Most of the fire was out, but smoke poured into the night sky. The entire ride Clay watched it rise. He wouldn’t have a moment’s peace until all his men were accounted for.
Shortly after Clay turned the bell, the young doctor answered the door. “Evening, Marshal.”
“Doc. Have one of the Harvey Girls out front. The jail’s on fire. She pulled my dog out and now she’s coughin’ mostly. That’s my main concern.”
“Anything coming up when she coughs?”
“Not that I’ve seen.”
“Is she burned?”
“Don’t think so.”
Caleb Chaney turned to the woman who walked up behind him. “The marshal says one of the Harvey Girls breathed in smoke, Ellie.”
“Bring her into the kitchen,” she said immediately. “Don’t waste time taking her to the office.”
Clay was grateful Miss Hollis would be taken care of quickly. “Thank you, ma’am.”
Mrs. Chaney accompanied Clay to the wagon and assisted Miss Hollis up the walk and across the porch.
Inside it smelled like apples and cinnamon. He’d been treated a few times at the man’s office—scrapes on a couple occasions and a bullet wound a year or so ago—but Clay had never been in the doctor’s house before. Doctors earned a hell of a lot more than marshals, he surmised, taking note of the furnishings. Then he remembered Doc Chaney came from a well-to-do ranch family.
The doctor’s wife pulled a rocker toward the kitchen table. “Sit here,” she offered.
Sophie took a seat and the woman lit several oil lamps.
“Can I do anything else, Caleb?” she asked.
“I’m guessing these two could use some water,” he suggested.
“I’m fine, ma’am,” Clay told her. “It’s Miss Hollis needs attention.”
Sophie coughed.
Doc asked her to lean forward. “I’m gonna thump you on the back and see if there’s anything that needs to come up,” he told her.
Sophie nodded.
He used his flattened palm to hit her good and hard a couple of times. The awful sound and the resulting expelled breath gave Clay a lump in his chest. He understood the treatment was for her own good, but he sure didn’t cotton to watching.
Ellie Chaney met his eyes with sympathetic understanding. He looked away and rubbed a hand down his face. He’d feel the same about anyone.
“See if you can drink now,” the doctor told Sophie.
She drank a whole glass of water and wiped her chin with the back of her hand.
Mrs. Chaney soaked a cloth and wrung it out. “Let me wash her up a bit now.”
The young doc backed away, giving his wife room to reach Sophie.
“I think she’s fine,” Caleb told Clay. “Doesn’t seem as though her lungs were affected.”
“She can go home then?”
“Isn’t the dormitory locked by this hour?” Mrs. Chaney asked.
Sophie nodded. The whites of her eyes were reddened. “Past curfew.”
“She can stay here,” the woman suggested. “I’ll take the baby into our room and Miss Hollis can sleep on the cot in the nursery.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Sophie protested.
“What else would you be doing?” the woman asked. “You’re locked out of the dormitory, so you’ll stay here. Caleb and the marshal will explain to Mr. Webb in the morning. I’ll find something for you to wear.”
After a moment, Sophie said, “That’s very kind of you.”
“What do I owe you for your time, Doc?” Clay asked.
“I will pay my own bill.” Sophie’s emphatic objection started another bout of coughing.
“You wouldn’t have had need of the doc if you hadn’t gone into the jail for my dog, Sophie.”
“I made the choice. I’ll pay my own bill.”
He studied the fractious woman, stubborn and proud as all get-out. Even with remaining black smudges on her chin and forehead and her dark hair a disarray of tangles, she was something to look at.
“Let’s not worry about that tonight,” Dr. Chaney interrupted. “Everyone needs some rest.”
“Make yourselves useful and heat some water,” Ellie directed the men. “Sophie needs a bath before I take her upstairs and get her settled.”
Clay helped pump water and heat it on the stove, then he and the doctor walked out to the front porch.
Caleb raised his face to the sky. “There’s still smoke in the air.”
“Better go see what’s left of the jail. Got some figurin’ out to do, I reckon.”
“Don’t worry about Miss Hollis,” Caleb told him. “She’s going to be just fine.”
Clay took a coin from his pocket. “Will a dollar cover it?”
Dr. Chaney closed his fingers around the coin with a grin. “I have a feeling she’s going to be madder’n a hornet when she finds out you paid.”
“She’ll just have to get her mind right about that,” Clay replied. He glanced out at the wagon still on the street. “Know anything about animals?”
“Know a little about horses.”
“Dogs?”
“Your dog out there?”
Clay nodded.
Caleb followed him down the walkway and through the arbor trellis laden with fragrant roses to the wagon bed.
Sam raised his head with a soft whine.
Caleb petted the animal, then turned him over and put an ear to his chest. “He was probably low enough to escape most of the smoke, unless he was directly in the fire.”
Clay shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“He’s getting up there in years, isn’t he?”
Clay nodded. “Can’t see or hear much anymore. Doesn’t move farther than a few feet on his own.”
Caleb scratched behind the dog’s ear. “His old bones probably hurt something fierce.”
“I know there isn’t a miracle for the old boy.” Clay leaned a hip against the tail gate. “Just don’t have the heart to put ’im down.”
“An injection would do it. It wouldn’t hurt him.”
Clay absorbed the words. “You could do it?”
The doctor nodded.
“I’ll be thinkin’ on it, Doc. Thanks.”
The driver was still waiting on the seat. “She gonna be okay?”
“She’ll be fine,” Clay called and offered the doc his hand. “Thanks again.” He climbed onto the wagon seat. As the driver pulled forward, Clay glanced back at the big white two-story house.
It was tough to imagine someone running into the burning jail for the sake of a dog. The impression he had of Sophie was one of a capable women. A woman sure of herself.
She claimed she’d seen the fire from the park and come to have a look. Alone in the park, an unprotected young woman on the streets of Newton at night—she was either fearless or foolish. It was his job to care which.
Ellie Chaney picked up a sleeping infant from the crib. “I’ll be right back as soon as I lie him down in my room.”
Sophie nodded. All she wanted was to sleep and with any luck escape the burning pain in her chest and throat. This kind stranger had helped her bathe and wash her hair, but the stench of smoke remained.
Ellie returned a few minutes later with a cotton night rail. “In the morning I’ll find something for you to wear home.”
“How did you know Mr. Webb’s name?”
“I used to work at the Arcade,” she replied. “Until I broke my arm. Caleb hired me to take care of his son, Nate, until I was better, and one thing led to another. Now here I am, crazy in love and married to him.”
“How old is your baby?”
She turned back the covers on the narrow bed with a smile. “Seven months. His name is David.” She paused a moment, then fluffed up a pillow. “I wasn’t sure I wanted a baby. Caleb had his own child when I married him, and we’re raising my two younger brothers. I had kind of a history, you could say.”
“I understand history.” Sophie had never said anything quite a
s revealing to anyone, and surprised herself by doing so. It must be because she was so tired and her chest burned so badly. She couldn’t resist asking, “What made you change your mind?”
She’d never believed she would make a good mother, so it was better that she spare a child the suffering.
“Caleb changed my mind. I didn’t know any good men before I met him. It took a while but I learned to trust him. And I learned to trust myself. Our life was good. Our marriage would have been fine just the way it was. But choosing to have a child together formed a deeper trust.”
Sophie studied the other woman, wondering what kind of history she spoke of, wondering if Ellie Chaney had a past that could even compare to Sophie’s. If she knew the people Sophie had known, she would have thought twice about bringing another child into the world. “Well, you seem very happy.”
“We are. Caleb is the kindest, most gentle man I’ve ever known.”
“You’re very fortunate.”
Ellie turned the wick on the lamp low. “I would never ask questions,” she told Sophie. “I know there are some things that can’t be shared. But if you ever need a friend or someone to talk to, I want you to remember I’m here.”
Had Ellie somehow seen right through her? Sophie’s throat tightened, adding to her discomfort. Her eyes had done nothing but burn and streak tears since she’d escaped that jailhouse. The high level of tension from the evening had obviously weakened her defenses. She wasn’t an emotional person. She was stronger than this. “Thank you.”
The woman wished her a good night and closed the door on her way out. Silence wrapped around Sophie. She imagined the handsome doctor and his pretty wife in their bedroom with their baby lying between them. They were kind and compassionate, unfamiliar qualities where she’d come from. Their generosity unsettled her thinking, shook her world. Were they normal? Was this what other people were like? She compared them to Amanda and Emma and the families they’d spoken of.
How many good people like these had been victims of Sophie’s deceit in the past? She couldn’t bear to think of it.
She glanced at the window, where the parted curtain revealed a slim portion of night sky. Newton was filled with dozens of neighborhoods and rows of houses just like this one—well, not all quite as nice, but similar homes where families dwelled.
Sophie squeezed her eyes shut and remembered a time many years ago, a time before her father had sold their home and bought a covered wagon, a time when she’d had older brothers—when her mother had tucked her in at night. The long forgotten memory of a rose-papered room and a small simple bed wavered at the edge of her mind. With that memory drifted the scent of lilacs on a summer night. Her mother’s perfume or fragrant bushes outside the window? She struggled to make the elusive memory clear, but it wavered and vanished.
All that was good and safe had changed along the westward trail when a Sioux war party had attacked their wagon train, and killed her father and her brothers. She and her mother had been taken captive. The chief had taken Sophie, adopted her and treated her well. Her mother had been given to a brave and had conformed to her life as a captive. She had advised Sophie to do the same. “You’re a brave girl, Sophie,” her mother had whispered. “Do whatever you must to stay alive.” Sophie had been following that advice all the years since.
They’d been in the Sioux camp five winters when her mother caught the typhus and died. In mourning her mother’s death, pain over the loss of her father and brothers surfaced, pain she’d avoided facing before. Acute loneliness had become her constant companion. To comfort her, the old chief had given Sophie her mother’s possessions, among them her mother’s gold wedding ring. Tek Garrett had taken the ring for safekeeping, that loss becoming the one regret she had in running away from him. She hadn’t dared tried to find it and suspected he kept it on him.
Sophie barely remembered family, scarcely remembered feeling loved. Her memories were distorted by time and anger. Getting up, she padded to the open window, drew aside the gingham curtain and peered into the night. The doctor’s house was one of the tallest in the neighborhood and afforded an expansive view of the neighboring rooftops.
The sky to the north was still hazy with smoke. Had the marshal bought her story? How crazy would it make him, wondering how that prisoner had been freed? The keys still hung in the lock, and the iron doors would be standing there when the marshals looked the place over tomorrow.
Damned sloppy job of making herself invisible.
Chapter Four
The next morning Ellie brought Sophie a pitcher of water and clothing. “You’re taller than I am, so I looked for the longest skirt I could find. Fortunately you’ll only be wearing it until you get to your dormitory.”
“It’s fine, thank you. Can I help you with anything this morning?”
“Just come down to breakfast. Everything will be ready in a few minutes.”
A short time later, dressed in Ellie’s fresh-smelling clothing and with her hair braided over one shoulder, Sophie found her way to the kitchen by listening to the chatter and following her nose.
The chairs around the table were nearly filled, and Ellie was carrying full plates from the stove. The enticing smells of sausage and coffee made her stomach rumble.
Ellie greeted her with a wide smile. “There you are.”
“Good morning, Miss Hollis,” the doctor said, standing.
The young men followed his lead and stood until she was seated.
Ellie rested her hand on a tall slender young man’s shoulder. “Sophie, this is my brother Benjamin.”
“How do, miss.” He was probably about seventeen, tall with bright blue eyes and fair hair.
“Benjamin.”
“And my youngest brother, Flynn,” Ellie added.
Flynn was dark complected, with brown eyes and a bashful, dimpled smile. “I’m having a birthday soon. I’m gonna be eleven!”
“Well, happy birthday,” Sophie told him.
“This little man is Nate.” The toddler hid a bashful smile in Ellie’s white apron. “And that’s David.”
The baby Ellie had carried from the room the night before was awake and sitting in a wooden high chair. He paused in drawing one stubby finger through a puddle of oatmeal on the scarred tray to give her a toothless smile.
“You have a lovely family.”
The doctor and his wife shared a smile.
Ellie handed her husband a plate of eggs; he helped himself to a couple and passed it. “After school Benjamin works with my husband. He’s going to go to medical school.”
“That’s an admirable goal,” Sophie told him.
“I been thinkin’, Ellie,” Benjamin said.
“What about?” She set a stack of pancakes on the table and Flynn immediately stabbed two.
“Guests first, little brother,” she scolded him.
“Oh. Sorry.”
“I been thinkin’ about studying to be a veterinarian,” Benjamin went on. “Instead of medical school.”
His sister paused with a tray of sausage.
“It’s an animal doctor.”
Ellie smiled and handed him the tray. “I know what a veterinarian is, Ben. I think you’ll be good at whatever you set your mind to.” She touched his hair in a loving gesture, and his lean cheeks tinged pink.
He leaned away. “C’mon, Ellie.”
“I’m sure Miss Hollis isn’t shocked. She probably has brothers and sisters of her own. Don’t you, Miss Hollis?”
Sophie set down the fork she’d picked up, keeping her expression placid. “Of course I do. I have a whole family back in Pennsylvania.”
“What’s in Pennsylvania?” Flynn asked.
“Boys a lot like you,” she replied with a practiced smile.
The rasp of a cranked doorbell sounded.
“I’ll get it!” Flynn shouted and jumped up to run for the front hall.
He returned moments later with Marshal Connor.
Clay toyed with the brim of the hat h
e held. “Mornin’.”
“Good morning, Marshal.” Ellie rose to grab a cup. “Join us for breakfast.”
“Oh, no thank you, ma’am. Just came for Miss Hollis.”
The impact of those particular words zigzagged an alarm inside Sophie’s skull. He’d come for her? Had he learned something? Sophie studied the lawman standing in the Chaneys’ kitchen. One moment she’d been swept into the family atmosphere and the next, familiar tension crept into her muscles.
“She’s having her breakfast,” Ellie said easily. “Have you already eaten?”
He glanced at the table, his attention clearly on the food now. Sophie relaxed a degree. He’d come to escort her to the Arcade, not to jail.
The doctor got up and scooted Flynn’s chair and the baby to make more room, then reached for Clay’s hat. “Make yourself comfortable.”
“Looks good,” he agreed and took a seat.
Ellie fried a few more eggs and poured him coffee.
“All the men are accounted for,” he told them.
“That’s good news,” Caleb said.
“That it is.” The marshal took a sip of his coffee. “But it sure leaves me wonderin’ how that prisoner got away. Keys were left in the cell door.”
“Do you have any idea how the fire started?” Ellie asked.
“No, ma’am. If the man had an accomplice, it would make sense that someone broke in and let him out. Someone might’ve started a fire thinkin’ there was a marshal inside and that the fire would distract him. But anyone halfway smart would’ve watched the jail and known where all my men were. Still, can’t quite picture DeWeise with a partner though. He didn’t seem the type. Just a freeloader, travelin’ from one place to the next.”
Sophie had never heard him string so many words together all at once. “Is it common practice to leave the jail unattended when there’s a prisoner locked inside?” she asked.
Marshal Connor appeared uncomfortable at her question. He used his napkin. “No, miss. That’s a mistake I take the blame for.”
“You had no way of knowing what would happen,” Ellie assured him.
“Makes no difference,” he replied. “A lawman has to be prepared.”
The Lawman's Bride (Harlequin Historical Series) Page 4