14
Will had only been back in his office ten minutes when he heard the running boots on the sidewalk that generally signaled he wasn’t about to enjoy peace and quiet anytime soon.
Ten minutes had been long enough to find the bed empty and realize he felt about the same. Empty and hurting and about as angry as he’d ever felt. Now he even gave a thought to going out the back door, getting on his horse and leaving it all behind—Gardiner, Eliza Jane and the ache in his chest there was no medicine for.
But then the door flew open and Tom Dunbarton was there, red-faced from exertion and excitement. “Doc, you best come. They need you out to the Thayer place. Seems Dandy started throwing around ideas she got from that women’s libber of yours. Roland got into the liquor and he took his fists to her.”
“How bad is she hurt?”
“I can’t rightly say. But they’re poor folk. Wouldn’t call for a doctor unless they needed one. And Dandy took after him with her rolling pin. Chased him right out into the street. He might be dead, Doc. And you better hurry, because the sheriff and that women’s libber are like to shoot each other iffen you don’t.”
Will’s blood turned icy and he almost dropped his bag. “What the hell do you mean by that?”
“Miss Carter, she’s got herself a shotgun. Says she ain’t gonna let the sheriff near Dandy. And the sheriff, he’s got his guns and he says there ain’t no way he’s going to let a crazy woman be what kills him. Damn, giddy up, Doc. We’re missing it!”
Will ran all the way down the main street and off to the right where the Thayer’s sorry excuse for a house stood. Where the hell had Eliza Jane gotten a shotgun? And he and Adam might have a good friendship, but he wasn’t going to let himself get shot just because his friend was partial to the woman holding the gun.
Tom hadn’t been exaggerating. Roland Thayer was sprawled in the dirt with a bloody head. Dandy Thayer stood on her front porch, holding a blood-smeared rolling pin. Eliza Jane stood in front of her, wielding the shotgun while Adam stood over Roland, guns drawn. He should have known better than to leave her alone.
“Doc may never forgive me if I have to shoot you, Eliza Jane Carter,” Adam was shouting. “But I ain’t lettin’ you kill anybody today, even if it means shooting a woman.”
“You just stay back. This shotgun doesn’t care that I’m a woman, Sheriff. It’ll blow you out of your boots just as surely as if a man pulled the trigger.”
Will walked slowly toward the men, until Dandy spotted him. “Don’t you go near him, Doc Martinson! You let him lie there and suffer.”
He saw Eliza Jane jerk when she heard his name, but she didn’t lower the barrel of the gun. When she looked at him, he such a look of misery he almost felt bad for her. But there was a stubborn set to her mouth that told him she might not be the one needing the pity. He shook his head, still not quite believing the nightmare he could see with own damn eyes.
“Hush, Dandy,” Adam ordered.
“Don’t you tell me to hush, Adam Caldwell,” Dandy shouted. “Don’t you dare. I am tired of being hushed. I am tired of being told the stew wasn’t salty enough and the shirts are scratchy and that I don’t have the brains God gave a sheep. And I ain’t gonna be hit no more, neither.”
“Nobody’s gonna hit you,” Will said quietly. “But you’ve got to let me see to Roland or you might end up with more trouble than bland stew.”
“My stew ain’t bland.”
“Sweetheart, listen.” Will was taking slow, easy steps forward as he spoke. He didn’t want to spook anybody, especially Eliza Jane. She still looked like hell and was a little unsteady on her feet. “You let me see to your husband. Let me get him fixed up first, and then—if he’s been taking his fists to you—we’ll lock him up.”
But Dandy Thayer would have none of it. “You ain’t gonna do nothing. You just want Miss Carter to put down that shotgun.”
“I’ll admit to not liking that gun being waved around, but I’m not lying about locking Roland up. Ain’t that right, Adam?”
“I won’t stand for a man hitting a woman,” the sheriff said in a tone that told them he meant it.
“You won’t shoot him, will you? Dandy asked, and Will wondered if maybe she was starting to feel some remorse. They’d been married a long time—their children were already grown and gone.
It took Adam a few seconds to decide. “Not unless I have to.”
“Good, because if he’s got to be killed, I aim to be the one who does it.”
Will was watching Eliza Jane. Her arms were trembling, whether from the weight of the gun or fear, he couldn’t tell. “You don’t need that gun anymore, darlin’. Put it down on the floor next to you.”
He was surprised when she actually did what she was told. “I’m sorry, Will. I was visiting and he came home. He was…so angry I was here and went to hit her and she grabbed the rolling pin. I…I just didn’t want anybody to hurt her, and the gun was leaned next to the door.”
Will didn’t look at Adam as the sheriff moved toward the porch. Eliza Jane had found herself in a whole new kind of trouble, and Will had a patient bleeding in the dirt to tend to. Plus she’d made it pretty plain she didn’t need him after all.
“Mrs. Carter,” he heard Adam say in a cold voice, “I need to talk to Dandy some more and help the Doc see to Roland. I want you to go right now and sit in my office until I get there. Do not make me come look for you.”
“I’ll be there,” she said in about the smallest voice he’d ever heard from her, and it took a considerable amount of willpower to keep from looking up—from taking her in his arms whether she wanted it or not—as she walked slowly past.
It was nearly three-quarters of an hour before Will and Adam stepped into the sheriff’s office, and in that time Eliza Jane had recovered her composure and was ready for them.
She sat ramrod straight in a chair, her hands folded in her lap. She wouldn’t cry—she’d cried herself out that morning—and she wouldn’t cower. She didn’t look at either man as Will took a seat near her and the sheriff sat behind his desk.
“Roland Thayer will recover,” Adam said abruptly, “though he’ll have the worst headache of his life. I won’t be pressing charges against his wife.”
She wanted to sag in her chair with relief for Dandy, but she didn’t. “And will you keep your promise to lock him up for abusing her?”
“I ain’t never made a promise I ain’t kept, Eliza Jane Carter.”
“Have you ever stuck around long enough to see the results of your work?” Will burst out, as if he couldn’t hold the words in another second. “Or do you just ride in, get everybody riled up and then just ride right out again?”
“What happened today was not my fault, Will. I’m not the one who hurt Dandy. I didn’t spend twenty years degrading her and beating her.”
“She never beat him senseless with a rolling pin before you came.”
Eliza Jane straightened in her chair, disappointment causing a keen pain in her chest. “So you think it would have been better if I hadn’t come?”
“Darlin’, you are no end of trouble.”
“So it would have been better for Dandy Thayer to keep suffering in silence. Far better for her to be belittled and beaten for the rest of her life rather than cause a fuss. She should have remembered her place instead of lifting a hand to her husband in defense of herself.”
“Goddamit, Eliza Jane! That is not what I mean.”
“Yes, it is.” She rose to her feet, looking down at the two men. “You’re both angry with me because I told her she deserved better in life. Because I told her it was wrong that her husband treated her worse than he’d treat a mongrel dog. Because I told her she had a right not to be punched in the face because her husband’s coffee was a little too bitter.”
She turned, intending to make an emphatic exit, but Adam’s tone of voice stopped her. “Sit down.”
“I will not.”
“Sit down or I will sit you down mys
elf.”
Eliza Jane laughed bitterly, but she sat. “I believe you would, seeing as how you both condone violence against women.”
Adam crossed his arms and pinned her with his dark stare. “Did you tell Dandy Thayer she had the right to defend herself against her husband?”
She crossed her own arms and glared right back at him. “Yes, I did.”
“Did you ever tell her that that the next time he tried to lay a hand on her, she should come to me?”
“In these cases, officers of the law often—”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Will shifted in his chair. “Did you tell her she should bring her injuries to me so I could treat her and swear out a complaint against him myself?”
She looked down at her hands, surprised to find them trembling. “No, I didn’t.”
“Did you think to come to me or Adam yourself and tell us Roland Thayer was beating his wife and she needed help?”
“I went to the law once, on behalf of a woman who needed help,” Eliza Jane said, anger stirring in her all over again. “The sheriff bought her husband a few drinks and told him maybe he shouldn’t beat his wife. And her husband, who got drunk, was convinced she’d shamed him by speaking out.
“He beat her to death that night. And maybe if she’d taken a rolling pin to his head instead of my going to the law, she’d still be alive.”
“I ain’t that sheriff,” Adam snapped.
“How do I know that?” Eliza Jane snapped right back. “Better a woman learn to take care of herself than to place her trust in yet another man who may not do right by her.”
“That’s an awful lonely way to live,” Will said, and the sadness in his voice was reflected in his eyes.
She didn’t know what else to say. While there were maybe other choices Dandy could have made, Eliza Jane could only make decisions based on her own experiences. And her experiences with going to the law had been tragic.
The sheriff cleared his throat. “Right or wrong, there are going to be some people in this town who blame you for what happened to Roland Thayer. The man’s got a lot of friends, and you’re going to want to be careful. Keep your door locked and try not to find yourself in isolated places. Will and I can’t be watching you every minute.”
“I understand,” she whispered, eyes on her lap. “I’ll be careful.”
“Look at me,” the sheriff demanded, and she did, blinking away the tears. “I believe in what you do, Eliza Jane. And I think you need to keep on doing it. You just need to remember that a woman not only needs to know she can change her lot in life, but she needs to know how.”
She nodded, feeling very humbled. “I apologize for what I said about you condoning violence against women.”
“Apology accepted.” Adam said, getting to his feet. “And if you tell anybody what I said in here, I will shoot you.”
And then he left her alone with Will ,and one look at his face told her the humbling had barely begun.
“You sure do make it hard for a man to love you, Eliza Jane.”
“It’s easier for everybody that way.”
“I said you made it hard, not that it already hadn’t happened. I love you and I want you to be my wife, despite your being a pain in the ass the likes of which I’ve never seen before.”
She’d thought herself totally cried out, but her eyes welled up anyway. “We’ve talked about this.”
“No, I’ve talked. You’ve run.” Will leaned forward in his chair, propping his elbows on his knees. “Do you love me?”
“Yes.” The word escaped her lips before she could stop it. “But—”
“Then give me a good reason why us lovin’ one another ain’t enough to keep you here.”
Unable to look him straight in the eye, she looked at his hands and went for the easy answer. “You love children, Will, and I can’t bear any for you.”
“That’s bullshit, Eliza Jane. In case you haven’t noticed, I have an entire town full of children. Sure, I see the worst of them as a rule, but each of them is special to me. If I feel a need to throw a ball around with the boys or read a storybook to a little girl, all I have to do is step outside and give a holler.”
“It’s not the same.”
“I won’t feel the loss of not being a father anywhere near as bad as I’d feel the loss of not being your husband.”
The word husband made Eliza Jane’s heart ache for what could have been. “You said yourself I’m the opposite of everything a doctor’s wife needs to be.”
“But you’re not the opposite of what this doctor needs his wife to be.”
“You won’t be happy with me for long, Will. And I won’t change.”
"You're not being fair to me. I've never tried to change you."
"You said I was no end of trouble."
"And that's the truth. But I fell in love with you anyway. So it seems to me if I want a stubborn, wanton troublemaker as a wife, you shouldn’t be trying to talk me out of it.”
She didn’t know what else to say. She didn’t know how to explain that she loved him so much she didn’t see how she’d get through the rest of her life without him. And how afraid she was he’d wake up one day and realize she wasn’t really the wife he’d wanted after all. She’d survived Augustus casting her aside, but couldn’t survive Will not wanting her anymore. It would kill her.
While she sat silently, trying desperately to come up with the right words to convey her fears, Will stood and dropped a leather wallet onto the desk in front of her.
“I can’t believe I’m helping you leave me, but that’s enough to get you anywhere you want to go.”
Eliza Jane lowered her face to her hands as she began to cry in earnest.
“I won’t beg you to say, darlin’, but I also can’t take any more of this. It hurts too much. You either get on the next stage out of town or you stay and be my wife. The choice is yours.”
Will walked to the door, but paused and looked back at her. “I love you, Eliza Jane. Not the woman you think I want you to be, or the woman other folks say you should be. I love you.”
He closed the door behind him.
15
On the morning Eliza Jane would leave Gardiner, she woke to rain beating on the roof of the hotel. It seemed appropriate somehow that the sky would cry the tears she couldn’t.
When she turned her head on the pillow, the first thing she saw was the single yellow blossom in the glass of water on the bedside table. Johnny Barnes had given it to her, to thank her for her talks with Melinda. Dandy had baked her a batch of muffins for her journey. She closed her eyes again, not wanting to see the evidence of how much the town—or some of it, anyway—had embraced her. And how much she’d come to care for them.
Her trunk was packed, so after dressing and stowing a few last things, she went down to the front desk and asked Dan O’Brien to have her things brought down front in time for the stage.
“I will Mrs. Carter. But I wish you weren’t leaving us.” He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “And Sadie’s going to miss you something fierce.”
“I’m going to miss her, too. As a matter of fact, I’m going to walk down and say goodbye after I have breakfast.”
She went to the restaurant, where she ordered coffee she barely sipped from and a meal she only picked at. When Marguerite handed her a picnic basket filled with food for her trip, Eliza Jane thanked her effusely and fled before she could break down and make a scene.
It was tempting to pay a visit to Lucy Barnes just to make the leaving seem easier.
Rain kept people indoors, so Gardiner seemed unnaturally quiet as she walked down the plank sidewalk, staying close to the buildings in an effort to stay dry. When she reached the Chicken Coop, she took a deep breath before opening the door. This goodbye wouldn’t be easy.
At first she thought she’d missed the chickens entirely—perhaps it was shopping day—but she found Sadie in the kitchen, wiping dishes and putting them away.
“It’s for the best, Sadie.” She pulled out a chair and sat down at the table. “Where are the others?”
“Holly and Betty are upstairs in their room. They don’t do well with goodbyes and they ain’t comin’ out. Fiona went to the Mercantile and to visit Miss Adele’s resting place. She likes to walk in the rain and she doesn’t want you to see her cry, I guess.”
“I’m going to miss you all, Sadie. Who will do your book keeping? And I’m going to miss knowing how your life turns out and if you marry Dan and whether the baby’s a boy or a girl and…” Her voice choked off and she shook her head.
Sadie put down her towel and took a seat across from her. “Dan’s going to take care of our money for now. And I already plan to ask Miss Adele’s niece to write you once she comes—if you let us know where you are. And as for Dan’s proposal, I told him I won’t make any decisions until after Miss Rebecca comes. With only the four of us, it don’t seem right for me to up and leave, too.”
“You know as well as I do the others would be nothing but happy for you if you marry Dan and get to raise that baby in a nice home.”
“I don’t know how to be a wife, Mrs. Carter. My momma died birthin’ me, and my daddy wasn’t no good, so I ran off when I was old enough, and I ain’t done nothin’ but whorin’ since. I don’t know how to be Mrs. Daniel O’Brien.”
Eliza Jane reached across the table and covered Sadie’s hands with her own. “He didn’t fall in love with Mrs. Daniel O’Brien. He fell in love with you, Sadie. You’re not a stranger he just met. He knows who you are and he knows what you’ve done.”
“The only wifely thing I know how to do is give him pleasure in bed.”
“Is it pleasurable for you, as well?”
“With Dan, you mean?” When Eliza Jane nodded, Sadie smiled. “He’s a sweet man and he always tries to make our time together special.”
Taming Eliza Jane (Gardiner, Texas Book 1) Page 14
