The Listening Sky

by Dorothy Garlock

  “Women like to gossip.”

  “Bill’s not used to sharin’ his kitchen. He’s not too happy nowadays.”

  “Can’t say as I blame him. We’ll get her out and in her own place today.”

  Both men knew they were dancing around the subject that was on their minds. Before they stepped up onto the porch of T.C.’s house they stopped.

  “Did you hear anything?”

  “Nothin’. I went early, mingled with the men. Her name wasn’t mentioned or even hinted at.”

  “Did Tennihill come in?”

  “Didn’t see him.”

  “Did you tell Bill?”

  “Didn’t get a chance, but I will. He sees and hears a lot we don’t. How’s Jane?”

  “She’s worn out, but she came out of the shock. She was sleeping when I left. I’m going to marry her today.”

  The statement was dropped matter-of-factly into the conversation, and Colin’s face reflected his surprise. He said nothing for several minutes.

  “What does she say to that?”

  “I haven’t told her.”

  “Shhhh… eee—” Colin whistled softly between his teeth. “A decision like that ain’t to be made lightly, T.C. Are ya sure she’s up to it?”

  “That’s why I’m doing it today, this morning. I don’t want to give her a chance to think about it. One way to help keep her safe in this town is to be with me, in my bed at night, by my side during the day.”

  “Rather a drastic way to keep her safe. We could get her out of here in the middle of the night, put her on a train and send her back east. It’d take a Pinkerton man to find her.”

  “I want her to be my wife, Colin. She wants it too but there’s something in her past that’s scaring the hell out of her.”

  “You might not like what you find out about her.”

  “I know she’s a good, sweet woman—”

  “She could already be married.”

  “The solicitor would have told me. He said she’d lived all her life at that orphans’ school.”

  “Why don’t you come right out and admit that you fell tail over teakettle for her.”

  “I love her.” As he spoke, T.C. looked his friend straight in the eye.

  Colin clapped him on the shoulder.

  “This may surprise you, but I understand completely.”

  T.C. laughed in relief, then said, “Sunday?”

  “She’s a corker! She’d keep a man on his toes.”

  “Here comes-that corker.” T.C. looked past Colin and saw Sunday walking toward them.

  “How’s Jane?” she asked, without offering either man a greeting when she reached them.

  “As of an hour ago she was sleeping.”

  Sunday plucked a bear claw off the plate T.C. was holding and bit into it.

  “Still hot! Let’s go have some decent coffee. That stuff at the rooming house is weak as baby pee.” Her sparkling eyes caught Colin’s. “Well… not that weak. Still, it’s pretty damn weak,” she concluded with a burst of laughter.

  T.C. shot a look at Colin before he followed them into the house. He was grinning like an idiot.

  Shortly after T.C. left the room, Jane awoke. Although her head felt as if a thousand drums were beating inside it, she was fully alert. She pressed her fingertips to her scalp and felt the lump and the broken skin. It was terribly sore to the touch. Her hair was spread out, tangled, and she could smell vinegar. Vinegar was almost as good an antiseptic on a cut as alcohol.

  She lay quietly. Memories of Sunday bathing her in the tub and of being carried to this bed came back to her. For the first time she had slept in a man’s arms. Not just any man’s arms. T.C. Kilkenny’s arms. She had felt warm and safe stretched out next to him, being sheltered, cosseted. Sometime during the night she had been aware of his heart beating beneath her cheek, and his lips on her forehead. Never had she had anyone hold her so lovingly. It was like a heavenly dream after being pulled up from the fires of hell.

  What had she said to him during the time when all she wanted was to be held close in his warm embrace? Nothing had happened between them. She was sure. She would have remembered that. He had said that he would take care of her, that nothing would hurt her ever again. But what had she said? She closed her eyes and tried to remember, but nothing came to mind.

  Jane began to panic. She couldn’t be here in his bed when he came back. She scooted to the side, eased her way up, and put her feet on the cold floor. Her head throbbed viciously, and she waited for the dizziness to pass. When it did, she looked closely at the scratches on her hands.

  The terror of being alone in the dark outhouse with the only air she could draw into her lungs fouled with the stench of excrement came roaring back. She put her hand to her mouth to stifle a sob.

  “Stop it!” she whispered aloud to herself. “Get a hold on yourself. Hold up your head. You swore you’d never cower in a corner again. But, oh… it’s so hard.”

  Jane stood and held onto the end of the bed until her head stopped swimming before she attempted to walk to the door. When she did, she opened it a crack and looked down the hall toward the kitchen. She had to risk passing the door to get to the stairway. Walking silently on her bare feet and as quickly as her aching head would permit, Jane went down the hall and up the stairs to the room she shared with Polly.

  Had Jane looked into the kitchen she would have seen Maude look up when she finished pouring coffee for Herb. Maude set the coffeepot back on the stove and returned to the table.

  “She went upstairs.”

  Polly moved her chair back and stood. “I’ll go up.”

  “I think we should leave her be.” Maude said kindly, and looked to Herb to back her words. He was already tugging on Polly’s hand to urge her back down on the chair.

  “Wait a bit, Pol. She can’t leave without comin’ back down stairs.”

  “I just never seen nothin’ so pitiful.” Maude clicked her tongue sadly and shook her head. “I swear I don’t know what I’d a done if that’d been done to me. I’d a lost my mind, most likely.”

  “It’s just so… nasty?” Polly pulled Herb’s hand over into her lap and held it between hers. “Hittin’ her was bad, but smearin’ her was… just awful.”

  “The person who did it is crazy mean, I’m thinkin’. And he’s holdin’ somethin’ against her.”

  “If they’d wanted to kill her outright, a couple more whacks on the head with that piece of stove wood would’a done it,” Herb said.

  At daylight Colin had found the club with several long dark red hairs stuck in the bark and had shown it to Herb. It had been left on the back porch.

  “Poor Jane. She’ll want to leave sure ‘nuff now. I was hopin’ she’d stay.”

  Polly hadn’t been told about the notes. Maude and Herb had agreed to that before she had come down for breakfast.

  “It’d just worry her more,” Herb had said. “Miss Jane said that she ain’t to be carryin’ a big load or worryin’ overly much now.”

  Maude had looked into the face of the serious young man. At times during the last few years when she had begun to think that life wasn’t worth living, she had almost forgotten that there were some good men left in the world.

  “You know?” Maude had asked.

  “I know she was sorely used. The man what done it won’t be livin’ two minutes after I set eyes on him.”

  Polly had come down then and Herb had-gone to the door to meet her.

  A little later, when T.C., Colin and Sunday came in, T.C. handed the plate of bear claws to Sunday and paused at his bedroom door until she and Colin entered the kitchen. He opened the door and stood there for a full minute looking at the rumpled empty bed. His heart gave an odd little lurch. He had expected to see that beautiful dark-red hair spread out over his pillow. He closed the door and walked quickly to the kitchen.

  “She’s upstairs,” Maude said as soon as their eyes met.

  “Did she say anything?”

  Maude s
hook her head. “Just hurried past the door and up the stains.”

  When T.C. spoke to Herb, who was already on his second bear claw, a smile of real affection broke over his face. He put a heavy hand on his shoulder.

  “Finish the plate, Herb. I got a job for you.”

  “He’ll finish that plate of bear claws over my dead body.” Sunday picked up a two-tine fork and held it over the plate.

  “Better watch her, Herb,” Colin cautioned and winked at T.C. “She’s mean.”

  “And she can shoot a jackrabbit in the eye riding full speed, blindfolded, and standin’ on her head,” Sunday added seriously.

  “Huh?” Herb looked puzzled.

  Colin laughed, his eyes holding Sunday’s.

  If T.C. had not had so much on his mind, he would have noticed the special awareness between his friend and Sunday. Maude noticed and turned away with a smile.

  “What you want me to do, T.C?” Herb got to his feet, wiped the sugar off his mouth with the back of his hand, then rubbed it on the seat of his pants.

  “Go to the hotel and get Preacher Davis. He’s in the first room on the left. Tell him to be here in fifteen minutes and to bring his Bible or whatever he uses when he marries folks.”

  Sunday recovered first. “Who’s gettin’ married?”

  “Me,” T.C. said, his eyes sweeping the group. “Me and Jane.”

  “Well, name of a cow!” Sunday exclaimed.

  “Get goin’, Herb.” T.C. followed Herb to the hall, saw him leave the house, then turned and went up the stairs.

  He was not nearly as confident as he pretended. His heart began to do crazy things—like racing, leaping and pounding. He had to act fast. If he gave Jane too much time to think she would reject the idea completely. He had already decided on a backup plan if one was necessary—that she had spent the night in his bed and that she was duty-bound to marry him.

  The door was shut when he reached it. He rapped softly, waited a moment, then opened it to find Jane standing beside the window, her back to him. She was dressed in the blue dress she had worn the first time he had seen her. Her hair was coiled loosely at the nape of her neck. She looked so lonely, so forlorn, so small, so unprotected.

  “It’s me, Jane.” T.C. stood looking at her for a moment before he went to stand close behind her. He put his hands on her upper arms and pulled her back against him. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “How about some breakfast?”

  “No… not yet.”

  “Only Sunday and Colin are here besides Maude and, of course, Herb and Polly.”

  “In a little while.”

  He turned her to face him and looked searchingly at her face. The scratches stood out boldly on her white skin. He had to tamp down his anger at the unknown person who had done this to her, lest she be frightened by it.

  “Honey, word of what happened here last night will never leave this house. No one but those of us that were here knows about it. I take that back,” he said quickly. “I called in Tennihill to help when we couldn’t find you. But you needn’t worry about him.”

  “I know and you know,” she said slowly.

  “I know what happened, but not why. And I’m mad as hell! I’m like my Irish pa. When someone does something to my loved one, it’ll go worse for them than if it were done to me.”

  She looked steadily into his eyes without the slightest change in her expression. How close he had come to the basis of her troubles.

  “Then you can see why I must leave?”

  “I can’t see. I read the notes, Jane. All of them. Someone wants you here to torment you. If you leave now, you’ll be dogged by that person for the rest of your life. You must stay here, with me, as my wife. Together we’ll find out who is doing this to you.”

  She looked at him in total silence. Then tears began to trickle down her cheeks. She stood with her head up, her hands at her sides, and made no attempt to wipe them away.

  “Honey, don’t cry.” His hands moved behind her back and pressed her to him.

  “I thank you for the offer.” Jane pulled back until she no longer was touching him. “I couldn’t possibly accept.”

  “Why not? It’s the perfect solution—”

  “I’d ruin your life.”

  “It will be ruined if you don’t many me, sweetheart. For the first time in my life I love a woman. You.”

  “You owe me nothing.”

  “I want to be with you. We would make a good team.”

  “Like horses?”

  “No. Like a man and his mate. Pulling together. Sharing the good and the bad.”

  The pain behind her eyes caused her to close them for a long moment. When she opened them, his face was close, bending to hers. He placed a gentle kiss on her lips. The temptation to have someone share her troubles was too great. She leaned against him and felt once again his warm protecting arms around her. Her head pounded with pain. Her mind was awash with confusion. She was so tired.

  T.C. reached for something to wipe her eyes. Her nightdress hung over the end of the bedstead. He used it to mop the tears from her face.

  “Come on, honey. Let’s go downstairs.”

  She let him lead her from the room and down the stairs. Herb was waiting in the hall and nodded toward the office.

  “Get the others.”

  T.C. paused outside the office door and gently turned Jane toward him.

  “I love you, Jane. You believe that, don’t you?”

  “I… guess so.”

  T.C. opened the door and greeted Reverend Davis.

  “Sorry to call you out so early. Miss Love and I wish to be married. The reason for the haste is that she had an accident last night and is in pain.”

  The young minister looked at Jane’s scratched and obviously tear-stained face.

  “I’m sorry to hear… it. Perhaps you should postpone the—” He stopped speaking when the others, including Stella, filed into the room.

  “We want to be married today, Reverend. Please proceed.”

  “Miss Love?”

  She nodded wordlessly, and the minister opened his Bible.

  “Make it short. Jane needs to lie down.” T.C. put his arm around Jane when the preacher moved to stand in front of them.

  “Join hands, please.”

  The ceremony was indeed short.

  Jane mumbled an answer to the minister’s questions.

  T.C.’s answer was firm.

  Her new husband kissed her gently on the lips and then led her to the table, where she was handed the pen to sign her name to the wedding paper.

  She looked up at him with tired, dull eyes. It had not yet registered with her that she had just made a lifetime commitment to this man.

  Chapter 19

  AFTER the ceremony Jane suffered the hugs from the women, the handshakes from the men, and the kiss on the cheek from T.C. She went along with the women back to the kitchen and sat down at the table. Maude poured her a cup of coffee. She felt as if she were out of her body, above, and looking down on what was going on. None of it was real. None of it was happening to her.

  “I wish we had a doctor to look at that bump on her head.” Maude was talking about her but not to her. Jane moved her tired eyes to Maude and noted the worried look on her face.

  “It’s all right.”

  “Do you want to go lie down, Jane?” Sunday asked.

  “Oh, no. I’ve got too much to do.”

  “Like what?”

  “Well, I’ve… got to clean and do the washing—”

  “Oh, Lord.” Maude turned away and put the back of her hand to her mouth.

  “That’ll get done. Come lie down.”

  Jane rose obediently from the chair. Sunday led her down the hall to T.C.’s room. Once inside, she closed the door.

  “Take off yore dress. Yo’re not wearin’ a corset are ya? Jane shook her head carefully. She removed her dress and sat down on the side of the bed in her shift. Sunday took o
ff her shoes.

  “I’m… awfully tired.”

  “Just lie down. I’ll put this cover over ya. Nobody will bother you and you can sleep.”

  When Sunday left the room she went back to the kitchen.

  “She’s sleepin’. She’s just wore out.”

  “I wonder if she knows what she did,” Maude said.

  “She answered when the peacher asked her. I think she knows, but it hasn’t sunk in yet.”

  “Where?” T.C. appeared in the doorway and spoke the one word.

  “She went back to bed. She’s not herself,” Sunday said.

  “I know that. Could the blow on her head have cracked her skull?”

  “It bled a lot, but it wasn’t that bad,” Sunday said slowly. “She’s worried herself sick is what she’s done. Tryin’ to go on like nothin’ was wrong and then bein’ shut up in the privy and that other—Her mind’s just kinda shut down.”

  “Mr. Kilkenny, do you think she knows what she just did?” Maude asked hesitantly.

  “Marrying me? She knows. I admit I hurried her into it, but I’ll not take advantage of her. When she really becomes my wife, I promise you she’ll know exactly what she’s doing.”

  “I didn’t mean—”

  “I understand what you mean, and I thank you for your concern for my wife.” T.C. felt good saying the word for the first time. “I wanted her before this happened and I said my vows sincerely. She’ll be loved and respected. Whoever did this thing to her will answer to me.”

  “It’s just a shame she can’t enjoy her wedding day.”

  “I hope to make it up to her someday.”

  “Stella and I think a heap of her—”

  “So do I.” T.C.’s voice was firm. “I want everyone in town to know that we’re married. The sooner the better. It’ll either ferret out the one who hurt her, or they’ll back off. Can you see to that, Sunday?”

  “I always did like spreadin’ good news.”

  The news that T.C. Kilkenny had married Jane Love was all over town by mid-morning, exactly as T.C. wanted. If whoever had attacked Jane was in town, that person knew now that it would mean dealing with him if anything further happened to her.

  Paralee Jenkins, Bessie Miller and Minnie Perkins were the only women left in the henhouse. Patrice Guzman Cabeza had moved into the best room at the hotel a few days earlier: Grace Schwab and Bertha Phillips had gone to share a mom at the rooming house.