“There’s trouble over at Doc Barnes’s place!” the out-of-breath man in the doorway shouted. “A bunch o’ rowdy good-for-nuthins are holding him at gunpoint! The marshal needs a few guns.”
Heart pounding, Elisabeth scanned the room. The Stellings sat on the opposite side, a few rows back. Gil wasn’t with them. “Oh, dear Lord,” she whispered.
Gil’s cousin, Will York, shot out of his seat and immediately ran for the door. Dan Larken, another deputy, made his way past his concerned-looking wife and son seated on the pew, and his father, Victor, joined him. Warren Burke, the livery owner, stood, too. Rhys remained seated beside Beatrice.
Behind Elisabeth, Irene said, “No,” and Elisabeth turned as Gabe rose to his full stature and stepped into the aisle. “Please, be careful,” Irene pleaded.
He nodded and calmly made his way to the rack on the back wall, grabbed his hat and left the church.
“Let’s pray,” Sam said from the front. Church members exchanged looks, and then bowed their heads in prayer. “Lord, watch over our brave men, stand watch over Dr. and Mrs. Barnes and all the citizens of Jackson Springs. Protect them, Lord. Just as we sang only moments ago, You, Lord God, are their refuge and fortress. Because these good men have made You Lord of their lives, no evil shall befall them or an accident overtake them. Lord, give Your angels charge over each one this day to keep them in all their ways. We put our trust and confidence in You and ask these things in Jesus’s name. Amen.”
“Amen,” the people echoed.
At that moment Elisabeth’s concern was that Gabe had never made God Lord of his life, so she added softly, “And Lord, please protect Gabe. Keep him safe so he can one day make You his Lord and King. Satisfy him with long life as the scripture says.”
The unrest in her chest eased after she’d prayed that. She was concerned for Gil, but as a believer he was probably praying right that very moment. He’d faced similar situations in the past. He was prepared for danger.
The way Gabe had avoided a confrontation on the train that day made her surprised that he’d so willingly joined the other men at Dr. Barnes’s.
“Let’s break up into small groups and continue to pray,” Sam suggested. The people did as he asked, forming circles and petitioning and thanking God for the safety of those who’d gone to help and those who were directly involved.
As they prayed, the sounds of gunfire reached them.
At the noise, Melissa Larken cried softly, and Josie handed Elisabeth the baby so she could comfort her. Instead of showing distress, Irene gathered all the children and took them up front near the organ, where she sat and played songs to which they could sing along. Elisabeth listened with appreciation.
Across the aisle and over several lowered heads, she met Arlene and Chess’s eyes and gave them an encouraging smile. Gil knew how to take care of himself.
The door opened and closed, and she assumed someone had gone to check on the situation. A few minutes later, Karl Stone entered the building and spoke privately to Sam.
Sam glanced from face to face before saying solemnly, “Dr. Barnes has been shot. The report doesn’t sound good.”
Kathryn DeSmet, the schoolteacher, wept softly. Abigail and Anna hurried to her side and comforted her. Josie carried Rachel over to stand beside Arlene. Arlene automatically reached for the baby and held her close, as though doing so was a comfort and a life affirmation.
Feeling helpless, but knowing how much more difficult this was for Irene, Elisabeth guided her to a private spot.
“I can’t just sit here,” Irene said.
“Praying is the best we can do for them right now,” Elisabeth told her.
Irene shook her head, distress evident on her face. “No. I can’t take this.”
She shot up and ran for the door.
Chapter Fourteen
As the dark-haired young woman ran outside, Elisabeth cautioned softly, “Irene.” And then more loudly, “Irene, wait!”
Instinctively, she followed, not surprised when her father joined her in pursuit.
Irene paused for a moment, and with relief, Elisabeth realized Irene didn’t know which direction would take her to the doctor’s home and office. A shot rang out just then, crumbling her momentary respite. Irene gathered her skirt hem and darted toward the sound.
“Irene, come back!” Elisabeth called.
Sam was faster than Elisabeth, whose skirts impeded her progress, but Irene was faster yet, taking the lead with unexpected agility.
A grayish haze accompanied the acrid smell of gunpowder hanging in the air as they neared the house where Matthew Barnes lived and worked. Several men, including Will York and Deputy Dan Larken, crouched behind water troughs and at the corners of buildings, their guns and attention directed at the doctor’s home.
Elisabeth’s heart hammered at the fear that Irene was going to heedlessly run smack-dab into the center of the fray.
“Will!” her father shouted, catching the man’s notice. “Stop her!”
Gil’s lanky cousin shot out of his hiding place at the corner of the telegraph office and grabbed Irene around the waist.
She didn’t have a chance to put up much of a fight, because at that moment another flurry of shots erupted from the house. Bullets splintered wood and kicked up jets of dust in the street. She emitted a shriek.
Sam halted and spun to grab Elisabeth’s wrist and together they darted behind a building.
“Throw out your guns!” Elisabeth recognized Marshal Dalton’s voice. “You’re not getting out of there alive!”
“Neither are your friends,” came the reply.
Elisabeth and her father moved around the back of the building which shielded them and crept up the other side so they were farther away from the fray, but could peer around the corner and watch from a closer perspective.
She spotted Gabe now, crouched behind an overturned wagon. Movement caught her eye and she discovered Gil on a rooftop, far enough behind the view from the doctor’s front door and side window that no one in the house could see them. Her heart lurched. She tapped her father’s shoulder and pointed. He looked where she’d directed and caught his breath.
The door to the doctor’s house opened slowly inward. A patch of bright blue appeared, and as the form emerged into the sunlight, Elisabeth recognized Donetta Barnes. A man held her from behind, using her as a shield. Even from this distance, her terror was evident.
“Why is that man doing this?” Elisabeth asked around the thickness in her throat.
“Father God, keep Mrs. Barnes safe in Jesus’s name,” was his only reply.
Elisabeth echoed her father’s prayer and leaned against him.
“Let her go!” Marshal Dalton called.
“Let us get to our horses and she might live,” came the reply.
As the first man cleared the doorway and stepped off the boardwalk with his hostage, another armed man appeared behind him, holding up a third stranger who was bandaged around the waist and shoulder, his bloody shirt gaping open. The two of them were easy targets for the men in wait in every direction, but if one of them took a shot, they risked Donetta’s life.
Where was Dr. Barnes? Already dead inside?
It seemed a hopeless situation either way. If someone shot the easy targets, the first man would shoot Donetta. If they held their fire and let the men escape, it was likely they’d take her along and get rid of her once she was no longer useful.
“Let her go.”
Elisabeth had been so involved in her thoughts, she hadn’t noticed the tall figure who now walked directly into the street, right out in the open, boldly challenging the man who held Dr. Barnes’s wife in front of him. The barrel of the man’s gun swung to point at Gabe.
Elisabeth’s heart lurched into her throat. She was going to be sick. Gabe!
“What are you doing?” came Irene’s distraught cry. “Gabriel, get back!”
He showed no sign that he’d heard her plea.
“I’ll shoot her!” the man t
hreatened.
“This is the last time I’m tellin’ you to let her go,” was Gabe’s reply.
Donetta closed her eyes and remained rigid and silent in his hold. No doubt she was praying, and Elisabeth joined her by petitioning God softly enough for only her father to overhear.
All that passed were seconds, but the intense danger of the situation seemed to stretch those moments into infinity. Elisabeth couldn’t imagine a good outcome. She refused to entertain visions of Gabe or Donetta shot and bleeding in the street.
The man inched away from the doctor’s house, dragging Donetta with him.
More quickly than she’d have believed possible, Gabe grabbed the gun from the holster against his side and fired.
A single shot rang out and the sound volleyed against the buildings.
Both Donetta and the man holding her slumped to the ground.
Irene’s scream was louder than the gunfire.
The man who’d still been standing in the doorway dropped his bandaged friend in a heap. He fired wildly at Gabe. A store window shattered. He spun and darted around the corner of the house.
Gabe ran after him.
Others moved out from behind cover with their weapons aimed at the man lying still on the ground. Donetta was sobbing, her hand at the side of her face.
Elisabeth and Sam ran toward her.
As they neared, Sam stopped her with an upheld palm. “Don’t come any closer, Elisabeth.”
She halted in her tracks.
Another man had joined her father, and together they extricated Donetta from the man’s hold. “Where are you hit?” Sam asked.
If she was hurt badly, what would they do? Who knew what condition the doctor was in—or if he was alive at all?
“I don’t think I’m hit,” she said, but she wiped spattered blood from her face. Her hair was flecked with crimson.
“It’s his blood,” Marshal Dalton said to Sam.
Sam held Donetta steady and motioned for Elisabeth to come for her. Elisabeth couldn’t resist a look at the man lying dead at their feet, and then wished she hadn’t.
Donetta was trembling as Elisabeth wrapped her arm around her shoulders.
“Get her out of here,” the marshal said. “We don’t know if there are more inside or not.”
“Three horses out back,” Dan Larken told him from the corner of the house. “Accounts for these two.” He gestured to the bandaged man lying in the doorway and the one Gabe had shot. “And the one he’s following.”
“Paul Jeffries and Voctor are watching the back, right?”
“Yeah, but there are wagons and stacks of crates. The man could hide anywhere.”
“Sam, you watch this fellow. That ’un’s dead. The rest of us will split up and surround the alley.” He called, “Will! See if the doc’s okay inside. Dan, cover him.”
“I can’t let go of this crazy woman,” Will returned.
“You’re preventin’ us from doin’ our jobs, little lady,” the marshal hollered. “Stay put or I’ll handcuff you to a lamppost.”
Sam took off his belt, pinned the injured man’s arms behind his back, and bound him.
Elisabeth led the sobbing woman to safety beside the building where Gabe’s sister had wisely chosen to wait. Irene nearly swooned when she saw Donetta’s face.
“She’s not hurt,” Elisabeth assured her.
“Gabe shot that man right out from behind her.”
“Let’s take her somewhere and clean her up.”
Irene seemed to come to her senses. “Of course. What are the men doing now?”
“They’re chasing that man who shot my Matthew,” Donetta said. “Those swine held their guns on us and forced Matthew to tend to their friend. He had just finished wrapping his wounds when Ezra Quinn rang the bell and walked in the side door. Matthew moved toward me then, and that man shot him.” Her voice broke, and she continued with a sob, “He’s lying in there bleeding right now.”
“The others are seeing to him,” Elisabeth told her.
“I should stay,” the woman said. “There’s no one else who would know how to treat a wound. I’m not a doctor, but I’ve watched him treat a lot of injuries, bullet wounds included.”
“I think she’s right,” Irene said.
They stood nearly a block away now, the air and the sun drying the blood smears on Donetta’s face and neck. The shoulder of her blue shirtwaist was speckled red. Elisabeth spotted a neighbor peering out the second-floor window of the room she rented over a store.
“Are you all right?” Elisabeth asked. “I could leave you here and go back to help with the doctor.”
“I’m fine. I want to go help Matthew.”
“All right then. But we’ll wait far enough back to stay out of danger until they tell us we can go in.”
The three of them took the spot Will and Dan had vacated and observed the front of the Barnes’s home from there. After several minutes Deputy Dan rode up beside them on his horse. “You can go tend to the doc. Your pa and Paul are taking those two to jail. The rest of us are heading out.”
“Where are you going?” Irene asked. “Where’s my brother?”
“He was the first one to ride out,” he answered. “Took one of those men’s saddled horses.”
He turned his horse’s head and galloped down the street, the animal’s hooves kicking up dust.
Donetta jumped up and ran toward her home. The other two women followed.
The men had moved the doctor to an examination table in his surgical office. Elisabeth took one look at the front of his shirt and then his ashen face and felt her heart drop.
Donetta calmly took a scalpel and sliced open the front of his shirt. Blood trickled from a neat hole in his chest.
“If the bullet hit his heart or an artery, trying to remove it would kill him. I don’t know what I’m doing. If the bullet was somewhere else, I could do it. I don’t know what to do.”
“Stop the bleeding?” Elisabeth asked.
“He’s been bleeding far too long,” Donetta said, but she nodded. She packed the hole and applied pressure. “I don’t know what to do,” she said again. Elisabeth shared her sense of helplessness.
“Is there a doctor in a nearby town?” Irene asked. “We could take him there.”
“Not close.” Irene bent to press her lips to her husband’s forehead. “The trip would likely kill him.”
“We could bring the other doctor here.”
Donetta met Elisabeth’s eyes. “It’s worth a try.”
Elisabeth shot out of the house and ran all the way back to the church.
Several members still remained and, seeing her, gathered around.
“Elisabeth, are you all right?” Josie asked in alarm.
Elisabeth glanced at her hands and her Sunday dress, realizing she had come in contact with Donetta and her husband both. “I’m fine. But Dr. Barnes is hurt badly. He needs another doctor, and needs him fast.”
Two men offered to ride to a nearby town for help. They left seconds later.
“What can we do?” Arlene asked.
“All of your husbands and sons are just fine,” she assured them and then explained what had happened and how a posse had gone after the man who’d shot Dr. Barnes. “Continue to pray for all of them.”
“I’ll come with you to stay with Donetta,” Arlene said and accompanied Elisabeth back to the doctor’s house. Sam had locked the prisoner in a cell and returned to pray for the doctor.
The day grew warm and the afternoon stretched endlessly.
The men who’d gone after the shooter returned first, and Junie Pruitt delivered the news. The man who’d shot Dr. Barnes had returned to Jackson Springs draped over a saddle, shot to death by that Taggart fellow.
Elisabeth and Irene shared a look.
“That’s two men he’s killed today,” Elisabeth said aloud.
“What would you have had him do?” Irene asked. “Your friend’s life was in the balance.” She glanced at Donet
ta. “Would you have wanted him to let that man ride off and get away with what he did to the doctor?”
Elisabeth shook her head. She didn’t know what to think. She’d known what Gabe was capable of. She’d been there when he’d confronted half a dozen train robbers without blinking an eye. She should have read the signs then. But today, in the street…he’d shown no fear or hesitation. He’d walked directly up to a man who held a gun pointed at his chest, calmly told him to let go of the woman and then pulled his gun faster than the other man could fire. He’d shot that man right out from behind his hostage.
If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn’t have believed such a feat was possible.
What kind of man took risks like that? What kind of man could draw and shoot as though he’d practiced his whole life for that moment?
The answer she hadn’t wanted to face floated to the surface of her consciousness: A gunfighter.
Chapter Fifteen
Before dusk, Matthew Barnes took his last arduous breath. Donetta pressed her forehead against his and cried softly. Arlene rested her hand on the woman’s shoulder to comfort her.
Tears ran down Elisabeth’s cheeks, and Irene held her hand. Elisabeth wiped her face on her sleeve and stood. “Let’s go ask a couple of Donetta’s friends to stay with her.”
The two of them exited the house and shared the devastating news with those waiting. Elisabeth located someone she knew would be a comfort and suggested the woman go on inside.
Irene learned her brother was at the marshal’s office and grabbed Elisabeth’s hand. “Come with me. Please.”
Several men sat on the stairs and benches near the open door of the lawman’s office and jail. Gabe extracted himself from their midst to join the approaching women. He looked at Elisabeth without expression, his green gaze flickering to her blood-smeared dress.
She took a shaky breath. “Dr. Barnes didn’t make it.”
The men behind him murmured and shook their heads. Gil ran his hand down his face and moved to stand at the edge of the boardwalk and take stock of the tree-covered mountains.
“I never want you to do anything like that again,” Irene rebuked in a low angry tone. “You could have been killed. Do you think you’re invincible?”
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