The Cripple’s Bride

by Elliee Atkinson

  “Does she?”

  Carrie nodded. “And you look back at her the same way.”

  Daryl suddenly felt warm inside. He smiled at Carrie. He pushed himself over to the very back of the couch, ignoring the pain that seared through his leg. He patted the cushion that was opened up and Carrie sat down, looking down at him with a pretty smile.

  “I’m glad you’re here, Mr. Parker. You’re nice.”

  “I’m glad to be here, Carrie and I’m glad I met you.” He poked her in the stomach and she giggled.

  “Don’t get her started on that,” Alice said, looking over at them with a weak smile. “If you start tickling her, she will laugh until her sides hurt. And she may get rambunctious, which you don’t want when she’s sitting that close to your leg.”

  “I will be cautious, ma’am,” Daryl replied. He looked up at Carrie. “No horseplay, Carrie. I’m hurt, ya know.”

  The young girl nodded. “I know, Mr. Parker. I won’t hurt you. I’ll try real hard not to, anyway.”

  “Maybe you should go sit by your mother,” Adam said.

  Daryl looked at the hurt look on Carrie’s face and felt the need to step in. “She won’t hurt me, Adam. I’d… I’d like it if you let her sit with me. We were having a fantastic conversation about frogs and frog-hunting. I hope I will have your permission when I get back on my feet to take her sometime.” He looked at Carrie. “She will know the best spots by then.”

  Carrie giggled. “Oh, please let me, Pa. It would be so much fun.”

  Adam shrugged, looking at Alice. “I don’t see why not. Of course you can go.”

  Carrie bounced a little on the couch, clapping her hands together. “Oh, I can’t wait.”

  Daryl grimaced from the pain that shot through his leg each time Carrie bounced. She noticed and stopped, suddenly turning solemn. She put her arms around Daryl’s neck and leaned down to rest her head on his chest. “I’m sorry, Mr. Parker. I’ve hurt you already.”

  Daryl comfortingly ran his hand over the girl’s long hair. “Don’t worry, Carrie. It’s not that bad. I can’t wait to go frog-hunting with you, too.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  A HIDDEN WOUND

  A HIDDEN WOUND

  Daryl went to sleep that night comfortable and happy. When he closed his eyes, he saw the people that had made his night so nice, their voices chatting with each other, and Carrie’s warm presence. She reminded him of Johnny. Thinking of Johnny made Daryl think about Esther. He hoped she was doing all right. He’d left instructions with Heath to send him a message if anything went wrong with Esther.

  He didn’t think about the fact that he wouldn’t have gotten a message because it would have gone to his sister’s. He closed his eyes, murmuring a soft prayer aloud. A prayer he didn’t finish as sleep overtook him.

  Daryl’s eyes popped open. He stared up at the ceiling for half a second before realizing what it was that had woken him up. His body was on fire. It felt like the bed was wet. He tried to turn over and the movement made more pain shoot through his leg. He cried out and then stifled it, not wanting to wake Rachel. He pushed himself up on his left elbow, using his right arm to reach around and feel his back. It was wet.

  He pushed himself away from the wet spot and frantically felt on the side table for a lantern. His fingers fumbled and he dropped the tinder box. Frustrated, he tried to reach down to the floor and retrieve it, even though it was too dark to see anything.

  Giving up, and with shooting pains slicing through him, he called out to Rachel. He fought his humiliation and called out again.

  He heard movement in her room and knew she was coming. He thanked God, as he didn’t want to keep calling her like a child calling for his mother in the middle of the night.

  A few moments later, Rachel appeared at the doorway with a lit lantern in her hand. He looked at her. She looked back at him. Her eyes moved to the spot on the bed and she almost dropped the lantern.

  Her hand flew to her mouth and she hurried to stand beside the bed. She set the lantern down and leaned over, looking at his back.

  “Didn’t this hurt?” she asked in a terribly concerned voice. Before he could answer, she was a blur of motion, pulling open the drawer and removing cloths from it, pouring fresh water from the pitcher into the basin.

  “What is it, Rachel?” he asked in a frightened voice. “What does it look like?”

  She shook her head. “It looks like you got shot. My guess is that something small and round punctured you. It might still be in there. I’m gonna clean it up and see. If something is in there, I have to go get the doctor. I can’t take it out. I don’t have the equipment to do it.”

  She reached up and pressed her fingers against his forehead. “Oh, Lord, you are burning up. We are going to have to do something quick, Daryl. Here.” She took a long, narrow piece of wood from the drawer and handed it to him. “Put this in your mouth. It’s going to hurt when I touch you. I’m sorry, Daryl. I don’t know how you didn’t feel this before. It’s just been sitting here untouched all this time.” She shook her head. He could hear tears in her voice and knew it was bad.

  He put the wood in his mouth and bit down on it, gripping the side of the mattress. When she touched him, it sent flames of pain through his entire body and he grunted hard. Each time she pressed the wet cloth against the wound, the pain would flood through him. He didn’t know how long he could take it.

  After what seemed like an eternity, she stopped touching him. He felt a warmth where the pain had been.

  “I’m putting some of this salve on here that I used for the other one. Is it helping?”

  This time, though it did feel warm, the pain remained. He nodded, nonetheless. “It’s helping. Thank you, Rachel.”

  “Can you lay back on it? Do I need to adjust your pillows so you won’t be laying on it like that?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I don’t think I can lay flat right now.” He felt her moving pillows around.

  “You can relax now.”

  When he let go of his grip, he settled back against the soft cushioning of many pillows. He sighed in relief. “Thank you.”

  “You are burning up, Daryl. I think the infection might be deeper than we thought. Dr. Campbell is the only one who knows what to do about this.”

  “Was there something left in my back? Did you see something?”

  “I didn’t exactly see anything, but… when I was cleaning it, I could feel something hard inside you. Not like a bone. And there should be no bone there anyway.”

  “What if I broke a rib? Could that be it?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think so. It’s too far down for that.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  Rachel sighed. “I’m going to go get the men. I wish I could fix you up and you wouldn’t have to wait. But I’ve done all I can and I think that’s going to need to come out. It can’t just sit in your body. It’s dirty and it could kill you.”

  “Let’s not talk about that, all right? I’ll be fine. You go get the doc.”

  “I don’t want to leave you, Daryl.” She stood and went around the bed so that she was facing him. She got on her knees and folded her hands around one of his. “I am so afraid to leave you here alone now.”

  He shook his head. “Don’t be a silly girl. You are too strong for that. I’ll be fine. You know I will.”

  She looked in his eyes and wanted to believe it. However, he was in bad shape. If they had known about the hidden wound sooner, she could have tended to it. The doctor could have tended to it when he was there. He had only tended the wounds they knew about, not thinking to check for more.

  A mistake on his part, thought Rachel. She was disappointed, in herself and the doctor. They should have seen it sooner.

  “I will go as quickly as I can,” she murmured.

  “You… you do that.” Daryl’s breath became labored, frightening Rachel.

  “Daryl? Daryl?”

  He opened his eyes and looked at h
er. “I’ll be all right. Go. Go quick. But be careful.”

  She nodded. She squeezed his hand and kissed his fingers before standing up and dashing from the room.

  She threw on a jacket and pulled on her boots as fast as she could. Before she left, she had the presence of mind to put a few more logs on the fire to keep the house warm.

  She ran from the house, her boots crunching as she went to the barn to get Prince. A few more minutes and she was racing down the road toward town. She wanted to go to Doc Brown’s, but he just wasn’t reliable anymore. She would have to make the long trip to the Campbells and the long trip back.

  As she passed through town, she noticed that the Horse N Saddle was still open. She wondered if she had time to get Sam. She shook her head, continuing past it, not knowing that her galloping horse had caught the attention of the patrons inside and that one of them called out, “Hey, Sam, your sister just went tearin’ down the street on her horse. Looks like somethin’s wrong!”

  She was proud of how fast Prince got her to the doctor’s house. She saw the sign hanging off the porch and felt instant relief. She jumped down and ran up the stairs, knocking frantically on the door.

  “Doc? Dr. Campbell? I need your help! Daryl needs your help!” She continued calling out, turning her head up so that her voice would carry to the second level and wake someone. She leaned to the side and looked in the window. She could see a light bobbing down the stairs and knew someone was coming. Again, she felt a wave of relief.

  She was practically jumping out of her skin when the door swung open and Dr. Campbell stood there, his hair disheveled, a look of worry on his face. He was in the process of buttoning his coat.

  “I am coming, Rachel. What’s happened?”

  “He has a wound on his back that we didn’t see before. It looks like something is stuck in there. I want to go get Sam in case we need him. Can you just get there as fast as you can? I think it’s infected. I used my salve, but I know something is in there and I don’t think it should stay in there.”

  The doctor shook his head. “No, it should not.”

  “He’s running a fever and he’s in a lot of pain. Please hurry, doctor.”

  “I will. You go fetch Sam. I might need his help.”

  Rachel turned and hurried down the steps, being careful not to slip on the icy snow under her feet. She pulled herself back up onto Prince, hearing the doctor’s voice calling back through his house.

  “Tom!” The doctor was calling his son. That meant he knew something serious was wrong. The thought scared Rachel.

  She’d only just found him. Why would God bring him into her life if He was only going to take him away in less than two weeks?

  She shook her head. It wasn’t going to happen. Daryl was going to live and they were going to be together. There was no doubt of it in her mind.

  Except for a little.

  She was back at the Horse N Saddle before Sam closed down for the night. She jumped down and ran to the door, throwing them open wide. “Sam! Sam!”

  “He’s not here, Miss Rachel,” Allan called from the bar. He was holding a towel and slung it over his shoulder as he moved quickly around the counter and came toward her. “Are you all right? He saw you racing down the street earlier… Well, Earl saw you and told him and he left right after that. I don’t know where he went, he didn’t tell me. He just said he had to do something and left. I assumed it had something to do with you. What’s wrong?”

  Rachel almost told Allan his uncle was in danger and he needed to go get his mother and father. However, she bit the words back at the last minute. She wanted to make sure Daryl wanted that.

  “I… I…” She couldn’t think of anything to say.

  He tilted his head, a confused look on his face. “Miss Rachel, are you all right? You are suddenly very red.”

  “I’m… not feeling well. I went to get the doctor. He is going to meet me at my house. When… if Sam returns tonight, please tell him to come to my house.”

  Allan nodded. “I’ll do that, Miss Rachel. But are you sure you want to go back there? Maybe you should stay in one of the rooms upstairs, just for an hour or so? To rest?”

  Rachel shook her head vigorously. “No. No, I must get back to my house right now. It’s… very important. Just tell him to come to my house.”

  “I will, miss. Don’t worry.”

  Rachel turned to go back out, but stopped and looked back at him. “How’s your mother doing, Allan?”

  He stared at her. “She’s doing good. Thank you for asking.”

  “She’s not worried about anything right now?”

  He blinked. “Not any more than usual, I don’t think.”

  Rachel nodded. “Okay.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  REMOVING THE OBJECT

  REMOVING THE OBJECT

  When Sam left the saloon, his first thought was to go get Adam.

  He really needs to run for sheriff, Sam thought as he saddled up one of his horses. He was tempted to go after Rachel, but he thought he knew what had happened. Daryl had probably taken a turn for the worse and she’d gone to get the doctor. His next thought was that if it was too bad, Rachel might need more around to help her. Adam already knew the situation and was the only one Sam knew would come to help.

  And if it was something different and Rachel was running for her life, Sam would need someone to keep him from killing Daryl Parker.

  He dismissed that idea quickly though. If Rachel was running for her life, the last thing she would have done was pass by the Horse N Saddle. She would have come to get him.

  All reasoning led him to the idea that Daryl was not doing well and she needed the doctor.

  He rode out to the Collins’ house, holding a lantern up in the air to light the way. As he rode, he thought about whether or not it was wise to wake Adam, with Alice being so fragile. She had put on a brave face the night before, but Sam got the distinct impression that the exertion exhausted her. She looked like she was thinner and paler than he’d ever seen her. She shouldn’t look thinner if she was pregnant.

  Sam decided he didn’t know anything about that and he should just butt out of the situation. Adam would come to him if he was worried. Until then, it was not his business.

  He still turned his horse around halfway there, though. He didn’t want to cause more of a burden on his friends. He would let them rest.

  As he rode back to the road that would take him to his sister’s house, he noticed a light bobbing in the distance. It wasn’t rare for people to be out in the streets of Wickenburg at that time of night. Some of the night life had not yet settled down. However, the situation he was in made him more aware of it.

  It approached quickly, meaning the horse and rider were galloping. He watched the light until suddenly it turned onto a road and disappeared behind a line of trees. Sam urged his horse to run faster and followed the other horse and rider. They dodged back and forth, swerving to the left and to the right, following the path. Sam didn’t try to catch up to the other rider. He was curious to know where the path would lead them. He didn’t recognize it.

  When they came to a clearing, he spotted a road on the other side. Just beyond the road was a small green and white cottage covered with vines and surrounded by plants and flowers that jutted out from the white snow. It was Rachel’s house.

  Sam reacted with surprise, pulling back on the reins for a moment and making his horse lift up on his back legs. Sam brought him back down on all fours, leaning forward to pat his neck and crooning, “Whoa, boy. Whoa.”

  The other rider didn’t stop. The horse dashed across the clearing, up the small ravine to the road and up to the house. When the rider jumped down from the horse, Sam knew it was his sister. He pushed his own horse to cross the clearing and go up to the cottage behind her.

  Daryl listened to the silence of the quiet house around him. If a mouse moved its whiskers, he would hear it. He wanted Rachel to come back. He wished she hadn’t had to leave.
It had been such a good night. How could he have missed something so bad? Why hadn’t it hurt enough to let him know it was there? And what in heaven’s name was it?

  He tried not to envision what it could be. What if it was alive, some living creature that was feeding off of him? He shuddered. It wasn’t that. He would surely have felt that.

  He wished he could fall asleep. It was the perfect time to get blind drunk and not think about anything at all anymore. He desperately wanted to go get a bottle of whiskey from the cabinet, but he knew if he moved, he would probably pass out from the pain.

  So he lay there, trying to think of anything except the fiery ache that had taken him over.

  Finally, he heard someone come through the front door.

  “Rachel!” he called out, wincing from the pain it caused.

  The door to his room was already open slightly. It was pushed open all the way and Dr. Campbell came in with a young man behind him. “Daryl, it’s Dr. Campbell. This is my son, Tom. He is in training to become a doctor and will be able to assist me. How much pain are you in?”

  “I feel like I’m dyin’, Doc,” Daryl responded in a tight voice. “I could use some whiskey or rum if ya got some.”

  The doctor looked at his son. “Go fetch a bottle from the kitchen. He’s going to need it so we can do this right.”

  “Yes, sir.” The young man disappeared through the door and was back in a flash.

  Daryl gratefully took the bottle, uncorked it and gulped down several swallows. The burning in his throat washed over the pain, dulling his senses. He took a deep breath. “Thank you, son.”

  “You’re welcome, sir. Just try to relax. We’re going to do everything we can for you.”