts.
The doctor gave her a long searching look, then said, “That will be all, Mrs. Lindstrom. I need to look in on Jesse.”
He walked from the room wondering why he had been so blind as to not see the woman for what she was. Her presence was too much for his children. It had to end.
If the doctor had looked back over his shoulder, he would have seen the ugliness on Louella’s face. Her eyes put daggers in his back.
She could hardly restrain the desire to slam the door when she entered her bedroom after cleaning the kitchen all by herself. Susan and Pauline had made themselves scarce.
The nerve of that man to backtrack so suddenly. He had told her specifically that the children needed discipline and that Susan needed lessons in housekeeping. That was exactly what she had tried to give them. In almost any other home her methods would have worked. Here the parent let the children run as wild as deer. Associating with darkies—now that was the limit.
Louella stood in the middle of the room and silently cursed the day she had come here. It was clear now that whatever harmony had existed between her and Doctor Forbes was over and that there would not be a permanant place for her in this house where the doctor still worshiped his dear wife and thought his children could do no wrong.
What to do now? She weighed her options and decided that she had to swallow her pride and stay. Maybe she would hear from Jack soon and maybe—just maybe—she could persuade that handsome rascal to take her with him. It had been a while since she had posted the letter to him in care of the rooming house in Buffalo.
But when she left, she thought now with much satisfaction, she would leave a surprise for the self-righteous doctor who had spurned her attentions so cruelly. The note his wife had received just months before she died was carefully hidden beneath the dresser scarf. She took it now, read it again and almost chortled.
When she presented this, it would certainly tarnish the image of his precious Dora!
In the night Jesse awakened to find her father sitting beside the bed.
“Papa?”
The doctor shook himself out of a half sleep. “Do you want some water, honey?”
“Yes, please. Did Wade go home?”
“He had animals to tend. I assured him that you’d be all right.”
Jesse drank the full glass of water. “He’ll be back tomorrow,” she said and drifted off to sleep.
Sunday morning the neighbors began to call. Pauline left Jesse in Susan’s care and sought out Jody in the barn.
Jody’s first words were, “Is Miss Jesse goin’ to be all right?”
“Doctor Forbes says she will. Have you been home?”
“Yes ma’am. The marshal was snoopin’ round early. He ain’t goin’ to find nothin’ though. Dude Merfeld brought the wagon back and told Wade his pa had took the twenty-nine dollars, ever’ cent they had in the world, and skedaddled. Dude hopes he don’t come back.”
“He left his family destitute?”
“What’s that mean?”
“It means he left them without a cent to their names.”
“Wade gave Dude some money, said to tell his ma it was what he owed Otis for whiskey. But Wade ain’t… he don’t—”
“—Doesn’t. Speak correctly, Jody. I know you can. Listen, I’ve heard from the people at Tuskegee. They’re expecting you the middle of the month. What do you think of that?”
“Scares the waddin’ out of me, is what it does. I don’t know, Miss Pauline. I’ve never seen a darkie that had enough sense to stay out of the rain except that Mr. Washington that Wade took me to hear.”
“Then it’s time you became acquainted with darkies that are smart and want to make life better for their people. But remember one thing—you’re just as smart as they are. Smarter than most.”
“You think so?” Jody had a bewildered look on his face.
“I know so. Think I’d put up with a dumbbell?” Pauline threw her arm across the boy’s thin shoulders. “Now get your head into those books. I must get back to the house.”
The Forbes’ home was full of visitors for most of the day. It was evening before the doctor had uninterrupted time with Jesse. He sat down beside the bed.
“Lordy! I’m glad they’ve all gone. This house has been a beehive all day.”
“I was sure Wade could come today.”
Doctor Forbes took his daughter’s hand. “Honey, he waited last night until he was sure you were going to be all right. When he left, he told me to tell you that he wasn’t coming back. He thinks it’s better to break it off now rather than later. He feels guilty that people in town are looking down on you because of him. He thinks it’s his fault that you were almost killed.”
“Papa! What are you saying?” The anguished cry tore from Jesse’s throat. “Are you saying that he doesn’t want to marry me now?”
“He didn’t say that. He feels that his reputation has soiled yours. He’s sure that after a while you would come to resent him. He’s a hill man born and bred and has more than his share of pride. He’s a rough character and he knows it.”
“He wasn’t rough with me. He was gentle and sweet and I-loving.”
“He feels he’s doing the right thing for your sake.”
“Well, I don’t! I love him.” Huge tears rolled down Jesse’s cheeks and she began to cry. “He changed his mind about loving me and that’s an excuse,” she said between sobs.
“No, honey. I’m sure he loves you. He’s worried that someday you’ll be sorry you married him and he couldn’t bear that.”
&n
bsp; “Papa, I wouldn’t have ever been sorry. I wanted to marry him more than anything in the world.”
“Maybe he’ll reconsider and come back.”
“No, he won’t. Once he’s made up his mind, it’s set. And I don’t want him if he doesn’t want me.”
“Honey, he thought long and hard before he made the decision.”
It had been years since the doctor had seen his elder daughter cry. It tore at his heart. He wanted to hold her in his arms as he had done when she was a little girl and comfort her, but she was a grown woman and nothing he could say would ease her pain.
He went silently from the room and closed the door.
Louella Lindstrom was very much on Ethan’s mind. That Saturday morning Dick Efthim, the postmaster, had come hurrying down to the newspaper office with a letter in his hand.
“This came in on the morning train.”
Ethan took the letter. “Well hallelujah!” he exclaimed happily. “It’s from Jack Dinsmore, Buffalo, New York. I’m going to steam it open, Dick. I’ll bring it back to the post office all resealed and Louella will never know it’s been opened.”
“Well, I’ve never been involved in anything like this. It’s tampering with the mails…”
“You’ve been a big help and I appreciate it.”
“You know about this, Ralph?” Dick said.
“I know. In my young and foolish years, I was in the Bureau. They won’t let me forget it. The boy here has a good head. He knows what he’s doing.”
“I’ll go on back to the store then. I don’t want to leave Pat any longer than I have to. She’s nervous about being left alone.”
“When’s the baby due? Ralph asked.
“In about three weeks.”
“That’s enough to make any woman nervous.”
“I’ll be there shortly,” Ethan said, as Dick headed for the door.
Using the boiling teakettle, Ethan expertly steamed open the letter as if he had done it hundreds of times before. He took out the single sheet of paper, read it and whistled with satisfaction.
My dear Louella,
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