“Miss Duke, I need a word with my brother. If you’ll excuse us.” He didn’t wait for her to agree. Grabbing Eban by the arm, he led his brother inside the jail and slammed the door. “What happens when they find out?”
Eban’s gaze dropped. “They won’t.”
“Right now, things are real calm. Easy to control. Tonight…” A humorless laugh left his throat. “How long do you think a sick woman would last in a town like this?”
“You make it sound like there’s no control here. I thought that’s what we were doing. You’re the sheriff. Make it clear these women are protected. Miss Duke’s sister is just a little girl.” Eban’s shoulders tightened visibly. “They’re lucky they made it to town. There’s no way of knowing where Tell is or who’s with him.”
A strong argument, but Wystan stood his ground. “You let them stay one night, they’re gonna want to stay two. We’ve got our hands full already. You know that.”
A glimmer of anger appeared in Eban’s dark-blue eyes. “She’ll die. I don’t want that on my conscience.”
Wystan had no special training, no extra schooling outside what he’d gotten as a boy, which in the grand scheme of things was pretty insufficient. Tell hadn’t given a fig for book learning either. Eban was different. He wanted to help the citizens in town, rather than keep them from creating chaos in the outside world.
He expected nonsense like that from Tell, who probably didn’t remember much about what had happened to their parents, but he thought Eban knew better.
“I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
The spark of anger turned into a flame. “Pleurisy is serious. We’re not talking about a head cold. She could drown in her own fluid. She’s underweight, fevered, and coughing up sputum an abbeylubber wouldn’t touch.”
Wystan grimaced at the mention of sputum. “If this were a regular town, it would be different.”
“When did you turn into such an unfeeling bastard? Even after Ma died, you weren’t so cold,” Eban said. “Don’t think about it. Listen to me for once. A woman needs my help and you’d have me turn her away. I can’t. I won’t.”
Bastard, was he? Wystan gritted his teeth and leaned forward. He’d whupped Eban often enough when they were boys, and wrestled with worse on a weekly basis. “What are you gonna do, Eb? If I say she goes, then that’s it. My word is law here, in case you forgot.”
“It’s my clinic. I guess that gives me the right to decide who stays there.”
Over his brother’s shoulder, Miss Duke peered through the round window in the door. He could tell she was standing on her tiptoes, straining to see. They’d been loud. It was hard to say what she’d heard. He felt certain neither of them had mentioned anything too abnormal.
“This isn’t over, Eban. I expect you to heal her up fast and get them out of here. I’ll do what I can to warn everyone before dark, but it’s up to you to bar the door at night.”
“Thank you.” Eban’s words were short, his posture stiff. “I’ll let the Dukes sleep near Miss Brookshier tonight. Keep them all in one room. It’s safer that way.”
“I can’t wait to give Miss Duke the news. I’m sure she’ll fall all over herself with gratitude.” He brushed past Eban and threw the door open.
Miss Duke took a step back, her face pink. She tucked her hands behind her back. Her eyes were hazel, almost green, but with a light-brown ring around the outside and little flecks like broken-up autumn leaves.
“Eban insists that you stay, even though I argued against it. Believe me, you’re better off somewhere else, but I doubt he’d listen if God wrote it in the sky. So you go with him, get whatever you need out of your wagon, get inside the clinic and stay there. Savvy?”
She shrank away from his harsh tone. “Y-yes.”
Eban stepped around him and muttered, “Bastard.” He offered his arm to Miss Duke and they stepped into the street.
Wystan’s mouth tightened as he stared after his brother’s retreating form.
“You’re sure Beryl will be all right? Sylvie can’t get sick?” Miss Duke’s voice drifted back to him, full of worry.
It wasn’t a wolf’s responsibility to look after a sheep. Everyone knew that. So it shouldn’t be up to him to keep strangers out of the jaws of the nightmarish hell that could potentially open on Berner’s streets when the sun went down.
Eban was ten kinds of foolish for thinking he could get the job done. He didn’t want one woman to die on the trail, but he’d sentenced three to perish here. Miss Duke glanced over her shoulder. Her brow furrowed when she caught him looking.
It wasn’t that Wystan didn’t care; he didn’t want to care.
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Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
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Mad for Love
Copyright © 2014 by Lynne Connolly
ISBN: 978-1-61922-386-8
Edited by Amy Sherwood
Cover by Kanaxa
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First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: November 2014
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Mad for Love: Even Gods Fall in Love, Book 2 Page 28