Doc took a few steps toward the counter and came back with the bottle of rum. “Here you go. I know you’ll need this. I’m about to unwrap your arm and rewrap it with a proper cast. You will not be able to work, Jake, unless you find something to do with only one arm.” He rested one hand on Jake’s shoulder as the younger man took a swig of the rum.
He tried not to seem too anxious, but was delighted when the heat ran down his throat and into his belly.
“Young man, you were blessed to run into Marie. She will take care of you and you will get better. You can count on her. She will not let you down. Many people in this town think she is an angel sent from heaven. God has blessed her with a good heart and the ability to show a great deal of patience. You are blessed, son, truly blessed.”
Jake grunted. “I gotta say I don’t feel blessed, Doc. I feel like the lowest man on the totem pole, the least amount of human being I can be.”
“I understand, son.” He lowered his voice a bit more. “You just let her take care of you. But I have to warn you as well. If you hurt her, this town will see that you pay for it. I don’t know you and you don’t know me. And as much as I like Adam, his being your cousin won’t make a lick of difference. Do you understand, son?”
Jake looked into the old man’s eyes and nodded. “Yes, sir. I understand. I won’t hurt her.”
“I know you don’t want to and you don’t intend to. See that you keep that attitude and keep your wits about you. Don’t do anything that might put her in harm’s way. She’s going to be looking after you. You look after her too.” He turned and began to prepare what was needed for the cast. “I don’t want to scare you, son. But the people here in Wickenburg look after one another. Once you cross the town limits, Marie treats you like family, like someone who belongs here.” He looked back at Jake. “Show her that you are the man she hopes you are.”
Jake chuckled deeply. “You sound like the father of a bride, Doc.”
Doc smiled. “I suppose I do. I would be lying if I didn’t say that I think of many of the residents here in Wickenburg as my family, as my true kin. I respect them and they respect me. It’s as it should be. See that you hold up to that.”
“I will do my best, sir. I promise.”
“Good. See that you do.”
They were both quiet while he made the mixture for the cast in the kitchen sink and brought the slop over to the counter, where long strips of gauze were waiting. When Marie came in a few minutes later holding a pair of men’s socks, they both looked up at her.
CHAPTER NINE
CONVERSATIONS TO PASS THE TIME
CONVERSATIONS TO PASS THE TIME
By the time Doc finished the cast and while they waited for it to dry, they sat in the kitchen and talked. Most of the time, Jake sat with the bottle of rum in his hand, the other arm sitting on the counter, nearly immobilized inside the cast. He watched the two as they talked about town business, things that had occurred over the last few months. He didn’t notice that both Marie and the Doc were observing him as well, as he drank the entire bottle of rum without hesitation.
Marie knew Jake was in a great deal of pain, but she was surprised by the way he consumed the liquor. He drank it like it was a cup of tea. He had no reaction to it and his demeanor didn’t change. He only looked tired. “Jake, I would like to offer you the room in my house while you recover,” she said. “You have nowhere to go and you won’t be able to make any money until your arm heals.”
“How long will that take, Doc?”
Doc shrugged. “It depends on how you take care of it. If you do what you need to do and take it easy, you will most likely be healed enough to work in about six weeks. It will be longer if you don’t.”
“Six weeks.” Jake sounded downtrodden but thoughtful. “I can do that.”
“And you will stay with me?”
Jake looked at the beautiful woman and smiled. “If you will have me.”
Marie nodded. “I’ll do everything I can to keep you comfortable.” She reached out and touched his left hand, below the cast over his elbow. “I promise.”
“I’m not a child.” Jake didn’t mean to sound ungrateful or crass. “I mean… I’m a grown man. And I don’t want to be a burden to anyone.”
Marie withdrew her hand and nodded. “I do understand, Jake. I really do. I won’t treat you like a child.”
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, young man,” Doc said. “If she wants to take care of you, let her. But remember what I said earlier.”
Marie looked at them both curiously. “What do you mean, Doc?”
Doc smiled at her. “I told him earlier to be good to you if you offered him your home. I told him if he hurts you, he will answer to this entire town and it will not be pretty, I am sure.”
Marie dropped her eyes and looked embarrassed. Her small smile was pretty and it created a single dimple on her right cheek.
Jake felt his heart leap in his chest, but he pushed it down. He wasn’t going to let himself be fooled by a woman’s charms again. He needed to concentrate on himself, especially now. “I am grateful to you, Marie. I would be honored to take the room and have you care for me while I’m… handicapped.” He looked down at his arm, wondering when the cast would dry.
Doc picked up his bag and stood. “I think it is time for me to go home. I should really get some sleep before I have to open the clinic.”
“Thank you so much for coming, Doc. I’m sorry to have woken you in the middle of the night.”
Doc leaned over and placed a kiss on Marie’s cheek. “You come to me anytime you need me, Marie. Especially when you find a stray that needs looking after.” He gave Jake a smile and held out his hand. “I’ll be seeing you soon. I’ll check on your progress in about a week. I’ll come to Marie’s?” He made it into a question and when Jake nodded, he said, “All right then. See you in a week. Marie, I know my way out.” He put a hand on her arm as he passed.
“Thanks, Doc!” Jake called out as the old man left.
Doc lifted one hand and went out the door.
“My home isn’t far, Jake. I think the cast is dry enough to be put in a sling. Let me help you. Doc left this here for you.” She picked up the long piece of fabric and moved to stand beside him. They worked together in silence as he maneuvered his injured arm into the sling. She adjusted it and patted him on the back. “There. Is that good?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“Come, I’ll take you to my house. I’ll make something good to eat.”
“Do you have any liquor in your house?” He hated asking it, but knew he was destined to be in a lot of pain.
“I don’t,” she shook her head. “But I will get some for you from Sam tomorrow.”
“You might not want to tell him you’re getting it for me.”
Marie shook her head. “Don’t worry about Sam. Don’t worry about Adam. Worry about you and let me worry about the rest of them. I’ll talk to them and calm them down. You will be taken care of. You will get back into their good graces.”
Jake gave her a half-sided grin. “You promise?”
Marie laughed. “That I can’t do. Come.”
She moved to go out of the room and he followed her.
“I will talk to them. I am certain I can calm them down, but what they decide is their own. And Sam will not deny you what you need for your pain.”
“Thank you, Marie.” He had a feeling he was going to be saying thank you to the woman quite a lot.
She looked over her shoulder at him with a big smile. “You’re welcome, Jake.”
Jake was pleased by her house. It was a small two-bedroom ranch house with an outhouse nearby that looked like a miniature copy of the house it was next to. He wouldn’t have doubted if Marie cleaned it on a regular basis. Her kitchen was fairly large, a pot-bellied stove in one corner, long counters on two sides of the room, a table in the middle with four chairs and cabinets hanging on the walls. He snooped a bit, opening her cabinets to see if sh
e had food. She even had an ice-box in one corner. He was impressed. She had so many nice things for a young single woman in the upper west corner of Utah. He wanted to ask how she managed it, but felt it was not in his place to do so.
“Come see your room.” Marie was pulling sheets and blankets from a closet in the small hallway that led to the back of the house, where the two bedrooms sat. “I will make it comfortable for you. It only has a bed and a dresser in there right now. If you need anything else, please let me know. I’ll get it for you.”
“You seem to have a very nice living here, Marie. How pleasant your home is.”
“Thank you, Jake. I like living here.”
“Have you lived here all your life?”
“Born and raised here in Wickenburg, yes. This was my parent’s home. I am an only child. My parents are no longer living. They were taken together ten years ago, when I was 16.”
“Taken?”
“To heaven. They were in a coach that overturned as they were traveling and it went over a cliff.”
“Oh my lord. I’m so sorry to hear that.”
He was walking behind Marie and couldn’t see her face, but knew it must look sad. When she glanced at him as she opened the bedroom door, he saw that her eyes had misted over. His heart went out to her. He wanted to pull her into a tight hug. Again, he restrained himself. If he were to show any attraction to her, not only would it be inappropriate and too soon, but he was opening himself up to all kinds of possibilities. He didn’t want a repeat of his last encounter with a woman he “fell in love” with, for sure.
“It is a constant pain in my heart that I will endure all of my life,” she said as she opened the door and walked into the spare room with Jake on her heels. “But I have also been given many blessings and I must thank the Lord for them. Where would I be without His strength, I wonder?” She shook her head. “Let me not get sappy and reminiscent. You don’t want me crying on your shoulder.”
“After all you are doing for me,” Jake responded, looking around the room with satisfaction. “You can soak my shirt through with tears if you want to.”
Marie set down the sheets and began to make the bed. “I don’t wish to do that. How do you like the room? Is it satisfactory?”
“It is, thank you. I don’t need anything more. This will work for me.”
“I’m glad. I’m sure you would like to rest. I will make some soup for you while you sleep.”
It wasn’t until she said those words that Jake realized how very tired he was. “Thank you, Marie. You don’t know how much this means to me.”
She finished fixing the bed, fluffed the pillows and looked at him. “I won’t disturb you. You get some sleep. I will keep the soup warm for you.”
“I might sleep all day.”
She giggled, sending jitters through his chest. “If you do, you will have the soup when you get up. I will not wake you.”
“Don’t you have to go to work in the morning?”
“I can take the day off.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to interrupt your life. You do what you need to do. I will just rest. If you leave the soup, I’ll warm it up. That’s if I sleep all night.”
He sat on the bed and patted it to indicate he wanted her to sit. She looked at the bed before sitting next to him and tilting her head to the side.
“I want to tell you something,” Jake said in a low voice. “If it’s all right with you.”
Marie raised her eyebrows. “I will listen to you.”
“I haven’t been doing very well on my own. And I’ve been on my own for years. I come from a violent past. I’ve… I’ve been alone for a long time. I don’t know how I’ll adjust to living with a woman again. If I don’t act proper, please don’t think badly of me. I will never hurt you, I promise. I’m not a violent man, despite the past I’ve come from. I don’t want you to ever feel like there’s a reason to be afraid of me.”
Marie scanned his sculpted face, the blue of his eyes, the blond cropped hair on his head. It looked like he’d taken a sharp razor to it and chopped as much of it off as he could while still leaving some on top. It was a style she wasn’t used to and had never seen before. She rested her eyes on his and thought about what he was telling her. He seemed genuine. His eyes looked sincere. His tone was soft. She believed him.
She didn’t really have a reason not to believe him. Marie had experienced a fairly peaceful life in her 33 years. She had been married, but had lost her husband in an accident. She’d had no children with him and had lived quite nicely on her own since then. She had no problems adjusting to living with someone because she was always caring for others. After her husband died, she had began helping the people at their lowest, those who found themselves wandering without a home. She was aware that many in town were intrigued by her and called her the Angel. It was flattering and she didn’t mind it a bit. Nevertheless, she didn’t do what she did for recognition or so that anyone would owe her anything. She did it because she was kind at heart and couldn’t help it.
“I appreciate you telling me all of this, Jake. I feel comfortable around you. And I do know that there are many people in this community who would help me if there was a problem.” She paused before continuing. “And I am not afraid of you. I don’t think you would hurt me.”
He smiled at her. “I’m glad to hear that.”
She stood up and went to the door. He admired her walk but said nothing. When she looked back at him, he was taking off his boots.
“Try to get some rest, Jake. I’ll be back in later to check on you.”
Jake looked up at her. He was having a difficult time with his boots because of his arm being in a cast. “Thank you, Marie.”
She looked down at his hands. “Do you need me to help you with your boots?”
He lifted one hand and shook his head. “No, thank you. I can do it.”
She smiled, nodded and left the room.
CHAPTER TEN
MARIE TALKS WITH ADAM AND ALICE
MARIE TALKS WITH ADAM AND ALICE
Two weeks after she took him in, Marie encountered Adam and Alice in town while getting food and other supplies. She turned a corner to take her items home and nearly ran into Adam face first. Both stopped just short of ramming into each other.
“Whoa, Nellie!” Adam said loudly with a laugh.
“I am so sorry, Mr. Collins,” Marie said, taking a step backward. She looked at Alice and both ladies began laughing. “That would have been so terrible if I’d dropped my supplies on your husband’s foot!”
Alice nodded. “Yes, it would indeed. I wouldn’t want him to not be able to work, laid up with a broken foot.”
“Which reminds me,” Adam said, a serious look wiping the jolly one from his face. “I heard you took in my cousin Jake.”
She nodded, her breath caught in her throat. She’d forgotten Jake’s relationship with Adam. “Yes, that is right.”
“Did you know him before?” Adam asked.
She shook her head. “No. He came to me at a desperate time and I felt compelled to help him.”
“Helping is one thing, Marie. Taking a stranger into your home is another. You don’t know anything about him. Surely you can’t feel safe in that small house with a drifter and a known drinker.”
Marie raised her eyebrows. “Drinker? Most of the men I know are drinkers. Why, you yourself go to the saloon on occasion, don’t you?”
Adam tilted his head to the side. “Don’t let his charm fool you, Marie.” His voice had dropped to a low level, as if he was telling her a secret. “You don’t know him and I would be devastated if he were to hurt you.”
“It’s true, Marie,” Alice said gently, putting one hand on Marie’s arm. “We are concerned for you. We don’t want you to be hurt. You know almost everyone in Wickenburg feels the same way.”
Marie’s smile was gentle. “I know. You are very good friends. I do thank you for your concern. But he has been with me for nearly two weeks a
nd there have been no problems.”
Adam looked at his wife. “You said when he left the house that his arm was broken.” He looked back at Marie. “Was his arm broken?”
Marie nodded. “Yes, he has it in a cast as we speak.”
“What is he doing with his time?”
Marie felt obligated to answer because Adam was Jake’s cousin. If it had been anyone else, she would have considered it gossiping and told them it was not their business. However, since the two were related, she didn’t see how she could deny him the information. “He doesn’t do a lot. He sits on the porch and watches people go by.”
“Is he drinking?”
“He has rum for the pain in his arm and the other wounds that are healing.”
“Do you ever see him without it?”
Marie thought about it for a moment and shook her head. “Rarely. Some days, in the morning, he will drink coffee with me.”
“I’ll bet he puts rum in his coffee.”
Marie shook her head and shrugged. “If he does, I don’t see him do it. Tell me, Adam, why are you so angry with him? He didn’t hurt anyone in the family, did he?”
Adam shook his head. “No, that isn’t it. He’s got a bad reputation in my family. He’s a drifter and he preys on vulnerable people.”
“He doesn’t seem that type to me at all.”
“I haven’t seen him in many, many years, so perhaps things aren’t as bleak as they seem to me. But I want you to be careful, Marie. You never know what all that liquor might do to him. I don’t want to see him getting into any more fights, least of all with you.”
“We have never fought.”
“You don’t know him,” Adam insisted. “Just be careful. A man who drinks from the time he wakes up ‘til the time he goes to bed has a problem. Keep that in mind. Monitor him if you want to, watch him. I’ll just bet he’ll show his true colors.”
Marie shook her head, a disappointed look on her face. “Your family must think very little of him if you can say such things.”
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