She turned, startled. “Holly? What are you doing up?”
The girl rubbed her eyes while Zoe walked over to her and sat her down. She didn’t want her to see Maddy. The child’s gaze traveled to the stack of bedclothes in the corner of the room. Cade’s.
“Is Uncle Cade sleeping at the jail tonight?”
Zoe didn’t want to lie to the child, but neither did she want to concern her any more than she was. “No, Seth is staying tonight, so Cade can be with you. He’s still taking care of Pop’s business.”
Holly’s eyes drooped closed. “He’ll be here soon?”
Zoe’s gaze drifted to the open window. “Soon.”
“I can’t sleep,” Will said, sitting up on his pallet. “It’s too noisy.”
Zoe patted the opposite seat. “Sit with Holly and me.”
Dropping to the chair, Will mumbled, “Brody snores.”
“Brody always snores. Why does it bother you tonight?” Holly asked.
Zoe wondered what would happen if Cade didn’t come back. Laticia would take them. As much as Zoe loved them, she wasn’t their blood kin. Oh, Cade! How could you do this to me? She wouldn’t let the children go. She’d run away with them before she’d give them up to Laticia Wiseman, run as far and as fast as she could go. Hunt Cade down, and…and…what? What would she do? Nothing. If Cade didn’t come back, there wasn’t a blessed thing she could do. The children would be lost to her forever.
Brody turned over and then sat up, his hair standing on end. “Is it morning?”
“No. Go back to sleep,” Will said.
“I can be up if you can.”
“Brody, sit here,” Zoe said. “I’ll get us some cookies. I think we could use a treat.”
Holly lifted her head and peered at her sleepily. “Now? In the middle of the night?”
Brody’s eyes brightened. “Honest?”
“Honest.” Addy might be rolling over in her grave, but dying from a treat in the middle of the night was better than dying of worry.
Zoe put a plate of cookies on the table as Missy came into the kitchen, clutching the jar housing Bud. “Bud’s scawed.”
Zoe smiled. “What’s Bud got to be scared about?”
“He wants Uncle Cade to pwotect him.”
“From what?”
“Aunt Waticia.”
Zoe patted her lap, and Missy climbed up. “I think we need to talk about Aunt Laticia.” The child settled into place. Holly and Will scooted their chairs closer. “Laticia isn’t here to harm you, and she wouldn’t harm Bud—most especially not Bud.”
“Where’s Uncle Cade? I want Uncle Cade.”
“Shhh. Here, have a cookie. Let’s have a party and think of happy things.”
“Uncle Cade makes me happy.”
Smiling, Zoe hugged her. He’d better have a good excuse when he did show up, a darn good one. Her gaze drifted toward the darkened window, and she bit her lower lip. Where are you?
The clock struck four. Earlier, the children had slipped back to bed. Seated alone at the kitchen table, Zoe glanced at the clock. Exhaustion overcame her, and she was physically sick from worry. Her head ached and her eyes burned. Why had she hoped that Cade had changed? Hadn’t she known better than to count on him? Wasn’t getting stung once enough?
She slumped on the kitchen chair, cradling her face in her hands. Drat your hide. Please come back.
Help. She needed help. From whom? Pop? He wasn’t any help with a broken leg. Abraham? Yes. She would have Abraham drive her to where Shelby said he’d seen the dead bull. Where was it? She tried to remember what GloriLee had said.
Grabbing her shawl, she left the store and quickly ran to the livery to summon Abraham, then hurried on to GloriLee’s. Banging on the back door of the café, she called out, “GloriLee!” GloriLee was always up at this hour to bake biscuits.
The café owner came to the door in her dressing gown, her hair wadded under a brown hairnet. “What in the world?”
“Where did Cade say he was going?”
GloriLee thought for a moment. “Why, he didn’t say exactly, just somewhere near Shelby’s place, then on to Herschel’s.”
“The kids were up most of the night, so they’ll probably sleep late. Can you look in on them for me?”
“You can’t go looking for him by yourself at this time of the morning. Get Walt or Ben—”
“No time. Abraham will drive me.”
“In Laticia Wiseman’s buggy? Are you crazy?”
“I’m hoping to be back before she finds out.”
“I’m hoping you will be too. The whole town hopes you will, believe me,” GloriLee stressed.
Five minutes later, Abraham pulled up alongside the café and Zoe climbed in, pointing in the direction she wanted to go.
“You bring a pistol, Miz Bradshaw, in case o’ trouble?” he asked.
“No, Abraham. I’m scared of guns.”
“Me too—’specially when I’s on the wrong end of one.” He pulled a small handgun from his jacket pocket and laid it between them on the buggy seat. Patting it for assurance, he said, “Jist in case o’ trouble, Miz Bradshaw. Jist in case.”
As they passed Harry at the edge of town, Zoe yelled, “Have you been here all night?”
He straightened and said, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Did Cade ride this way when he left yesterday?”
“Shore did. Said something about finding Herschel’s bull, dead!”
“Thank you!”
The setting moon cast eerie shadows along the road. The heavy thicket and low underbrush made a perfect cover for outlaws. Zoe found her hand resting on the pistol, “jist in case.”
They had gone more than two miles when Zoe grabbed Abraham’s arm.
“Slow down!” She pointed up ahead. “Something’s there—at the side of the road.”
Abraham squinted. “Shore is. Looks ta be…oh, Lordy, looks ta be a body, Miz Bradshaw.”
Zoe was out of the buggy before it stopped. She ran so hard, she thought her lungs would burst trying to suck in enough air. Even before she reached him, she recognized Cade. When her heart threatened to explode with grief, she reminded herself that if he’d gotten himself killed, he had no one to blame but himself. She wouldn’t care—she wouldn’t!
Blindly falling to her knees, she sobbed, “Please, no…” Who was she kidding? She would lay down her life for him. She quickly loosened his shirt collar and felt for a pulse, wilting with relief when a strong, steady beat throbbed against her fingertips. “Abraham, come quickly. He’s alive!”
With every ounce of strength she could muster, she lifted him to a sitting position. “Cade, can you hear me?” She patted his cheek. “Cade!”
His eyelids fluttered. “Red? So tired.” He leaned against her chest. “Maddy spooked—”
“I know.” Zoe brushed his hair back off his forehead and felt the heat. Fear constricted her throat, and she whispered, “Cade, you’re burning up.” She turned to Abraham as he came running. “Hurry, Abraham, hurry! We’ve got to get him into the buggy. He’s sick.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
I can’t believe you went out there alone.” Zoe gently sponged cool water across Cade’s forehead, and then she fussed with his pallet, which she’d laid beside the others in the jail. “Pop’s been worried sick about you. I’ll tell him you’re back.”
He cocked an eye open and groaned. “Were you worried?”
“Only because of the children.”
“I like it when you worry about me.” Cade took hold of her wrist as a spasm crossed his features. “Can you do something about my headache?”
“If I could, I would. Lie still.”
“Come on, Zoe. I’m dying.”
“There’s not much I can do.” Heartsick, she knew that he’d come down with the same illness that killed John and Addy. “You’re sick, like everybody else.” She crossed his hands on his chest and pulled the blanket closer to his neck. “Rest. I don’t see how you walked
all that way with the fever.”
He yanked the blanket over his head. “Don’t…tell…anybody.”
“What? That the big bounty hunter is human? That’s he’s flesh and bone just like everybody else? I don’t see how I could keep a thing like that quiet.” She checked on the others and found them soundly sleeping. She would give all she owned to sleep like that.
She hated her doubts regarding Cade’s absence, although she knew the idea of leaving had to be more appealing to him by the day. If she thought about it, she knew he did too. Her gaze fell on him. So sick, so vulnerable—not the big, tough bounty hunter anymore, just a sick, needy man. For the first time in his life he needed her, and as much as the thought irritated her, she welcomed the advantage.
Stepping outside the jail, she found Pop hobbling back and forth, his crutches thumping soundly on the packed ground. Sawyer filled him in on the number of visitors he’d kept from coming into the jail. “Must’a been fifty or more.”
Pop frowned. “Sawyer, there ain’t fifty people in the whole county. You cain’t count.”
Sawyer spat and walked away mumbling, “Wasn’t fer me, ever’ dern woman, child, and dadburned man around would take sick.” He hollered over his shoulder. “I got that credible stuff now! People oughta listen t’me!”
“You got what?” Pop called back.
Zoe grinned. “I think he means ‘credibility,’ Pop. Cade made him a badge.”
The sheriff sighed. “That could be a dangerous thing. Sawyer ain’t playing with a full deck. He got hit in the head one too many times when he used to box.”
“Actually, Sawyer has been a big help, even if he is a little overbearing.” Zoe sat down on the new bench the mayor had provided and motioned for Pop to join her. She took a deep breath of the fresh air. “Too bad he didn’t have his boxing gloves on when Laticia Wiseman came to town. He had quite a run-in with her.”
“Well, who hasn’t?” Pop said, lowering himself to the bench and carefully stretching his splinted leg out before him. “That woman might mean well, but she can rankle the best of us.”
Leaning her head back, Zoe closed her eyes. “She’s going to take the children home with her.”
“When?”
“She said this morning, if Abraham’s up to it.”
Pop leaned forward. “Abraham’s sick?”
“No, Cade is. I think Abraham is trying to allow me enough time to settle on a course of action.”
“What’s Cade have to say about Laticia wanting the kids?”
“He doesn’t intend to let her have them, but I can’t stop her from taking them.”
Pop rubbed his chin. “Laticia’s like a dog with a bone.”
“I don’t know what I’d have done without Abraham this morning. He helped me find Cade.”
Pop rose up from the bench and propped the crutches under his arm. “Think I’ll go have a visit with Abraham—see if he needs anything.”
“He’d like that. He could probably use a break from the children. They’re over there pestering him again.”
Pop chuckled. “Those kids are too well mannered to pester anybody.”
Massaging the back of her neck, she smiled. “Tell them to go to GloriLee’s for dinner. She said she’d feed them.”
Pop waved his crutch and then hobbled away.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Later that day the jail door banged open, startling Zoe. The bowl of broth she was feeding Ida nearly slipped out of her hand, and she grabbed a cloth to wipe up the spills.
“Doc! For heaven’s sake, you scared the wits out of me.” She rose as he glowered at her, his face puff y, red blotches covering his skin in various patches. “I’m so relieved you’re back!”
“Look at me. Look at this rash.” He jabbed at his face with his finger. “I got the measles.”
“Measles?” Her jaw dropped as the implication slowly sank in. “Measles.”
“Measles,” he confirmed. “Come down with ’em four days ago. Just felt like riding home.”
Relief flooded her, and she dropped to the nearest chair, weak in the knees. Tilting her head back, she began to laugh. “Measles. They’ve all got the measles, not the fever.” That meant that, most likely, Cade had the measles. She was shocked silly by the news.
“I don’t find it particularly funny,” Doc complained, eyeing her sternly. “Well, maybe it is a little, although measles seems to hit adults real hard.”
Bonnie lifted her head off the pillow. “My Jimmy had them a few weeks ago. He wasn’t very sick, so I never thought much about it.”
Doc collapsed into a nearby seat. “With John and Addy dying of the fever, I thought that’s what it was.”
Bruce sat up on his pallet, blinking sleepily. “But Ida was out of her head with fever.”
Doc nodded. “Like I said, it hits adults hard. Some worse than others.” He glanced around the room. “Is that Kolby over there?”
Zoe nodded, grinning. “He came down with the fev—measles this morning. I was about to send for more quinine.”
“No need now,” Doc said. “It’ll run its course.”
“But why didn’t I get them, or Seth?”
“You both probably had them when you were kids. Makes you immune.” Doc looked at Bruce, Ida, Saul, Belle, and Bonnie. “Soon as you all feel strong enough, you might as well go on home to recuperate. I’m sure you’ll be more comfortable in your own beds.”
“Well, praise the Lord,” Bonnie said. She slowly got up to gather her belongings. The others did the same, complaining but visibly relieved.
When Cade tried to roll to his feet, Zoe stopped him. “All but you,” she corrected. “You’re staying right here until your temperature drops.”
Pop walked into the livery and found Abraham keeping the children busy shining the leather on Laticia’s buggy.
“You keep this thing looking like new,” Pop told him.
“Thank ya, Sheriff Winslow. Miss Laticia’s mighty paticlar ’bout her buggy.”
“Care if I sit a spell?”
Abraham hurried to pull up a crate. “Here ya are. You jist make yoresef ta home.”
Holly helped Pop down as Brody took his crutches, held up one leg, and tried to walk with them. He fell face-first into the hay.
“Not so much fun, is it, son?” Pop asked, chuckling.
Brody sprang to his feet. “How do you do this?”
“Just hope you never have to learn,” Pop replied with a grunt.
Taking the crutches from Brody, Holly handed them to Pop. “Better put these up before Brody breaks them. He’s bad that way.”
Missy hopped on one foot. “Can I twy?”
Pop pulled her onto his lap. “Those sticks are too long for a little’un like you.” He retrieved a piece of horehound from his pocket and pretended to pull it out of her ear. “Well, look what I found. This must belong to you.”
Will pulled on his ear. “Do I got one too?”
Pop motioned for him to join them. “I’ll bet you have.” A stick magically appeared from Will’s ear, and then Pop flipped Holly and Brody each a piece. “You’d better not eat it until after GloriLee feeds you dinner, or we’ll all have to answer to Zoe. Go on, now. GloriLee’s expectin’ ya.”
The children pocketed the candy and skipped up the road to the café.
Pop turned to Abraham, his demeanor sobering. “Zoe’s done good by them.”
“Yes’sa. Miz Bradshaw’s a fine woman…fine woman.”
“She wants to keep them, you know.”
“Yes’sa, I knows that.” Abraham spit on his rag and rubbed hard on a spot of dirt on the buggy seat.
“I hear Laticia is set on taking them home with her.”
“Yes’sa, I knows that too.” He slapped the rag against the wheel spokes.
“What do you think about it?”
“Don’t reckon I have a say in it, Sheriff.”
Pop grinned. “Oh, I reckon you have a lot of say in things, Abraham.”
<
br /> Abraham grinned back, his teeth flashing white in his mahogany face. “Way I sees it, them young’uns need a ma and a pa. Miz Laticia, she’s too old ta be lookin’ fer a man, but Miz Bradshaw—” He rolled his dark eyes. “She ain’t too old a’tall.”
“What’re you tryin’ to say? If Zoe were to marry, Laticia might consider letting her adopt the children?”
“Seems sensible, if’n it was the right man.”
Pop’s fingers smoothed his mustache thoughtfully. “Hmm—you know, Abraham, you could be right. Perry Drake has an eye for Zoe. Now, he’d make a fine—”
“I sez, if’n it was the right man. Miz Laticia be mighty paticlar ’bout who be a papa to her nephew’s chil’un.”
“She couldn’t find fault with Perry. Why, he’s the town banker. They wouldn’t want for anything.”
“Shore ’nuff, Sheriff, but Mr. Drake be jist one more fish in the pond. He not blood kin.”
“Then who? Cade?”
Abraham slowed the rag and wiped in small circles. “Well, now, he ain’t jist one more fish, is he.”
Pop shook his head. “Laticia would as soon whup him as look at him. She makes no bones about being out of sorts with him. And I don’t know that Zoe would have him. She’s pretty intent on him cleaning up his ways.”
Abraham chuckled. “Yes’sa, jist like married folk.”
“She wants the kids…he don’t want her to raise ’em alone…” Pop stopped and thought a moment. “’Course, if they were to marry each other, that would solve the matter. But that’d shore take some doin’.” He slapped his knee. “Abraham! By doggies, that’s it.”
Abraham shook the dust from his rag. “I knowed a smart man like you’d think o’ somethin’.”
Pop grabbed hold of Abraham’s arm and pulled himself up. “Hand me my crutches, my good man. I’ve got to call a town meetin’.”
Abraham glanced up. “Right now?”
“Right now,” Pop said. “The sooner, the better.”
A Kiss for Cade Page 17