Marked for Marriage

by Jackie Merritt

  Being transported from ambulance to emergency room was fast and little more than a blur for Maddie. Then began the tests—a battery of them—and finally a pain shot that did some good. She went out like a light and woke up hours later in a hospital gown and bed. Her brain was fuzzy, and she was thirsty enough to drink water from a horse trough—right along with the animals.

  It seemed like a simple matter to get the tall glass of water she could see on the stand next to the bed, but when she tried to raise her right arm, it refused to cooperate. She finally lifted it high enough to see the thick blue fabric encasing her hand and lower arm. She knew what it was—a soft cast. She’d broken something. Not her wrist, because that would be in a hard cast. She’d seen many casts and bandages during her rodeo career. Banged-up cowboys and cowgirls were not a rarity, but this was Maddie’s first accident that had put her in a hospital bed.

  She rang for the nurse, and in a minute or so one came in. “You’re awake. Good. What do you need, hon?”

  “Some water, which I can’t seem to reach for myself, and maybe a rundown on what else is broken besides my arm.”

  The nurse held the glass so Maddie could suck water through the straw. “Your arm’s not broken, hon, it’s a couple of little bones in your hand. You have no other fractures, but your entire right side is badly bruised.”

  “I feel…awful,” Maddie said in a whispery unsteady voice.

  The nurse checked her watch. “You’re due for another pain shot. I’ll get it.” She hurried out and returned almost at once with a syringe. “You have to turn a bit so I can reach your hip.”

  Turning even a “bit” was unbelievably painful for Maddie. In comparison, the sting of the needle was nothing.

  “Your doctor will be in to see you sometime this evening,” she said before leaving.

  Maddie was already drifting off again, only alert enough to be glad about the doctor. She had questions, or she’d had questions when the nurse had talked so briefly about her injuries. Maybe she would remember them when the doctor appeared this evening. She hoped so.

  As it turned out, the doctor showed up around four-thirty that afternoon. “I’m Dr. Upton,” he said while reading the notations on what Maddie supposed was her chart. Finished with that he sat on the one chair near her bed. “How’re you feeling?”

  “I hurt,” she said bluntly, if with very little force behind the two words. Along with varying degrees of pain from her head to her legs, she felt horribly weak, but had to find out everything she could about her injuries.

  Dr. Upton nodded. “I don’t doubt it. You took quite a spill, young woman. It’s somewhat of a miracle that all you broke were two small bones in one hand. It’s the hand you landed on, of course. Your abrasions were caused from being dragged through the dirt.”

  “Dragged? By what?”

  “By your horse.”

  “Fanchon is a gentle mare and would never drag me!”

  The doctor smiled indulgently. “Sorry, Maddie,” he said gently, “but that’s exactly what happened.”

  “Then she was afraid.”

  “Possibly. Undoubtedly,” he added. “She was falling, as well. Fear is only natural in that instance.”

  “Where is she? Do you know?”

  “I knew that would be your first question once you were lucid, so I made some phone calls to find out. Fanchon is stabled at the rodeo grounds. She’s fine and so will you be in time.”

  “In time?” Maddie repeated suspiciously. “How much time?” She should be on the road right now, heading for Abilene and the next major rodeo on the circuit calendar.

  “I’d say at least a month.” Dr. Upton got to his feet and began writing on the chart. “Even small bones take time to knit, Maddie, and I believe you’ll require some physical therapy on that hand once the healing process reaches a certain stage. Now, I’d like you to stay here through tomorrow night, so we can keep an eye out for infection. If all goes well, I’ll release you the following morning.”

  “Infection? In my hand?”

  “Maddie, your right side is one huge abrasion from your forehead to midcalf. We had to pick minute pieces of gravel out of your skin with medical tweezers. There are antibiotics in your IV and antibiotic salve under the dressings on the worst of your injuries. You’ve also been given a rabies shot because of incurring open wounds around horses. Infection is a very real threat and…” He saw the horror in Maddie’s eyes. “You haven’t looked in a mirror yet? You’ve been up.”

  “I have?”

  “Twice, according to the nurses’ notes on the chart. To use the bathroom, Maddie. You don’t remember?”

  “No.”

  “Well, your pain medication is quite powerful. I’m going to keep you on it tonight and then change it to a less potent drug in the morning. A nurse will be in later to check your dressings. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Maddie was in shock. She could handle a broken hand, but abrasions from her forehead to the middle of her calf? That, of course, was where her leg started being protected by her sturdy riding boot. “My God,” she whispered. Was she going to be disfigured?

  Maddie clenched her good fist and told herself differently. Dr. Upton hadn’t even hinted at disfigurement, and she was not going to lie in this bed and imagine the worst.

  But she was going to be laid up and useless for a month. “No!” she whispered. A whole month of doing nothing? She’d go nuts!

  A dinner tray was brought in then, and Maddie looked at the cup of bouillon, the small bowl of green gelatin and another cup containing hot water for tea with very little interest. In the first place she wasn’t hungry, and if she were, it wouldn’t be for bouillon.

  If she were a weepy type of woman, she’d lie there and bawl.

  But she wasn’t a crybaby, she was a doer, and she was not going to be an invalid for four miserable weeks, she simply wasn’t!

  The few times Maddie woke up in the night, she worried about her horse. When she came wide awake at six, she figured out that her pain medication must have been reduced during the night, because her head was clearer than it had been since the accident. Instantly, although in severe physical discomfort, she again worried about Fanny. Was a responsible person feeding her? Making sure she had fresh water? Taking her outside for exercise?

  Barrel racing demanded total unity between horse and rider, and Maddie had no doubt that Fanchon was the deciding factor in her success in the arena. Without Fanny, Maddie knew she would be just another rodeo hopeful. Along with loving Fanny with all her heart, the quarter horse was extremely valuable monetarily, and what if someone should steal her from the rodeo grounds?

  Maddie shuddered. She had to get out of this hospital today. Dr. Upton had said that if all went well he would release her tomorrow morning. That wasn’t good enough for Maddie. She was not going to lie here all day and worry.

  And so, when breakfast was delivered—solid food this morning—Maddie forced every bite of a bowl of sticky oatmeal down her throat and drank her glass of orange juice like a good little girl. When a nurse asked how she was feeling—it had been a long time since her last pain shot—Maddie lied and said, “Much, much better, thank you.”

  The nurse unhooked her IV and then brought in some pills. Maddie asked what they were and the nurse replied, “The blue one is an antibiotic, the white one is for pain.”

  “I’m only going to take the antibiotic,” Maddie said with a hopeful little smile. “Is that all right? If I was in pain…but I’m not…and…”

  The nurse frowned. “No pain at all?”

  “Very mild discomfort. Not nearly enough to knock myself out with pain medication, and even if the pill isn’t that strong, I really detest that fuzzy-headed feeling I get from sedatives.”

  “Well…all right, but you are to ring at once if you start hurting.”

  “Oh, I will.”

  The charade was more difficult when bath time rolled around. “I can do it myself, really,” Maddie told the young
woman who came in to give her a bed bath. The woman finally believed her and left, and Maddie soon learned how inept she was with her left hand. She hurt so badly that she nearly rang for that pill a dozen times. Gritting her teeth throughout the ordeal, she bathed herself and struggled into a fresh nightgown. Exhausted and not daring to show it, she waited for the young nurse to return and check her abrasions.

  This time Maddie asked for a mirror, which was brought to her. “Oh, my God,” she whispered when she saw the right side of her face.

  “It looks worse than it is because it was painted with red antiseptic,” the young nurse told her. “It’s all up and down your right side. See?”

  Maggie saw all right, and her heart felt heavy as lead. “Will…it wear off?”

  “Of course it will. When you’re strong enough to take showers, it will disappear in a few days. You’re healing nicely, Maddie. My orders for this morning are to apply antibiotic cream to your abrasions but to leave them uncovered.”

  “There’s no sign of infection, then?”

  “None at all.” The young nurse was finishing up. “Dr. Upton will be in to see you, probably within the hour.” She left the room.

  Maddie closed her eyes. Weepy type of woman or not, she truly felt like bawling. She looked like a character in a horror movie!

  Even terribly uncomfortable she dozed. She opened her eyes when Dr. Upton said, “No pain medication today, Maddie?”

  “Hello,” she said with as much normalcy as she could muster. “Should I take a drug I don’t need?”

  “No, you shouldn’t, but I have to question why you don’t need it.” He checked her chart for another minute or so, then set it down on the foot of the bed and bent over her. “Look at the far corner of the room,” he instructed and then beamed light into her eyes with what appeared to Maddie as a slender little flashlight.

  “What’s that for?” she asked.

  “Just a precaution. I’m glad to see that there’s still no sign of concussion. You were very fortunate, young woman.”

  He’d said that before, Maddie thought somewhat resentfully. Would he think himself fortunate if it were he lying in this bed with more bruises than a map had roads, hurting something awful and not daring to show it because he had to convince a doctor that he was well enough to get out of here today, instead of tomorrow?

  He was writing on the chart, and she knew it was a forerunner to his leaving. Panic assailed her, but before she could ask for an early release, he said, “You’re doing remarkably well. Keep this up and you’ll be going home in the morning.”

  She cleared her throat. “Dr. Upton, I’d like to go home today.”

  He looked at her sharply from under a dubiously arched eyebrow. “I would say that’s pushing it, Maddie.”

  “I feel fine, and I have responsibilities.”

  “We all do, but an accident such as yours really puts everything else on hold. Or, it should. You haven’t had a lot of visitors. Don’t you have family or friends living in the vicinity?”

  “I’m from Montana, and my friends go where the rodeos take them. Doctor, I’ve been completely self-sufficient for years, and I’m perfectly capable of applying antibiotic creams or salves to my scrapes and bruises, and taking pills on a timed schedule. I can’t just lie here and wish for a miracle. I want to go home today. Right now, in fact, or as soon as I can be checked out. Please release me, Dr. Upton. Please.”

  The doctor studied her chart. “Well, your vitals have been stable for more than twenty-four hours,” he murmured, and appeared to be thinking for several moments. Then his gaze lifted. “How would you get home? Is there someone you could call to come and pick you up? I don’t want you driving today, Maddie.”

  Her pulse quickened because he hadn’t immediately refused her request. “I would call a taxi,” she said honestly. “I don’t have a vehicle here if I wanted to drive home, which I don’t.”

  “Okay, tell you what. Let me see you get out of bed and walk around. I’ll release you today if I see that you are truly mobile.”

  Maddie gulped, but she forced herself to sit up, shove her sheet aside and then cautiously slide off the bed to put her feet on the floor. There were hospital slippers down there somewhere, but she was afraid that if she bent over to look for them she might pass out. So she held the back of her gown shut with her left hand and took a barefoot stroll around the room, fighting nausea and dizziness every step of the way.

  “Okay, you’ve convinced me,” Dr. Upton declared. “It will take about two hours to check you out. You’ll be taking prescriptions for antibiotics and painkillers with you. Get them filled right here in the hospital pharmacy or on your way home, whichever you prefer. I’d like to see you in my office in a week. Call for an appointment and tell the receptionist to fit you in. I’ll try to remember to tell her your name and to expect your call.”

  “Thank you,” Maddie said with her very last ounce of strength. She was so glad that Dr. Upton left right away that she could have cheered. Instead, she stumbled to the bed and groaned under her breath while struggling to get herself back on it. Finally prone and covered with the sheet again, with her heart beating overly fast from the exertion, she shut her eyes and suffered in silence.

  But the pain didn’t matter. She was going to be free to check on Fanny in a matter of hours. For that privilege she could stand anything.

  Maddie had managed to relax some when a nurse came in and stated cheerfully, “So, you’re leaving us already.” The woman took Maddie’s wrist and checked her pulse.

  “Yes, I’ll be leaving as soon as…” It hit her suddenly and hard enough to make her groan.

  “You’re in pain again?” the nurse asked with a concerned expression.

  “No, I just realized that I have nothing here…no money, no credit cards, not my insurance card. How can I check out without my insurance information?”

  “Aren’t those things in your purse?”

  “That’s exactly where they are, but my purse is in my trailer.” Maddie really did feel like bawling then. This brick wall she didn’t need!

  “Maddie, your purse is in the closet with your clothes. Don’t you remember? A very nice young woman brought your purse…she said that you’d probably need it…and it was put with your other things.”

  Maddie’s head swam in a concerted effort to figure out who the “nice young woman” was. For one thing, her purse was—or had been—in her locked trailer and she was the only one with a key. She took nothing with her to a contest, which was fairly common practice amongst rodeo contestants. Even loose change in a pocket could cause injury during a fall, so everyone pretty much did his or her thing with empty pockets.

  Given the circumstances she could only conclude that what had been delivered by visitors she had absolutely no recollection of seeing was something other than her purse.

  But she was curious about it, all the same. “Would you mind getting it for me?”

  “Wouldn’t mind at all.” The nurse went to the closet and returned with…Maddie’s purse!

  “How…who…for goodness sake,” she sputtered. “It is my purse, but how did someone go into my trailer to get it?”

  “Wouldn’t know, honey. See you later.” The nurse departed.

  Maddie opened her purse and saw, with relief, her wallet. She also saw a rosy pink piece of paper, which she knew for a fact hadn’t been in there the last time she’d looked. She took it out and unfolded it. It was a handwritten note and Maddie quickly read it.

  Maddie,

  I’m terribly sorry about your accident. Most of us in rodeo are not happy to win by default, which is what happened today. This is one trophy for which I feel no pride. At any rate, after they took you away in the ambulance I got to worrying about you being so alone in Austin. It also occurred to me that you didn’t have anything important with you, such as your wallet. So here it is.

  I’m sure you’re wondering by now how I got into your trailer to get your purse. Don’t worry, I di
dn’t break in. It was only logical that you would have a door key hidden on or near the trailer, so I went hunting for it. Obviously I found it or you wouldn’t be reading this note but it took me a while.

  I’m off to Abilene and then Laredo—you have the schedule—and since I feel certain that you’ll hit the circuit as soon as you’re able, we’ll be seeing each other again. I hope it will be very soon.

  Janie Weston

  Maddie almost couldn’t believe what she’d just read. It was so nice of Janie to go out of her way like this that Maddie was truly stunned. While she and Janie were friendly to each other, they’d never really been buddies. Frowning slightly, Maddie couldn’t elude the fact that she had very few close friends. In fact, she was hard-pressed to come up with even one. It was the lifestyle, the endless traveling, the moving on to one rodeo while a person who might have become a good friend went in another direction to the rodeo of her or his choice. For that same reason and the fact that followers of rodeo usually hung out in groups, it had been ages since Maddie had done more than drink a beer or have a dance with a man.

  Sighing heavily, Maddie took out her wallet and flipped it open. The very first thing she saw was the snapshot of her brother. “Mark,” she whispered, and studied the handsome features of her older brother. With their parents gone, Mark was all she had. Oh, there were plenty of Kincaids living in the Whitehorn, Montana area, but none of them meant to her what Mark did.

  Loneliness suddenly beset her. She needed to talk to Mark. Maybe she needed to hear him say something sympathetic, something kind and loving that would bring tears to her eyes and joy to her heart.

  No, she didn’t want sympathy, not even from Mark. But she really would like to talk to him, and years ago he’d made her promise that if she was ever ill or injured she would let him know. He didn’t entirely approve of her unsettled lifestyle, and no doubt she’d get a brotherly lecture on the dangers inherent in her chosen career. But he’d be sweet, too, once she told him about the accident.