Brides of Texas

by Hake, Cathy Marie

  Kept busier still by the things she’d volunteered to do, Carmen didn’t seem to be home much. Duncan wasn’t fooled, though. He’d hurt her feelings. Since he couldn’t catch her to give an apology, these boots and a note would speak for him.

  Three crumpled, ink-blotted tries later, Duncan scuffed his own boots on the floor of his workshop. He’d not been this ill at ease with a pen in his hand since he’d been a schoolboy and had been forced to write a treatise on peregrine falcons.

  He dipped into the inkwell again.

  I did not mean to hurt your feelings. If you felt I was taunting you, I apologize. I’m a rough man, a mere cobbler. Though I spoke what was on my heart, my words were stark. I humbly ask your forgiveness.

  He didn’t scribe her name at the beginning nor his at the end. The boots themselves made it clear he was addressing her. Satisfied with this note, Duncan crossed the street, set the shoes by Carmen’s door, and tucked the folded note between them.

  “You didn’t come to church yesterday.” Carmen took the egg basket from Ismelda. She’d intentionally waited until today because she hoped her sister would come to her. She hadn’t.

  Ismelda let out a nervous little laugh. “I wasn’t feeling well. In fact, I’m not feeling good at all in the mornings anymore.”

  “You should have told me. Didn’t you think I’d be delighted that you and Otto are going to be blessed with a baby?”

  “Otto and I—we decided not to tell anybody because Mercy and Rob just shared their good news. Especially after what Mercy went through the last time, I thought it would be nice for her to have everyone get excited for her.”

  “That’s sweet of you, but I’m not just anybody. I’m your sister!”

  Ismelda wound her arm around Carmen’s waist. “And you’re going to be my baby’s aunt. You don’t know how happy that makes me. I promised Otto that I wouldn’t tell a soul, though. You wouldn’t want me to break a promise I made to my husband. Since I missed church yesterday, I’m sure people must suspect the truth.”

  Carmen nodded. Telling Ismelda that her mother-in-law had said something would spoil her joy. “I knew this day would come. I’ve already bought some fabric, but I hid it away in my bureau.”

  “It would be too hard for Jenny.” Ismelda smiled softly. “You know, when you first took her in, I wondered if it was such a smart thing. But the moment I met her, I knew God had a reason for sending Jenny here. Otto and I—we’ve been praying for her. Knowing she’s accepted Jesus is so exciting. Now we’re praying that maybe God will put a man in her life, just as He did for Mercy.”

  “Maybe so.” He probably has—it’s Duncan Gregor.

  “Stay for the day. We could make tortillas. Otto’s mother can’t make them right. She keeps thinking they should be rolled out like pie dough.”

  “You’ll have to teach my niece how to make tortillas.”

  Ismelda laughed and rested her head on Carmen’s shoulder. “We’ll come visit you all the time, and you can teach her that yourself. Yours are always perfect circles. Mine are as lopsided as those eggs you’re carrying.”

  After spending the day with her sister, Carmen headed home. She’d rented a buggy from the livery and driven it back without any trouble. From the day she’d fallen off a horse and broken her leg, she’d never again ridden. Ismelda told Jorge at the livery about how horses made Carmen nervous. He always made sure she didn’t have to be near the horses, so as soon as she reached the livery, he hopped into the buggy and drove her home.

  “Look!” Jenny greeted her at the door and gestured toward the settee. “I must have been napping when Duncan dropped by.”

  Carmen stared at the floor and clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her scream.

  Chapter 12

  I knew you’d be thrilled.” Jenny pushed her toward the boots waiting on the settee. “Try them on. Aren’t they beautiful? The leather is so soft and supple.”

  Pulling away, Carmen mumbled something that she knew didn’t make sense and raced for her bedroom. She shut the door, threw herself across the bed, and slammed her fist into her pillow. Mortification and rage left her shaking. Duncan told her special shoes would correct her step—and now, he was proving his point.

  Tap, tap, tap. Jenny slowly opened the door a mere crack. “Carmen? You don’t have to be embarrassed. Ever since my grandma died, nobody loved me—but you have. Don’t you think I love you enough to be glad that you can wear such clever shoes so it’s easier for you to walk?”

  “I—” She couldn’t find words.

  “It’s just Duncan. He probably put the shoes there so neither of you would have to say anything about it. Most men blurt out whatever they want. Believe me, I know. Duncan’s not like that. He cares. Come try them on.”

  “Maybe later.” Once she mouthed those words, Carmen knew the truth. She’d never put them on.

  “I’m coming. I’m coming.” Duncan trudged toward the door.

  Chris stood at the head of the stairs, holster in hand. He’d been helping Connant keep law and order whenever necessary. Anyone banging on the door at this time of night either wanted the doctor or the law.

  “What do you—” Duncan started at the sight of Carmen. She wore a sapphire blue robe, and her hair billowed out in a dark cloud past her waist.

  So that’s what her hair looks like down—wavy and shiny and longer than—

  “Jenny,” she said.

  Duncan jolted and hollered, “Rob! Jenny’s needing your help.” He stepped out of the house only to realize he was barefoot. So, too, was Carmen. “I’ll take you home and then carry Jenny back to the clinic.”

  She nodded and spun to take flight.

  “Wait!”

  Carmen shook her head. “I can’t leave her alone!”

  “Fine, then.” Duncan swept her into his arms. When she stiffened, he rasped, “She willna protest me carryin’ her if she sees me totin’ you in the door.”

  When they reached her front door, Duncan dipped and ordered, “Turn the knob, lass.”

  Carmen complied. She barely allowed him to cross the threshold before she struggled free of his hold and hobbled to Jenny’s side. “How are you?”

  Jenny sat huddled in a tight ball and moaned.

  Duncan fought the urge to moan, too. Instead, he cleared his throat. “Well, so this is the day. Or night. Well, I’m supposin’ it’ll be daytime when—” He shut up. Any medical issue turned him into a blithering idiot.

  Carmen patted Jenny’s arm. “Duncan came to carry you to the clinic. Dr. Gregor will meet us there.”

  “Okay.”

  Less than reassured by Jenny’s tiny voice, Duncan slid one hand behind her back.

  “Wait, now.” Rob came in.

  Duncan wondered how his brother managed this feat. In a matter of a few minutes, he could wake from a sound sleep, dress, comb his hair, grab his satchel, and calmly face whatever emergency God plopped in his lap.

  “Jenny, let’s just check you here in your bedroom. You’ll be much more comfortable there.” Rob motioned to Duncan.

  Duncan carried her to the bedroom and darted back out as soon as humanly possible.

  Carmen and Rob spent five minutes with Jenny, and then Rob came back out. He slapped Duncan on the shoulder. “It’ll be a long while yet. Carmen will come get us when the pains are four minutes apart or so.”

  “She should be at the clinic!”

  “Nae, Duncan. She’s got hours of laboring ahead of her. Come on home. I’m going to have to ask you to fill in for me tomorrow.”

  “Fill in?”

  “I’ll tell you when we get home.”

  Duncan wouldn’t budge. “Carmen? I’m going home only long enough to change into my jeans. I aim to stay on your veranda—”

  The bedroom door opened, and she hissed, “You will not. Go home, Duncan Gregor. Go home this instant!”

  He scowled at her. She didn’t seem intimidated in the least. Come to think of it, the sassy woman had a habit of igno
ring his scowls. He’d have to work on that flaw of hers. With Jenny laboring, this wasn’t the right time, though. He announced, “If you need help, you just shout. I’ll be here in an instant.”

  Walking back across the rutted road, Duncan muttered, “You do surgery in the clinic. You stitch up wounds and set broken bones. Just what do you have against bringing a bairn into the world there when you’ve every modern medical convenience at your fingertips?”

  “Bairns have a way of entering the world without a lot of fanfare. Mothers labor best where they’re comfortable.”

  “You’re daft, Rob.”

  Rob had the nerve to chuckle.

  A minute later, Duncan repeated, “You’re daft! Daft, I tell you. I am not gallivanting off to fetch a bairn and take him to the Heims. Not when Jenny’s baby’s about to arrive right here!”

  “Do you need my help, Rob?” Mercy called out.

  “Not for a long while yet, my love. Catch a wee bit more sleep if you can.”

  Rob turned back to Duncan. His face hardened. “You’ll do no good here. You canna stand to be with anyone who’s sick or bleeding.”

  “Chris will do it.”

  “Stubborn, hardheaded Scot,” Rob growled.

  “Aye, Chris is those things, but he’ll help you.” Duncan nodded. “If he’s hesitant, tell him I’ll not pester him with a single piece of gingerbread for a whole week.”

  “E’er again,” Chris demanded at the breakfast table. “If I fetch this babe and take it to the Heims, Duncan canna e’er again bedevil me with those benighted wooden frills.”

  “A week is as good as you’ll get from me,” Duncan snarled. He’d not gone back to sleep, and his nerves were on edge.

  “A year,” Chris barked back.

  “You’re fetching a baby, not a wife. And you’re giving it away this afternoon, anyway.” Duncan gave him a sour look. “One month. ’Tis the best you’ll get out of me, and there’s not a reason in the world why you shouldn’t have gone in the first place.”

  “What,” Mercy said in a frosty tone as she thumped the coffeepot onto the table, “is wrong with having a wife?”

  “Nothing.” Duncan gave her an affronted look. “ ’Tis the wooing and getting one that’s so aggravating.”

  “Just when did you make any effort to—” Chris snickered. “Jenny or Carmen?”

  “Carmen, you dolt!”

  Chris hooted. “All this time she’s been thinking you were sweeping her walk, and you were tryin’ to sweep her off her feet!”

  “You’ve no room to tease him, Chris. You’re the eldest, and you’ve yet to court a lass.” Rob spooned a bite of egg into Elspeth.

  “I’m in no hurry.” Chris cracked his knuckles.

  “Yes, you are.” Mercy laughed. “You have to be on the eight o’clock train for Austin.”

  Chris wolfed down his breakfast and accepted a slip of paper from Rob. As he rose from the table, he groused, “I’ve spent my life watching out for my baby brothers. How’d I get saddled with another bairn?”

  “I thought you didn’t mind watching Elspeth every now and then,” Mercy said quietly.

  “Of course I dinna! She’s not a bairn. She’s a beauty!” Chris bent down, planted a kiss atop Elspeth’s downy head and strode out.

  Mercy waited until he was long gone and then dissolved into giggles.

  “What’s so funny?” Rob asked.

  She looked at both of them. “Mrs. Kunstler is going to find out that Chris took that little baby boy to her cousin. The woman has her flaws, but she sure tries hard to take care of those she loves. Your brother is going to be her hero.”

  Rob choked on his coffee.

  “I dinna care how great a doctor you are, Rob. There’s no cure for the agonies our brother will suffer once that woman takes a shine to him.”

  “By this evening, there’s going to be a foot-deep rut in the road going from my house to yours.”

  Carmen smiled at Mercy’s comment as she watched Rob cross the street and go back to the clinic.

  “Duncan’s been here twice as often as your husband.” Jenny pressed both hands to her lower back and winced as she rubbed.

  Carmen brushed aside Jenny’s hands and massaged her. “He cares about you. We all do.”

  As if to prove that point, Duncan thumped on the door and barged in. “Traditions are important.”

  “What prompted that announcement?” Carmen gave him an exasperated look.

  “Fetch your healer’s bag. I’ll hae Rob put the essentials in it. Then you can carry them o’er to the clinic.” Once she gave him the monstrosity, he left.

  “Well, that hideous thing did serve a purpose.” Mercy smiled. “It kept him busy.”

  “He’s going to have a conniption when he finds out you’ve decided to have the baby here, Jenny.” Carmen rubbed her back again. “When he finally figures it out, we’ll tell him how glad we are to have whatever he stuffs in that purse.”

  Carmen exchanged a look with Mercy. They’d made plans for this day months ago. Keeping Jenny distracted would help a little.

  “Jenny, has Carmen ever told you how she kept the men occupied when I was having Elspeth?”

  “Noooo.” Jenny’s answer got swallowed up in another moan.

  Carmen began telling Jenny of Mercy’s memorable labor.

  Not five minutes later, Duncan tramped back in with Elspeth over one shoulder and the bag over the other. “She’s growing a mite cranky.”

  Carmen grinned to herself. What baby wouldn’t when faced with the terrifying sight of that armadillo?

  As Mercy took her daughter, Duncan decided, “I’ll wait on the veranda. Once you’re done, I’ll take the wee little lassie home.”

  “Go use my bedroom,” Carmen murmured to Mercy. Since Jenny wouldn’t keep her baby, Mercy thoughtfully left her own babe at home when she came to help with the birth. After Mercy nursed and calmed Elspeth, Duncan carried his niece home.

  “I spent a good part of my labor in the rocking chair.” Mercy nudged Jenny to sit down. “Try it.”

  “Mercy tried to cook while she was in labor.” Carmen shuddered. “She tried to turn apple cider into gravy.”

  “And I added a cup of sugar to the mashed potatoes.” Mercy laughed. “But Carmen’s the one who put it all together with apples and flan as dessert. Happenstance, she called it. You’ve never tasted anything half as good.”

  “Good?” Carmen looked at her in disbelief.

  Mercy headed for the kitchen. “I distinctly remember enjoying it. Maybe we could make some today.”

  “Only if you’re planning to stuff that dead armadillo with it,” Carmen muttered.

  Gunshots drowned out Jenny’s weak laughter.

  Chapter 13

  He’s dead.” Rob remained on his knees in the middle of the street as he turned to the next man.

  “It’s Connant,” Duncan said in utter disbelief.

  “Connant’s dead,” Rob rasped as he shoved at Duncan’s shoulder. “Give me your bandanna.”

  His brother’s command made no sense, but Duncan complied. He stared at their lifeless friend. A trio of other men lay bleeding in the street.

  Mercy demanded, “Rob, what do you need me to do?”

  “I’m putting a tourniquet on Rundsdorf’s leg. Stay with him while I check the others. Duncan.” Rob jostled him. “Duncan! Get some men to help you carry him to the clinic.”

  Duncan ignored the order and lifted Mr. Rundsdorf by himself. Mercy scrambled alongside of him as he hastened to the clinic. Once he laid Mr. Rundsdorf on the examination table, he gawked as Mercy took a pair of shears to the hem of the man’s britches. “I’ll do that.”

  “No, you won’t.” Mercy barely spared him a strained glance. “You’re already green. Get out of here before I have two of you to take care of.”

  Others spilled into the clinic. “Doc said Kondrad’s to go upstairs,” the preacher said.

  “Duncan,” Mercy said sharply, “you know where the
guttapercha sheets are. Throw one on each of the beds up there.”

  He dashed upstairs and threw the rubbery, waterproof sheets on the beds. Jorge grunted in pain as they laid him down. Duncan couldn’t understand a single word of the rapid-fire Spanish pouring out of the man’s wife. Is there anyone who could help? Chris is gone delivering that baby. Carmen—Carmen! She couldn’t possibly come translate. She has her hands full.

  Duncan stood out of the way as they carried the third man up the stairs and put him to bed. He herded everyone back down the stairs and loudly announced Rob’s standard rule in times of trouble. “One family member can stay with each man. The rest of you, go on home.”

  Rob promptly shouted, “Eliza Wagner, Harriet Brun, and Gertrude Besselmen, you stay. Each of you keep watch on one of the wounded. You know what to look for. The rest of you, go. Pray.”

  The parson managed to get the rest to leave. Duncan strode over to Mr. Rundsdorf. “I’d take it as a favor if you wouldn’t get in the habit of collecting bullets.”

  “He didn’t collect it,” Rob declared. “It went straight through. Mercy, get the ether.”

  Duncan’s nose twitched. The smell of ether invariably left him woozy and often made him puke.

  “Duncan, go see to Elspeth.”

  Glad for the reprieve, he left. In the midst of the excitement, he’d run to Carmen’s to protect the women. Once he made sure they were fine, he and Mercy left Elspeth in Carmen’s care so they could go help. It hadn’t been that long ago, but he’d forgotten Elspeth was at Carmen’s. Right on the heels of that realization, Duncan recalled Jenny being in labor. He decided he’d grab Elspeth and leave. It was a sound plan.

  “Thank God, you’re here!” Carmen yanked Duncan inside and leaned against the door. She didn’t want to chance having him rush back out. The disturbance across the street following the gunshots told her the doctor and Mercy would both be busy for a long time.