Whirlwind Groom

by Debra Cowan

  The fabric was transparent. Josie could see her nipples, her navel, everything she owned. Which meant he had, too.

  The heat that flushed her from head to toe had her easing herself up and reaching for the sheet.

  “You’re awake,” he said, turning around.

  How had he known that? Startled, she made a desperate grab for the linen and caught the corner, drawing it up to her chest.

  “Every time I did that, you kicked it off.”

  She frowned at the tired rasp of his voice. Dark stubble shadowed his too-strong jaw, sharpening the angles of his face. His eyes burned with blue fire and his coffee-dark hair was furrowed from his fingers. His hat hung on the chair beside her bed.

  He moved over to her. She pressed the sheet to her breasts, mortified at the thought that Davis Lee had seen her nearly naked.

  He reached for the pitcher on the bedside table. After pouring water into a glass, he bent down and slid one hard, hot hand under her neck to hold her head.

  His touch was gentle, at odds with the no-nonsense line of his lips, the cool knowing in his eyes. She sipped, looking down to escape his intense gaze. The liquid soothed the parched heat of her mouth but didn’t quench her thirst.

  She drank greedily and he pulled back a little.

  “Easy,” he murmured.

  Trying to slow down, she finished the rest. He lowered her head back to the pillow and returned the glass to the bedside table. Her body still burned with fever, but she could feel the brand of his touch on her nape. His gaze on her body.

  Her eyes met his and she was struck by the hard glitter of want in his eyes. Jaw tightening, he stepped away, behind the chair.

  She fastened her gaze on her hands. Weakness pulled at her. “I thought Catherine was here.”

  “She was called away on an emergency.”

  It took too much effort to nod so Josie just absorbed the information. The mildness of Davis Lee’s voice relaxed her unease enough that she glanced at him. No emotion showed now on his handsome face, but his body was taut with a subtle tension. She didn’t recall him coming back after he’d fetched the herbs for Catherine.

  He gestured to her leg. “Still hurt pretty bad?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you remember much of what happened after I brought you here?”

  “Not really. Catherine, the snakeroot.” Somewhere in her mushy brain, she recalled another woman. Older. “Was Mrs. Wavers here?”

  “For a bit.”

  Her body ached. She didn’t have the energy of a sun-warmed cat. “I was unconscious.”

  He nodded.

  “How long?”

  “Ten or twelve minutes without coming to. Then you were in and out.”

  She was thirsty and the pain in her leg radiated through her whole body. “I don’t remember anything else.”

  “You were burning up.” He felt her forehead, his big, rough hand gentle on her skin. “Still are.”

  “Yes, I remember the fever….”

  And strong hands moving softly over her face, her chest. Her gaze flew to Davis Lee. It had been him. Touching her. Soothing her.

  His gaze dipped, skimmed over her body.

  She squirmed beneath the sheet. “So…how long have you been here?”

  “A while.”

  She wondered if this dizziness was due to the snakebite or the blue-eyed man standing over her. “Who’s watching the jail?”

  “Your window has a perfect view of it.” His gaze sharpened like a newly whetted blade. “But Jake stayed with the prisoner.”

  His pointed answer told her he was on to her spying, but she couldn’t summon the energy to care or to keep it in her head for more than a fleeting moment. She could barely lift the sheet to blot her damp forehead and neck. For the first time she wondered if Davis Lee could be held responsible for McDougal dying in his custody. She wouldn’t want that.

  Despite her listlessness and dulled thoughts, she was well aware he had saved her life. He didn’t look all that pleased about it. Neither was she. She didn’t want to owe him, but she couldn’t dance around the fact that she did.

  “I…thank you. For saving my life,” she said quietly.

  His shoulder lifted. “You’re the one who knew what to do. I guess that’s because your pa’s a doctor.”

  “I could’ve died out there.” She saw a flare of emotion burn through the guarded blue depths of his eyes.

  Sober acknowledgment passed between them, and Josie felt a solid connection to another person that she hadn’t experienced since the deaths of her parents.

  He gave her a crooked grin. “You cured of wanting those shooting lessons?”

  “No.” She licked her parched lips and tried for a smile. “I might have to save you sometime.”

  He chuckled. “Unless you use something other than a gun, I don’t have a prayer.”

  “My aim will improve,” she said weakly.

  “I’d say it has to.” His eyes crinkled at the corners. He poured more water and held her head to drink. “Feel like you’re gonna make it now?”

  “I think so.”

  His fixed attention made Josie think he wanted to say something further, but the moment was lost as Catherine walked into the room.

  “Morning,” he said. Immediate relief spread across Davis Lee’s face. “Doin’ all right?”

  “Yes.” The nurse’s gaze met his and it seemed that an unspoken message passed between them. She wore the same blue dress Josie recalled from last night.

  He smiled fully at his friend, a smile Josie had seen only one other time. The expression blunted the sharp angles of his face. There was something in his demeanor…. Fondness, respect, something deep and soft.

  Josie’s gaze shifted to the raven-haired woman then back to Davis Lee. There had been something between them once. When? How serious?

  Catherine’s beautiful face was exhausted, but her eyes lit up at the sight of Josie. “I’m glad to see you’re awake.”

  “It’s only been a few minutes.” The lawman scrubbed a hand across his face, stepping back to make room for her.

  “I spoke to Dr. Butler about coming in to check you, but he thinks I’m doing everything possible. Still, if you’d rather he examine you, I’d be happy to send for him.”

  “No. I think you’re doing just fine.”

  “I guess between the two of us we figured it out, didn’t we?” Catherine smiled and put a cool hand against Josie’s forehead. “I think your fever’s down a bit.”

  Josie blotted her wet face and chest with the sheet. “Now the sweats.”

  “I’m afraid so. I can give you a sponge bath. That will make you feel a little better.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I can bring a bathing tub up here, Catherine,” Davis Lee said. “If you want it.”

  She smiled. “That would be wonderful. I think Josie would appreciate a real bath.”

  “Consider it done.”

  Josie wasn’t going to complain about getting in the water rather than just getting a wiping-down, but she was a little surprised that the sheriff would volunteer for such a chore when it would be easier if she just took the sponge bath. Josie knew his offer had more to do with his friendship with the nurse than anything about her.

  Catherine squeezed Josie’s shoulder. “I want to make another poultice and some tea for you.”

  Davis Lee had remained in his spot away from the bed. “Want me to bring that tub now or wait for you to get what you need?”

  “Now, if you don’t mind.”

  He cocked his head toward the door in a silent request and Catherine joined him. Their voices were too low for Josie to make out any words then he left.

  As he left, the other woman returned to Josie. “I started the tea before I came up. It’s steeping. When he returns, I’ll get it.”

  “I don’t look forward to drinking it. Not if it tastes anything like this poultice smells.”

  “I don’t blame you.” Catherine made a fa
ce. “Since Davis Lee is gone for a bit, let me check your wound.”

  Pushing the leg of Josie’s combination up a little farther, she untied the cloth strips holding the splint in place then gently unwrapped the dressing, peeling it away with the poultice.

  “Can you tell anything yet?” Josie tried to see but Catherine hid her view.

  “I don’t see any signs of infection, but it’s still quite swollen. I think the poultice is working but it will take a while.”

  “How does the cut look?”

  “The scar probably won’t be too unsightly. Davis Lee was careful.”

  “Yes, he was.” Josie bit the inside of her cheek then asked Catherine what she hadn’t been able to ask the man who’d saved her life. “Did you undress me?”

  “Yes.” She smiled. “And I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you woke. I hope you weren’t uncomfortable with Davis Lee.”

  Of course not, she thought testily. She was quite used to being practically naked and alone with men who gave her the shivers. “No,” she mumbled.

  Catherine pressed a clean dry rag to Josie’s perspiring forehead and chest. “The bath will help your fever to come down. Davis Lee said you were a little out of your head.”

  Josie frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Just that you said some things.”

  As if her heart weren’t already beating too fast. “What things?”

  “He didn’t say.” She grinned. “Are you worried you said something shocking?”

  “Of course not,” Josie said weakly. But she was. What had she said? “I appreciate you asking him to stay with me during the night while you tended to your other patient.”

  “Oh, I didn’t ask him. Esther agreed to stay with you when I was called away, but when Davis Lee came to check on you, he found her asleep.”

  He had come to check on her? “He didn’t tell me that.”

  Catherine smiled.

  “The two of you are really good friends,” Josie ventured, her eyes growing heavy.

  “Yes. He was one of the first people I met when I moved here. One of the sweetest men I know.”

  Sweet? That was a word Josie hadn’t put to the sheriff. “Were you…the two of you ever…?”

  “Involved? Not seriously.”

  “I guess that was before you fell in love with his cousin?”

  “Yes.” At the mention of her betrothed, the same serene pleasure Josie had observed on her mother’s face when she spoke about her father suffused Catherine’s features.

  “Does Davis Lee still care for you that way?”

  “Oh, no.”

  Her tongue felt thick. She fought the drowsiness spreading through her. “He seems to have taken your decision well.”

  “He knew it before I did.”

  A loud clambering, interspersed with Davis Lee’s husky voice, had Josie’s gaze going to the door. In a few seconds, he walked into the room, carrying an oblong tin bathtub. Muscles in his shoulders and arms bunched beneath his shirt as he placed the tub against the far wall. She noticed then that someone had moved her fabric and stacked it neatly in the corner. Catherine? Esther? Or Davis Lee?

  He started out the door again and the nurse said over her shoulder, “I can bring the water up with Penn’s dumbwaiter.”

  “I’ll do it. Oh, Mitchell Orr was downstairs checking on Josie. I told him she was doing okay, but wasn’t up to having visitors right now.”

  “That’s good,” Catherine murmured, cleaning the wound again.

  Josie didn’t much appreciate Davis Lee saying who could and couldn’t see her, but she had no energy to protest. Or visit with anyone either, if she were honest. “Thank you,” she said breathlessly.

  “You’re welcome.” His narrowed gaze probed hers, and he looked like he wanted to slap her in wrist irons.

  Why? Because he knew she was watching the jail? Or maybe because of what she’d said in her fever? Panic flickered. What had she said?

  Drat this snakebite! And her fever! And him! What if she had blurted out her reason for coming to Whirlwind to the one man who could stop her from getting justice for her family—the man who had saved her life?

  It was another three days before Josie could get out of bed, and she was more than ready. Her backside would probably be permanently numb from being pressed into that mattress for so long. On Friday afternoon, she was planted in a chair looking out the window and was working on the same tablecloth hem she’d been working on since after lunch.

  The fever and sweats had finally passed and her vision was no longer blurry. But her left calf was still somewhat swollen and she was weak. Catherine said she would be for a while and that she had to rest often.

  Even if Josie hadn’t given the nurse her word, she would’ve gone easy. Just having a bath and washing her hair this morning had left her feeling wobbly. It didn’t help the boneless feeling in her legs when she put on a clean undergarment and realized her corset was missing. No, not missing. Davis Lee had it. And her scalpel, too.

  She wrinkled her nose, watching people move across the street below, go in and out of Haskell’s, the Pearl Restaurant. Asking for her weapon would pose no problem, but Josie did not fancy asking for her corset at all. Why couldn’t he just discreetly give it to her? She would have to talk to him alone, and considering that Davis Lee had taken pains to not be alone with her since that morning he’d seen her nearly naked, it would only make asking for her underwear more awkward.

  All morning, she had chewed on that delicate problem as much as she had fretted about Ian McDougal. Had there been any change with him while she was indisposed? Was he still in jail? She wanted to believe he was, but she couldn’t assume, not after he’d managed to elude a cell altogether after murdering her parents and William. Not after he’d managed to escape several months ago from Davis Lee and his cousin, the Texas Ranger.

  If McDougal were still in jail, she could keep an eye on him from here as she had intended, but if plans had been made for his trial or to move him, Josie would have to do something, and right now she didn’t have the strength to do more than lift her hairbrush. Josie could’ve asked Catherine when the nurse had stopped by this morning, but she didn’t want it getting back to Davis Lee. He was already suspicious of her.

  When Esther had brought her lunch, Josie tiptoed around the subject by asking the woman if anything exciting had happened in town while she’d been ill. Esther told her about the baby Catherine had delivered the first night of Josie’s illness, that Charlie Haskell and his nephew had been over twice to ask about her and that Catherine’s little brother, Andrew, had won the county spelling bee.

  All things that made Josie feel more a part of Whirlwind, but didn’t do her one whit of good as far as Ian McDougal was concerned. When Josie asked her straight out about the prisoner, the other woman had pursed her lips then said she had no idea if he was here, there or yon.

  Frustration swirled inside her. She would be able to find out for herself if she could take a walk in town or sit in the hotel’s lobby, but she didn’t think her weak-as-powder legs could even manage the stairs.

  A dark-haired man coming out of the telegraph office drew her eye. The trim haircut, the wide shoulders molded by a white shirt were familiar and Josie felt a little tug of feminine appreciation in her belly. Davis Lee stepped down into the street, settling his hat on his head as he talked to two of the biggest men she had ever seen.

  One had black hair and one had hair just shy of black. They were at least two inches taller than Davis Lee’s six-foot-two, with arms so massive they could probably hoist a cow. Her attention stayed on the lanky sheriff. He might not be as big, but he was surely every bit as strong. Josie had felt that for herself.

  Davis Lee had been by to check on her every day but he hadn’t set foot in her room again. He always came when Catherine was here and he didn’t venture inside. Josie dismissed the little pinch of hurt she felt over that. Just because he had saved her life didn’t mean she was going soft in the
head over him.

  She should be glad he was keeping his distance. She was glad. If for no other reason than the man had seen far more of her body than he ought and she couldn’t look him in the eye.

  Davis Lee finished his conversation with the two men and started back toward the jail.

  A knock sounded on the door. “Josie?”

  She recognized Esther’s voice. “Come in.”

  The door opened a crack and the woman stuck her head in the room. “You’ve got a couple of visitors if you’re up for it. Cora Wilkes and her brother.”

  Josie remembered meeting the pair at church. Had that been only five days ago? She felt she had been indisposed for weeks. Loren Barnes had told her he was new to Whirlwind, too. She smiled. “How nice. Tell them to come in.”

  She braced one hand on the windowsill for balance and as she got to her feet, Esther pushed the door wide. Cora and her brother walked in, smiles wreathing their faces. The older woman was probably six inches taller than Josie, with a slender, straight-spined build. Her warm smile didn’t erase the shadow of sadness in her hazel eyes, but her brother’s blue eyes twinkled.

  Cora adjusted the basket that hung over her arm. “You feel free to tell us if you’re too spent for company.”

  “I’m getting tired of my own.” Josie smiled. “I’m sorry I don’t have more chairs.”

  “We won’t stay long. Just wanted to come by and see how you were doing.” Loren topped his sister by about three inches. His hair was completely white whereas Cora’s was a deep brown with a few silver threads.

  “It can be hard when you’re new somewhere and run into trouble,” Cora said. “You go ahead and sit down. Catherine said you’d be weak.”

  Josie, her knees already wobbling, sank gratefully back into the chair. She stuck her needle into the tablecloth and laid it in her lap.

  Loren indicated the window with the tilt of his head. “Got yourself a nice view.”

  “Yes. I was getting tired of staring at the walls.” She bet these two would know if there was any news about McDougal.