Wolf Creek Wife

by Penny Richards

  “Stop that!” she cried.

  He looked up at her, a piece of paper hanging from the corner of his mouth. Blythe watched in amazement as, with an unconcerned flick of his tongue, he slurped it into that massive cavern. He chewed a couple of times and swallowed. Licking his chops one final time, he gazed at her, obviously wanting more.

  “That’s all,” she told him, grateful that he no longer looked as if he’d like to have her for dinner. There was plenty of water in the creek, so she’d done all she could for the moment. With a sigh, she gathered the dish towel from the ground and headed back to the buggy. The dog watched as she untied the rig, climbed in and backed it up. Then he picked up the bone in his mouth and began to trot alongside.

  She halted the horse. “Git!” she yelled, waving her hand at the dog. “Go on! Go back!”

  He just stared at her. She clucked to the horse and off she went. The mutt followed. She increased her speed. He stayed beside her, loping along as if the pace were nothing. Surely he’d get tired and turn back, she thought.

  She stopped and tried again to make him go away, but he only dropped the bone, sat down and looked at her with his tongue hanging out, panting. Blythe took off at an even faster clip, bouncing over ruts and holes, certain that the next time she looked the big black hound would be nowhere in sight.

  She was wrong. Every time. Since she had no idea how to make him go home, he was still behind her when she rolled into the carriage house. He followed her through the wide doors, dropped his bone and sat down on a pile of straw, watching her warily.

  “What’s that?” Joel asked, casting a wary glance at the dog as he helped Blythe down.

  “The biggest dog I’ve ever seen,” she told him.

  “Me, too. Where’d it come from?”

  “It’s Mr. Slade’s dog. I took some scraps out to him, and he followed me home. I didn’t know how to get rid of him.” Wearily, she turned and started toward the house.

  “What am I supposed to do with him?” Joel asked.

  She faced the hired hand and held out her hands, palms up. “I’m open to suggestions.”

  Joel shrugged and shook his head.

  Blythe mimicked the gesture. “I guess he’s here until his owner gets better or I figure out something else. Let him sleep out here. I’ll see to it he has something to eat every day. He’s huge, but he seems harmless. If he gives you any trouble, I’ll have Colt or Dan come over and see if they can do something with him.”

  “Okay,” Joel said, but he didn’t sound happy.

  Neither was Blythe.

  Chapter Four

  When Will opened his eyes, he felt much better, but when he lifted his hand to rub a palm over his whiskery cheek, he was as weak as a newborn kitten. He raised his head and looked around, then realized that he wasn’t in his own bed. A rush of panic swept through him and then bits and pieces of hazy memories started popping into his head.

  He’d been sick, sicker than he recalled being in a coon’s age. He had a vague recollection of going outside sometime around daylight, hoping the cold morning air would help cool the fever raging inside him. After that, everything was pretty much blank.

  There was a slight memory of having talked to Martha, but that was impossible. Martha was in St. Louis, living the good life with her new husband. Will glanced toward the window. It looked like the sun was almost overhead, so he’d guess it was somewhere around noon.

  “Will? Are you awake?”

  The soft, feminine voice came from the doorway. Dr. Rachel Gentry stood there. She was so close to delivering her baby that she looked ready to pop. Always a pretty woman, the pregnancy gave her a plump and healthy glow that seemed to radiate from within her.

  “More or less,” he told her in a raspy voice.

  “I thought I’d see if you were awake yet and if you feel up to eating something.”

  Just then his stomach rumbled and she smiled. “Maybe so.”

  “Good. Let me check you out first.” She crossed the room and picked up the stethoscope from atop the dresser. “How do you feel?”

  “Like I’ve been run over by a train,” he told her, pushing himself up on his elbows. The room took a little dip. He groaned and closed his eyes at the unaccustomed weakness. Good grief! He wasn’t going to pass out again, was he?

  Rachel had turned at the sound. “Don’t move too quickly,” she advised. “You’ve been very sick since you’ve been here. Your temperature has been up and down.” She took a thermometer out of a solution, shook it and held it out. He looked at her as if she were crazy. “Open. Under your tongue.”

  Reluctantly he did as she said. While they waited for his temperature to register, she listened to his chest, front and back. “You sound much clearer.” She let the stethoscope dangle around her neck, removed the thermometer and looked at it intently. Smiled. “Your temperature is almost normal, thank goodness.”

  After shaking the thermometer once more, she returned it to its solution. “It’s a good thing Blythe found you when she did or you might have died out there. As it is, you had a touch of pneumonia. It’s a good thing you’re so healthy normally.”

  Blythe. Granville. Will clenched his jaw. He supposed he should be grateful, and he supposed he was, but of all the people who might have stumbled across him, why did it have to be the rich city girl? Except for the time he’d come to her rescue at the train station, she’d always been cool and uppity whenever their paths crossed. Of course, if the gossip around town was true, she had a right to be skittish around men. More than most, he knew that being used by the opposite sex could leave a person a little wary.

  Something Rachel had said suddenly struck him. “What do you mean, ‘since I’ve been here’? Didn’t they bring me to town this morning?”

  Rachel laughed. “Hardly. That was day before yesterday. You’ve been out of your head with fever. I was pretty worried about you for a while, but it looks like you’re on the mend now. What sounds good to eat?”

  “What time is it?”

  She looked at the watch pinned to the front of the apron she wore. “Almost noon.”

  “How about a big hunk of beef?”

  Rachel laughed again. “How about some oatmeal and toast with lots of butter and brown sugar?”

  Will made a face of disgust. “How about we compromise? I’ll take the oatmeal if you add a couple of eggs on the side.”

  “Done. I’ll have it ready in a jiffy,” she told him, heading toward the door.

  When she was gone, he thought about what she’d told him. He’d been here two and a half days! Unbelievable! He could count on one hand how many times he’d been sick in his whole lifetime, and he’d never been so bad that he was out like a light for this long.

  As silly as he knew it was, knowing that he’d succumbed to that kind of helplessness made him feel less a man. A woman had had to help him to the house, for goodness’ sake. How had Blythe Granville managed that? She was a little, bitty woman.

  To make matters worse, she was big-shot Winston Granville’s sister. The Boston businessman-turned-banker had been a thorn in Will’s side for a long while now. He had to admit that he was tempted from time to time to take Granville up on his offer, but stubborn pride wouldn’t allow him to give up. Slades had never been quitters. Besides, all he knew was lumbering, and he had no idea what he’d do with himself if he sold out. So he hung on, sometimes by the skin of his teeth.

  With his thoughts all a-muddle, he must have slipped into a light sleep. The next thing he knew, Rachel was back with his food. Her father, Edward Stone, was with her. He must be having a good day, Will thought, since Stone was using only his canes. A victim of a stroke several years before, he was left with some weakness in his legs and was sometimes forced to use a wheelchair.

  “How are you feeling, young man?” he a
sked now as he followed his daughter into the room.

  “I think I’m going to make it,” Will said in a hoarse voice.

  “Well, I’m glad to hear it.”

  Rachel set the tray on the dresser and she and her father helped Will into a sitting position. Once he was settled with the tray across his lap, he reached for the mug of coffee and took a big swallow, disregarding its hotness. “That’s the best thing I’ve had in ages.”

  “You’re just hungry,” Rachel said. “Dig in.”

  Will did just that, giving equal time to the sweet oatmeal and the savory eggs while carrying on a conversation with the two doctors about what had been done for him while he was sick.

  “What about Banjo?” Will asked, worried about his dog. “Has anyone been taking care of him?”

  “I understand Blythe went out to feed him Sunday afternoon and he followed her back to town,” Rachel told him.

  Will’s fork clattered to his stoneware plate. Not only had she helped him, she’d taken it upon herself to see that his dog was cared for.

  “He followed her to town?” he asked. “That’s not like him. He doesn’t care much for strangers.” The big, black hound wasn’t mean, but he was protective, and most people were more than a little frightened of him.

  “Well, it seems he took to Blythe. Maybe he just wanted some companionship,” Edward suggested.

  “Where’s he staying? Is he just roaming around town?”

  “Simmer down, Will,” Rachel said. “He’s fine. He’s staying in the Granvilles’ carriage house, and I’m sure Blythe is seeing that he’s well fed.”

  Miss Granville didn’t seem like the kind of woman who would take to any kind of dog, unless it was some yapping little mutt with a finicky appetite that wanted to do nothing but sleep in its mistress’s lap. Pound for pound, Banjo was as big as she was—maybe bigger. It looked like he owed her for more than rescuing him from possible death.

  “All in all, I’d say you owe that little lady a big ‘thank you,’ especially under the circumstances,” Edward said, echoing Will’s thoughts.

  Will frowned at the older man. “What circumstances?”

  “Why, all the gossip that’s been flying around town about the two of you spending the night alone together at your place.”

  The sudden wave of nausea that washed over him had nothing to do with his food or his illness. It had everything to do with the memory of a group of men bursting into his house, finding him and Blythe together, and the preacher saying that Will should make an honest woman of her. As if there was anything on earth that could persuade him to do that. He’d had enough of women and their demands to last him a lifetime.

  “Except for going to school to teach, she’s just about become a recluse, and she was pretty close to that already, thanks to that mess in Boston.”

  “I heard she ran off with some fellow who took all her money.”

  “Actually, they eloped,” Rachel said, a hint of steel in her usually soft voice at the implication that Will was making light of her sister-in-law’s difficulties. “And it isn’t as if she just met someone on the street and ran off. Devon Carmichael had insinuated himself into Boston society quite nicely. Everyone took him at face value and assumed he was everything he represented himself to be.”

  Will felt properly chastised. From his own experience with Martha, he knew that some people were good at pretending to be something they weren’t. In fairness, he couldn’t fault Miss Granville for believing some man’s lies.

  “I’m sorry if my choice of words implied otherwise,” Will told her. “That’s just what I’d heard.”

  “Well, the truth is that she loved him enough to elope. Then, as if she wouldn’t have had a hard enough time with that scandal, he cleaned out her bank account and left town within a day of their return to Boston.”

  “And if that weren’t bad enough, she discovered he was already married,” Edward added.

  Though the Wolf Creek grapevine was pretty accurate, that detail had escaped Will’s ears.

  “I’m thankful she found and helped you, Will, but the poor thing is paying the price for her good deed.”

  Though he’d weathered his own scandal and personal humiliation when Martha ran off with the big shot from Springfield, Will found it hard to believe that things were as bad for Blythe as Rachel and her father were painting them to be. Martha had left him for another man; Blythe Granville had helped someone in need, a sick man. There was no comparison in their actions.

  “I’ll be sure and thank her properly when I’m up and about,” he told them, trying his best to think of some way to make things right.

  “That’s all well and good, Will,” Rachel said, “but I don’t think an apology is what the town has in mind for fixing things.”

  “C’mon, Rachel. There shouldn’t even be anything to ‘fix.’ I was unconscious. I didn’t even know she was there until the rescue party barged through the front door.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you,” she said with a sigh of frustration. “All I know is that I hate to see history repeat itself here.”

  “This, too, will pass,” Will said, quoting one of his mother’s favorite sayings.

  The corners of Rachel’s lips lifted in a sad smile. “I suppose you’re right, but what kind of damage will be left behind when it does?”

  Chapter Five

  Blythe bade the last of her students goodbye and went to the desk to gather her lunch pail and shawl, thankful that the day was over and she wouldn’t have to face the never-ending string of mothers who came to chastise and condemn her. The past two days had been interminable. She wasn’t sure how she could make it through the rest of the week, much less the remainder of the school year.

  The mother who’d shown up during the lunch recess had been particularly hostile as she’d read Blythe the riot act for behaving in a manner unfit for someone whose job it was to shape young minds and lives. Blythe had listened to the tirade in stony silence. In fact, she feared she’d blanked out during most of the bitter lecture. After two days of it, she could almost recite the familiar refrains by rote.

  When the mother had finished her ranting, Blythe had assured the woman that nothing untoward had happened between her and William Slade, but the harpy had not been impressed with the explanation and stormed away, saying that she intended to talk to the mayor about finding a replacement.

  As Blythe watched the portly matron stomp across the greening grass in front of the schoolhouse, she was thinking that the woman would have to stand in line. No doubt Homer was inundated with mothers with similar requests.

  Once she got home, she shared a cup of coffee and a slice of pound cake with her mother and then went to change into her everyday clothes. As had become routine, she made her way outside to feed the dog that had taken up residence in the carriage house.

  If his tail wagging was any indication, he was always happy to see her. She had no idea what Will Slade would say about the dog following her home. Truth to tell, she hadn’t been too happy at first, but she had to admit that it was nice not having to make the trip to the country every day to tend to his mutt.

  When the dog was fed and watered, she decided to walk to Rachel’s and check on the patient, even though she was feeling a bit headachy and dizzy herself. She prayed she wasn’t taking whatever it was that the cantankerous Mr. Slade had.

  According to the Wolf Creek grapevine, he was better. Or worse. She’d even heard that he had pneumonia. She didn’t want to start any new conversations about him with her family, so she’d refrained from asking her mother or brother if they’d heard how he was faring. Checking on his progress seemed the decent thing to do, so here she was.

  The door to the surgery opened to reveal Danny, her half brother Gabe and Rachel’s son. His freckled face broke into a smile when he saw he
r standing there. “Hello, Aunt Blythe. What are you doing here?”

  She leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. “Hello, Danny. I came to see how Mr. Slade is doing.”

  “Mama says he’s a lot better,” Danny told her. “You can go in and see him if you want.”

  Go in and see him? Though she might have decided to see if he was feeling better, that did not include facing Will and his blatant animosity face-to-face. “Oh, no! I don’t want to intrude. I’d just like to speak to your mother.”

  “Sure thing. I’ll go fetch her.”

  Danny took off down the hall in a dead run, leaving Blythe standing by the door, twisting her gloves in her hands.

  “How’s Banjo?”

  The sound of the deep, raspy voice startled her so badly she gave a little gasp. Obviously, Will was awake and had heard her talking to Danny. Despite telling herself she shouldn’t, Blythe found her footsteps headed toward the room where the question originated.

  Almost fearfully, she peeked around the corner.

  “For cryin’ out loud,” he said in a grumpy voice. “Come on in. I don’t bite.”

  Could have fooled me, Blythe thought, taking slow, tentative steps and stopping a few feet inside the doorway. Will lay propped up on some pillows, wearing his usual scowl and several days’ growth of beard. If she thought his appearance disreputable before, he looked ten times worse now. Scruffy. Tough. Dangerous. And, she thought grudgingly and not for the first time, he was also very handsome, despite his unkempt appearance.

  His dark gaze was locked on her face, making her squirm. Searching her mind for some safe topic, she said the first words that came to mind, “I’m sorry. I have no idea how your banjo is.”

  “What?” Will frowned and the expression in his eyes said without words he thought she had a few loose marbles rolling around inside her noggin.

  She gave a slight shrug. “You asked how your banjo was. I’m afraid I have no idea how I’m supposed to know that.”