by Reina Torres
Ransom gave him a look that said he wasn’t quite sure what to believe, but in the end, he took Ellis at his word and walked away.
Chapter 10
“Virginia?”
“Hmm?” She managed to lift her gaze from the petticoat in her lap. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Hawkins, I didn’t hear you.”
“I’d say you were busy working on that hem, but I’ve seen you do finer work and carry on a lively discussion.” Her concerned expression softened. “Has something… have you had a falling out with Ellis?”
Startled, but not actually surprised that Mrs. Hawkins had such a razor-sharp perception, Virginia didn’t even bother trying to duck the question.
And it wasn’t as though she actually knew the answer.
“I’m not sure.”
“Oh dear.” The older woman’s pleasant round face shone with affection. “I am sorry to hear that.”
“I thought,” Virginia’s needle started another long line of stitches, “that we had reached a kind of understanding.” She saw Mrs. Hawkins’ eyes widen slightly. “No, not that kind of understanding, but an acknowledgement that we were becoming… close.” That was the only word that she could manage to say. There didn’t seem to be a word to sum up how she felt. “And now, it’s been several days since I’ve seen him. He stopped by and asked my father to let me know that he was postponing our lessons for the next week or so. I was in the house when he arrived. I’m not sure why he didn’t just come and tell me.”
The sympathetic look on Olivia’s face was so sweet that Virginia felt wretched for making the poor woman listen to her problems. Waving off her own disappointment, Virginia changed her posture, sitting up straighter on the chair and put a smile on her face. “I was wondering how Delia was feeling. I wasn’t sure if she would welcome a visit.”
Olivia’s smile was beaming. “She’s barely moving around anymore, I went to visit her yesterday and made her sit down before she could wear herself out. If you’d like to come with me tomorrow, I think she’d like the company.”
Virginia’s smile was immediate. “Wonderful. I’d be happy to go with you. I finished the gown for the baby and I thought she’d enjoy having it before the baby arrives.”
“I think that would be a lovely idea.” Olivia set her needle against the fabric and quickly wound a knot around it and tied it off. A quick snip of the scissors and she was done. “Are you sure you want to be there, for the birth?”
“Sure?” Virginia felt her face flush. “I can’t say that I’m looking forward to the pain she’ll have, or the fear that I know that I’ll have.” She swallowed and felt the lump in her throat lower a bit, but it was still stuck, making her voice scratch. “But I like the feel of this town, Mrs. Hawkins. I like the people that I’ve met here. And I want to help.”
Olivia smiled at Virginia, her eyes warm with emotion. “I can see you’ve been thinking about this quite a bit.”
Nodding, Virginia felt her cheeks redden even more. “I know that every time we move, it takes a while for the house to feel like a home. Planting a garden and watching it grow, hoping that we’ll still be here when the flowers bloom or the vegetables are ready to pick.
“And this is the first time that I feel as though the women here in Three Rivers are friends that I would like to have for the rest of my life. You and the others have created a family, where friends act more like sisters, and I hope that I’ll be a welcome addition.” Virginia gasped in a new breath. “Does that sound silly?”
Olivia set her completed sewing aside and reached out for her hand. Virginia set her sewing in her lap and took Olivia’s hand.
“It sounds just lovely, Virginia. We’re just happy to have you. When Levi told me that the new marshal that we’d hired had a daughter that he was bringing with him, Anna, Claire and I were just as thrilled as we could be. With our riders marrying and bringing their brides into the town, we’re growing just as quickly as we can.”
“And Delia will be adding to our numbers in a few weeks.”
Virginia pressed her hand to her chest, trying to hold back the excited fluttering of her heart.
Ellis was confused. And he was acting like it. The talk with Virginia’s father took some of the worry off his shoulders, but finding Calvin and Jed standing there, in Three Rivers, had thrown him all off balance.
He’d canceled a few of the lessons he’d planned with Virginia, not because he didn’t want to teach her, no. He didn’t want to spend enough time with her that Calvin and Jed might notice. The last thing he wanted to do was to let the two men know that Virginia means something to him.
If Calvin and Jed were trying to talk him into doing something, they’d try anything to convince him to help. They were pretty determined to get what they wanted from him. The problem was, he’d already gotten in trouble for them once, he could only hope to keep away from them long enough for them to give up and move on to some other idiot.
But not everything could be put on hold. He’d made his way over to the undertaker’s home and Mr. Daniels had his pay ready. The smaller man had a shrewd look in his eye as he counted out the coins and then set them in Ellis’ hand. “You do good work, young man. I don’t have to ride you like some of the others I’ve hired before. You earn your money with no fuss.”
He watched Ellis count the coins on his own and then drop them into the pocket of his coat. “All there?”
Ellis nodded. “All there, thanks, sir.”
He felt the older man’s watchful eyes on him and focused on his face. “You have something in mind for that money?”
Ellis nodded his head. “Maybe. I’ve got my eye on something, but I’m not sure it’s… an appropriate gift.”
“Ah,” Mr. Daniels gave him a knowing nod, “for a young lady?”
Reaching up behind his head, Ellis tugged at his collar as if the fabric was scratching him up something awful. “It just may be, but I’m not sure-”
“About the gift or the girl?”
Ellis’ smile was instant, and it was broad. “Oh, the girl is wonderful, I’m just not sure if the gift is one that she’d like or if folks would think that it’s too much.” Ellis swallowed. “Too personal.”
Mr. Daniels gave him a ponderous look. “Now you never asked me for no advice, but I don’t usually have many folks to talk to. The people that come in here are usually pretty silent.”
Ellis barely managed to keep from wincing at the man’s humor even when the man was laughing with a thin cackling sound.
“But you seem like a decent and solid sort of man, so I’m going to tell you that in all of my days, doing the work I do, when folks have come to my table strugglin’ for their last few breaths, the only thing I’ve ever heard was them wishing to do things they hadn’t done, instead of wanting more time to hold off on those things.
“So, you ask yourself whether you should hold off, or do something.” He shrugged and little flecks of dust rose up from his shoulders. “That’s all.”
Ellis nodded with a big grin on his face. “That’s certainly something I’ll have to think about. This isn’t an easy thing for me to think about, sir. I’ve done things I shouldn’t have and paid for them. I feel like I’ve finally got my life moving in the right direction. I wouldn’t want to pull someone down with me.”
Mr. Daniels shrugged. “Then don’t. You’ve got more sense than that, Cooper.”
Feeling like he’d just had a good talking to, Ellis gave the other man a mock salute. “I’ll do my best.”
“Good.” Mr. Daniels walked him to the door but stopped short of the entrance. “Would you mind doing me a favor?”
“No,” Ellis grinned, “not at all. I’ll be happy to.”
Reaching into his shirt pocket, Mr. Daniels handed a folded piece of paper to Ellis. “If you wouldn’t mind taking this receipt to Alan Simons. He lives in the miner’s housing. Room Two. If he’s not there, just slide it under the door and he’ll get it when he gets back.”
“That’s all?�
� Ellis tucked the paper in the vest pocket with the coins he’d been paid. “I’ll take it over right now.”
Mr. Daniels clapped his hand down on Ellis’ shoulder. “You’re a good man, Cooper.”
Ellis walked away from the undertaker with a broad smile on his face and a lightness to his step. There wasn’t much between the undertaker’s shop and the miner’s housing. There were a few empty buildings on the left side of the street, and a few little cottages that had been built within the last year on the right. He knew that Ransom and his wife lived in one and Wyeth and his wife, Tillie, lived in the other. He hadn’t spent much time with Wyeth given that he went home every night if he wasn’t on a run.
He was nearly past the cabins when he heard a sound on the wind.
Stopping dead still he trained his ears on the silence around him, hoping to hear the sound again.
Nothing.
Feeling more than a little odd at the thought, he decided to try to stir the voice.
He called out, a little louder than his normal voice. “Hello?”
A long painfilled moan reached his ears from some distance.
“Hello?”
“Please, help me…”
It was a woman’s voice. There was no mistaking the soft plea in her tone.
He moved a few steps closer to the front porch, grinding his back teeth together. He was new in town. Most folks had heard about him. Well, everyone had heard about him.
All they really ‘heard’ was prison. Or criminal. Or Hopeless.
Charging into a house? One where there was a woman?
“Might as well string me up right here.”
He blew out a breath.
“Ma’am, do you need help?”
There was another heartbreaking moment of indecision that rode the silence around him. He knew what the safe thing to do was, but that wasn’t what he wanted to do. That moan wasn’t anything good.
“Help, please…”
“Oh man,” he started forward, kicking up the loose dirt from the road under his well-worn Brogans, “this is going to get me in so much trouble.”
He didn’t bother with the stairs, taking one big giant step to the porch and then skidded against the door. The screen across the entry was clean and it was only too easy to see inside.
A woman, seated halfway off the settee, was clutching her rounded belly.
“Ma’am?”
He grabbed the handle on the door and tugged. It was locked.
“Cra- I mean, crud. Ma’am the door’s locked.”
A low wail met his ears. “I’m… I’m in labor.” After she stopped talking she began to pant out a long series of breaths.
“Yes, ma’am, I had a feeling that was the case, but I can’t get in to help you if your door’s locked.” He tugged at the handle again, shaking the door in its frame but it didn’t move. “Is there another door, maybe around back?”
She shook her head and moaned. “It’s locked too.”
“Yep,” he sighed, “just my luck.”
The woman took her hand away from her belly and set it on the back of the chair and pushed herself up, and then with something akin to a shout she got herself up on her feet.
“Ma’am, maybe you should sit.” He gulped in a breath of air when he saw how pale she was, how her skin shown with perspiration. “Maybe if you tell me who your husband is, or if you’ve got folks here in town. I’ll go get ‘em for you.”
“My hus-husband had a meeting at the...” she took a staggering step forward, moving a little bit away from the settee, “a meeting with Levi.”
“Levi Hawkins, ma’am? Why he’s my boss!”
She took another laborious step forward, her face wincing, her breath panting from her lips. “Go get, Ransom.”
Ellis nodded, eager to do something he could. “All right then. Why don’t you have a seat and-”
The woman collapsed to the floor, falling over like a tree felled by an axe, her arm barely trying to break her fall.
“Ma’am!” Ellis banged on the door frame, nearly tearing it off its hinges. “Ma’am, please, tell me you’re- I sound like an idiot.”
Whirling around he looked at the streets that crossed at the nearby corner. No one.
Jumping down the stairs he almost fell on his face, but he managed to catch himself and run toward the miner’s housing. As luck would have it, one of the miners was just headed out from his door, clean clothes and some towels under his arm.
“Hey, you!”
The miner spun around and saw him in the street. “What?”
Ellis swung his arm back toward the house. “There’s a woman in that house. She’s about to have a baby,” the miner didn’t seem to move, “right now!”
“What could I do about it?”
“Her husband, Ransom, is over at the Express. Go get him!”
The miner was stone still for a moment.
Shaking with fear and worry, Ellis shook his head and reached into his welt pocket and pulled out his knife. Flicking it open he pointed it at the miner. “Go!”
The man dropped everything and ran.
Chapter 11
Ellis watched the man running away as if his hair was on fire, streaming trails of smoke from the back of his head. He could only imagine what the man would tell the people at the station. Or, would he go to Marshal Halston’s office and tell him about the threat? Either way, someone would come. And they’d get help.
But more than likely, he’d end the day saying, “Well there goes my job.”
Ellis ran back to the house, jumping up to the porch and over to the screen door. Inside, the woman was still, the only movement he could see was the light lift of her hair as the wind blew past him and into the room. “Yeah. Great. Ma’am. I’m real sorry about this, but I’m gonna have to come in there.”
Taking his pocket knife, he pushed it through the net and drew it down through the screen. “Look ma’am, so sorry to cut your door, but I think it’s cheaper than messing up your frame.” Once he had a big enough cut in the screen he dropped the knife and grabbed it with both hands and wrenched it open, making a big enough hole that he could duck inside.
Once there, he pushed back the lock and got down on his knees beside the woman.
Tucking her sewing into the basket she’d carted over to the Hawkins’ house, Virginia leaned in to accept the gentle hug that Olivia offered. “I’ll be over tomorrow, and we can visit with Delia.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
Stepping onto the porch, the two women heard Levi calling to them. Turning, Virginia saw a becoming blush color Olivia’s cheeks. It was so sweet and only made Virginia’s thoughts turn to her own heart. If she was able to have a marriage like the Hawkins’ did, she would be so lucky.
Walking along the edge of the house beside Levi was Ransom, Delia’s husband. Virginia couldn’t help the odd feeling of reservation she felt around Ransom. It wasn’t that she was afraid of him. No, Ransom didn’t scare her, but she worried. Worried that he didn’t like Ellis.
She’d seen good men driven out of towns by people who took a dislike to someone. It might even have been for a good reason, but a person with a bone to pick could ruin someone’s life and she wanted to do something… to say something to ease the tension between Ransom and Ellis.
Levi was about to put his foot on a step when someone came running down the road, waving his hand when he couldn’t scratch out much of a sound. Levi and Ransom were the first ones to meet the man in the street.
“Ransom,” he gasped out. “I need to find Ransom.”
Clapping his hand down on the man’s shoulder, Ransom leaned down to look in his face. “I’m Ransom.”
“This man said to come get you…” he gasped in a breath. “He had a knife.”
Olivia gasped, and Virginia saw Mrs. Hawkins’ face pale. “Whatever for?”
The man shrugged. “He said to get Ransom and tell him the baby’s coming.”
Ransom stood and turned to
look at Olivia. “It’s too early.”
She shook her head. “Not much.” Olivia looked at her husband. “We need to get there.”
He gestured toward the wagon. “I had the horses hitched to the wagon to go to Clay’s. We’ll take that.”
They all moved toward the wagon, the women as quickly as their layers would allow. Levi helped Olivia into the wagon bed and Ransom almost swung Virginia up with hardly any effort. She caught her breath as the wagon lurched forward, Levi urged the horses to step up and move.
Ellis didn’t know what to do really, but he’d seen his mom doctor up people before. He took the back of his fingers and touched it to her forehead. She was hot to the touch, but she shivered against him. “You don’t feel good, ma’am.” He looked around the room. “And I’m thinking that I can’t leave you lying here on the floor. It can’t be comfortable for a woman in your condition, given that I’ve done my share of sleeping on the floor and you’ve got…” he cleared his throat, “you’ve got that baby in you. That can’t be easy.”
Ellis got down on his knees beside her and managed to wiggle his arm under her back and tried to reach his other arm under her knees, but it was going to be difficult. She wasn’t overly tall, but with her belly, he wasn’t sure he could lift her. The same thing that made him fast on a horse, made it difficult to guarantee he wasn’t going to drop her and hurt her or the baby.
Sitting back, he decided on a different tact. Scrambling up he ran around the room and pulled every pillow or blanket he could see and made a quick pallet on the ground. Rich or strong, he wasn’t, but he was resourceful.
He managed to move her over onto the pallet, placing a pillow under her head. “Well, I hope that isn’t too uncomfortable, Missus M- ooooww!”
The pretty woman had latched onto this arm with a punishing grip. He watched beads of sweat form on her forehead as she tightened her hold on his arm again and again until with a rush of breath she relaxed against the pallet.
