by Nerys Leigh
Too many seconds later, the door opened.
“Zach?”
“Mr. Sanchez, there’s an emergency. I need you to go and get Doctor Wilson and for Mrs. Sanchez to come to room three.” He spun away and then turned back. “Please hurry. A woman’s life could depend on it.”
Without waiting for an answer, he took off back to the stairs, hoping they would do as he asked without questioning why. He’d known Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez just about his entire life, so he was sure they would. The couple lived in the apartment at one end of the hotel with their two children, seventeen-year-old Javier and fourteen-year-old Ana. Mr. Sanchez was the hotel’s handyman, gardener, decorator, night manager, and unofficial day manager, and Mrs. Sanchez cleaned and was the cook for the restaurant. Without them, the whole place would grind to a halt.
When he got back to the bedroom where he’d left Mrs. Silversmith, Zach was relieved to find her still breathing. Although she still didn’t respond when he spoke to her. The bedcovers beneath her were soaked through. He’d have to move her to another room when she was dry. He glanced back at the open door, willing Mrs. Sanchez to hurry.
Maybe he could start doing something now. She was wearing a coat; he could remove that without impropriety, couldn’t he? The whole situation was so far out of the realms of his experience that he had no idea.
Worry for Mrs. Silversmith overcoming all other concerns, he began to remove the waterlogged coat. It wasn’t easy. He had to roll her to tug it from her shoulders and it clung tenaciously to the dress beneath, making it even more awkward. He kept worrying he was hurting her, or would be if she was conscious.
Finally pulling the coat free, he dropped it onto the wooden floor with a sigh of relief. It was only then that he noticed her dress was clinging rather too intimately to her body and legs. He looked away quickly. Maybe removing the coat hadn’t been the best idea.
“Ay cielos, Zachary, what are you doing?”
Mrs. Sanchez stood in the doorway with Ana behind her, her wide-eyed gaze flicking between him and Mrs. Silversmith.
He almost sobbed in relief. “Oh, thank goodness. She collapsed in the lobby and I didn’t know what to do. She’s freezing. Can you take her clothes off and get her dry?”
She hurried forward, waving him away. “Sí, sí, we’ll do it. Go get some towels.”
He backed to the door, reluctant to leave in case something went wrong. “I don’t know if you’ve met her. Her name is Mrs. Silversmith. She’s one of the brides who arrived a couple of weeks ago. I can’t think why she’d be out by herself in the middle of the night in this rain.”
Mrs. Sanchez glanced back at him, her expression softening. “We’ll look after her. You go and fetch the towels.”
With one last look at Mrs. Silversmith, he hurried to do as she asked. When he returned with an armful of towels, he handed them to Ana in the corridor and went to start the fire going in the room next door. Mrs. Silversmith would need lots of heat to warm her once she was dry and they moved her in there.
Five minutes later, Mrs. Sanchez called his name. He hurried through to find the wet bedding and Mrs. Silversmith’s clothes on the floor, and Mrs. Silversmith, still unconscious, dressed in a nightgown and robe on the bare mattress.
He leaned down to slide his hands beneath her. “Did she wake at all?”
“Not once,” Ana said as she gathered the wet things into a pile.
He lifted Mrs. Silversmith into his arms. Without the wet clothes, she felt so light. He gazed into her face and remembered the first time he’d seen her, sitting in her buggy in front of the church looking for all the world like she wished she was anywhere else. He’d been overwhelmed with a desire to help her. He’d also thought she was just about the prettiest thing he’d ever seen, although when he’d found out she was married, he’d tried very hard to ignore that feeling.
Now, looking into her still face, the need to help her was just as overwhelming. And he was struck all over again by her beauty.
“Zachary?”
He snapped his eyes guiltily from Mrs. Silversmith’s face. “Yes?”
Mrs. Sanchez nodded at the door.
Hoping she hadn’t noticed him staring at the woman he held in his arms, he followed her out into the hallway. By the time he’d placed her onto the bed in the room next door and Mrs. Sanchez had covered her with blankets, Mr. Sanchez had returned with Doctor Wilson.
The doctor had obviously got ready in a hurry, his coat buttons fastened haphazardly with one side lower than the other and his dark hair sticking up around his head. He walked straight to the bedside, placed his bag down on the edge, and pushed his spectacles up his nose.
“What happened?” he said, placing one hand on Mrs. Silversmith’s forehead.
“She came into the hotel and just fainted,” Zach said, twisting his hands together. “She hasn’t woken up since. She was soaked through and freezing so I figure she must have been out in the rain for a long time.”
Doctor Wilson took a watch from his coat pocket and lifted her wrist, watching the hands for a few seconds. “Gabriel Silversmith lives a good hour’s ride up into the foothills,” he said, opening his bag and pulling out a stethoscope. “What is she doing here?”
“I don’t know.” Zach watched the doctor listen to her heart, take her temperature, and then check her for injuries. Mrs. Sanchez and Ana had gone to take the wet bedding and clothes to the laundry room and he glanced at Mr. Sanchez and Javier standing by the door.
“Well, there’s nothing obviously wrong with her that I can find, other than being unconscious and cold,” Doctor Wilson said finally. “If she’s been out in the rain for long, and especially if she walked all the way from the Silversmith place, my guess is she’s exhausted and her body has simply given up.” He packed up his bag and stood. “All you can do for now is keep her warm and wait. I’ll come back first thing. If she wakes up, give her something warm to drink. I’ll go talk to the marshal now. He’ll probably wait until it’s light to go out, but I’ll let him know what’s happened. If Gabriel is out there hurt or something...” He sighed and shook his head. “There’s nothing any of us can do in the dark in this rain. Except for pray.”
“Um, Doc?” Zach glanced at Mr. Sanchez again. “Could I speak to you in private?”
Thankfully, Mr. Sanchez was a perceptive man. “Come on, Javi,” he said, backing from the room, “let’s go help your mother and sister.”
Zach gave him a grateful smile as he closed the door.
“What is it?” Doctor Wilson said when they were alone.
“Um, you won’t tell anyone what I say, will you?” He knew Noah Wilson wouldn’t, but he needed to ask anyway.
“Not unless not telling someone would endanger my patient.”
That was good enough. “When I brought her up here, she talked a bit, even though she wasn’t conscious. She said, ‘Save my baby.’”
Doctor Wilson’s turned back to her. “She could be pregnant.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“It would explain the extreme exhaustion.” He took hold of the edge of the covers and glanced back at Zach. “Would you mind turning round?”
“Oh. Yes, sure.” He waited, staring at the door and listening to the rustle of clothing, until the doctor told him it was okay to turn back. “Well, is she?”
“I can’t hear a baby’s heartbeat,” he said, “but I wouldn’t be able to until more than four months in anyway. She’s not showing any signs, at least that I can see from a superficial examination. There is an indication I could look for, but it’s not something I would do without her permission unless her life was in danger. The good news is, as long as she wakes up soon, any child she’s carrying should be all right too.”
“Could she know already?” Zach said. “After just two weeks?”
Doctor Wilson’s eyes met his. “It is very, very unlikely.”
They both knew what that meant. If Josephine Silversmith was carrying a child, it wasn’t
her husband’s.
“I won’t say anything to anyone,” Zach said.
“I know you won’t.” He rose to his feet and patted Zach’s shoulder. “Make sure she keeps warm. I’ll be back in the morning.”
Left alone with Mrs. Silversmith, Zach stood at the bedside and gazed at her sleeping face. She looked peaceful now, as if reassured that she and her baby were safe. Not that she could know, but he hoped, deep down, she somehow did.
He leaned down to brush a strand of hair from her cheek, touching his fingertips to her skin. She felt warmer already.
“Please heal her, Father,” he whispered.
He stoked the fire and added a couple more logs then took a folded blanket from the end of the bed and settled into the armchair in the opposite corner of the room.
He wouldn’t be going home tonight, but he didn’t mind.
Chapter 9
Jo drew in a deep breath and slowly opened her eyes, blinking sleepily at the unfamiliar room around her.
It took a few seconds for her brain to wake up and the fear and despair of the previous night to come flooding back. But she was safe. She prodded at the soft mattress beneath her. Had she been saved? Or had she died out there in the rain and gone to heaven?
She almost laughed at the thought of going to heaven. Highly unlikely. Although she was warm and dry and lying in a very comfortable bed, so it was close.
Turning her head, she looked around the room. She’d been in enough boarding houses to know it was a hotel or some such. Nicer than what she was used to, but with the same impersonal furnishings and decor.
And then her gaze came to rest on a chair by the fireplace. There was a fire blazing in the grate, filling the room with heat, and there was a man in the chair. A very asleep man, although he couldn’t have been comfortable. She couldn’t see his face clearly, with his chin resting on his chest as it was, but there was no mistaking that hair. Zach Parsons. There couldn’t possibly be anyone else in the town with flaming red hair like his.
She suddenly realised she was smiling. Given the circumstances, she shouldn’t have been, so she stopped.
Where was she? And what was Zach Parsons doing in her bedroom? Well, not her bedroom, but a bedroom. A room where she had slept.
Lifting the covers resting across her, she peered beneath. She was wearing a nightdress and robe that weren’t hers. How had that happened? She wanted answers.
Pushing herself up on the pillows, she cleared her throat.
He didn’t stir.
She repeated the throat clearing, louder this time.
His head jerked from his chest and he drew in a sharp breath, looking blearily around the room.
His eyes snapped open when he saw her. “You’re awake! Thank the Lord.”
He rubbed his eyes and ran one hand through his hair, sending it sticking up at all angles. The blanket draped over his lap fell onto the floor when he stood and he bent to pick it up and dropped it onto the chair. Half his shirt was hanging over his waistband and he winced as he stretched his chest forward, pressing one hand to his lower back.
Jo’s smile was pulling at her lips again. She rapidly quashed it.
“How are you feeling?” he said, bringing the chair to her bedside. He placed the blanket onto the end of the bed and sat, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.
How was she feeling? She hadn’t even noticed. “Okay, I think. Warm.”
He smiled. “That’s good. When you came in last night you were so cold I was worried you wouldn’t get warm again.”
So she’d got here by herself. She couldn’t remember that part. “What happened?”
“You walked into the hotel and fainted, right there at the door. You were soaked through and freezing.”
She remembered Amy saying Zach worked at the hotel, when Jo asked her about him the first Sunday they met. One question answered. As for the other...
She looked down at herself. “Did you undress me?”
His eyes widened and he sat back, raising his hands. “No! No, I wouldn’t... no!” He waved at the door. “Mrs. Sanchez who works here got you out of the wet clothes, with her daughter. I wasn’t even in the room, I swear. I took your coat off because you were so wet, but that was all, I promise.”
She wanted to giggle at his horrified expression. There was a possibility the rain and cold had affected her brain. “Okay, I believe you.”
“And I’ve been in this chair across the room all night, except when I got up to add wood to the fire to keep it going. Mrs Sanchez was here too, right there.” He pointed to a second chair by the fire. “I don’t know when she left. She probably went to start breakfast for the restaurant.”
“You’ve been here all night?”
“Just to make sure you were warm and didn’t need anything. Doc Wilson said you were probably just exhausted and that you’d wake up when you were rested, but I didn’t want to leave. You might have needed my help.”
At the sympathetic expression on his face, she could almost have believed he cared about her. But she couldn’t help wondering what he wanted.
“Well, thank you,” she said. “I’m grateful you were here.”
The tension released from his shoulders and he sat forward again. “A few minutes later and I wouldn’t have been. I was about to lock up for the night. Doc Wilson said he’d go to see Marshal Cade, but he didn’t think they’d do anything until the morning.” He glanced at the window, pressing his lips together. “He, uh, wondered if they should be looking for your husband out there somewhere.”
She frowned, confused. “Looking for my... oh.” He thought she’d been out in the rain because of some sort of accident or disaster. But if he thought that... “You don’t think they should be though, do you? If you did, you’d have asked about that first.”
He gave her an appraising look. “You’re pretty smart.”
“So why don’t you think my husband,” she came close to choking on the word, “is lying injured somewhere, waiting for me to bring help?”
“Because if I’d near killed myself walking through the rain in the pitch dark for who knows how long to save someone, the first thing I’d have done when I woke up was get him help.”
She gave him the same appraising look he’d given her. “You’re pretty smart yourself.” Too smart. She’d have to watch herself around him.
He sat back, resting his elbows on the arms of the chair. “So what happened to you last night?”
She scrabbled around for an excuse, since she couldn’t exactly tell him her husband threw her out because she was carrying another man’s baby. “I got lost. I was taking a walk and I must have got turned around somehow, and then it got dark and I just kept walking until I saw the light from the hotel.” Given her history of fabricating stories, it was an embarrassingly implausible lie. She decided to blame the lapse on the ordeal she’d been through.
“Mr. Silversmith must be frantic with worry.” Zach leaped to his feet and turned towards the door. “I should get someone to go out there and tell him you’re all right.”
In spite of the circumstances, she couldn’t help smiling. “Okay, okay, you can sit back down.”
He swivelled slowly back to her, amusement tugging at his lips.
“How did you know I was lying?” she said.
He lowered back into the chair. “You wandered, what is it, five or six miles in completely the wrong direction, with the mountains acting as the biggest landmark you could wish for? I thought we’d established how intelligent you are.”
She laughed softly. “And you are far too smart. Although in my defence, I couldn’t actually see the mountains in the dark and rain.” Her smile faded and she looked at her lap. Thinking fast had always been a necessity in her life, but not one single idea came to her.
“You know what, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “You don’t have to explain anything. But just tell me this – is Mr. Silversmith going to be worrying about you? Does he need someone to tell him you�
��re safe?”
She snorted a humourless laugh. “I doubt it.”
Zach frowned. “Did you run away from him? Did he hurt you? Because if he did...”
“No.” She reached out to touch his arm then pulled her hand back, surprised at herself. “No, he didn’t hurt me. I didn’t run away.”
He nodded, the tension in his posture draining away. “Will you be wanting to go back to him?”
Releasing a deep sigh, she shook her head.
“Okay. Well, what about your things, your clothes and such? Are they at his house? Do you need me to go and get them?”
Why was he being so nice to her? She almost asked him, but stopped herself. She might need someone on her side if Gabriel came after her. She’d meant what she said the night before as she walked away from her home of the past two weeks - she was done with men. But they did still have their uses.
“I had my valise with me, but I lost it somewhere.” Unsurprisingly, the loss of her belongings, few as there were, saddened her more than the loss of her marriage.
There was that look of sympathy again, as if he cared about her. “What colour is it? Maybe someone will find it. I can ask around.”
“Pink, with roses on it, but it’s all right. It could be anywhere, and it will be soaking wet. Everything inside is probably ruined anyway.” Just like her.
Really, Jo, stop feeling sorry for yourself.
“How long were you out there?” he said.
“What time did I get here?”
“Just before eleven.”
Was that all? She could have sworn she’d walked for days. “Then around four hours. It felt like longer. I honestly don’t know where I went. I couldn’t see anything but rain in the dark. I thought I was walking straight towards town, but I guess I wasn’t.”
“You could have walked all night and not found your way here. God was looking after you.”
The way he said it, with such conviction, would have made her believe him if she didn’t know better. He clearly believed God had rescued her. If he didn’t, he was a better liar than she was.
