A Texas Christmas

by Thomas, Jodi Jodi Thomas

  She watched as if everything were happening in one long, stretched-out second. The ax handle hit Barney hard in the back of the head, sending him halfway across the counter and tumbling like a rag doll.

  Louis swung his gun around and fired blindly into the darkened store as another swing slapped against his jaw so hard she heard bone break. The one called Adler backed up, drawing his gun just as the farmer stepped from the shadows swinging.

  Maggie lifted the Colt and fired toward Boss Adler more to save the farmer than trying to hurt the robber.

  Two blasts rang as one. The farmer spun and tumbled as Boss ran for the door.

  She rushed around the counter with the gun in her hand and fired again. Just as Boss barreled through the door, she heard him scream and grab his leg, then limp away.

  Maggie dropped the gun and ran to the farmer. He’d risked his life to help her. If he’d just stayed in the darkness, he wouldn’t have been hurt. Somehow this was all her fault.

  It was too dark near the floor to see clearly. “Are you all right?” she yelled, brushing her hand over warm blood spilling across his shoulder. “I need to get you a doctor.”

  To her surprise, he sat up, pushing her hand away. “I’m fine,” he said almost calmly. “And I’m not deaf, Maggie. Stop yelling at me.”

  She took a long breath. Before she could thank the farmer, the sheriff and several other men came running through the broken door. Sheriff Raines, his gun drawn, moved straight toward her as the others spread out, lighting lamps and looking around.

  “Are you all right, Miss Allison?”

  “Yes,” she said. “This man stopped the others from robbing me.”

  The sheriff looked at the man next to her. “You sure he wasn’t one of the robbers? He’s a Thompson.”

  “I’m sure. Mr. Thompson saved my life, Sheriff. Those two,” she pointed at Barney draped across her counter, still out cold, and Louis wailing as he held his bloody face, “were trying to not only take my money, but they were . . .” She couldn’t say the words. She wouldn’t.

  Thompson filled in the blank. “They were planning to molest her and probably leave her dead. I heard them talking at the livery when I rode in to pick up one of my horses.” He stood slowly but remained close to her. “The one called Boss mentioned to Louis that they didn’t plan to leave a witness.”

  Maggie began to shake again and felt Thompson’s arm go round her waist as if bracing her. He continued talking to the sheriff. “I saw the leader once a few years ago. He’s Boss Adler, I think.”

  Sheriff Raines shook his head. “He’s a bad one, but I’ve never been close enough to get a good look at him.” Raising an eyebrow, he added, “Never known a Thompson to get involved with anything going on in town either. You folks don’t seem to like kin, much less other people.”

  “Maybe we just like to be left alone.” Sam was finished talking.

  Louis stopped crying long enough to swear and say, “Boss’ll kill every last one of you here. That’s why he’s never been caught. He don’t leave no witnesses to testify against him.”

  Maggie didn’t miss the way the sheriff and Thompson exchanged looks and, without another word, she knew she was in big trouble.

  Chapter 3

  Sam staggered a half step forward and was aware that suddenly Maggie was holding him up.

  “Get him off his feet,” Sheriff Raines ordered. “I’ll go for the doctor.”

  Sam wanted to argue, but the room seemed to be moving. He felt like a leaf floating over turbulent water.

  “Can you walk?” Maggie whispered from close by.

  He nodded and let her help him up the stairs behind the counter. She felt good next to him, holding on to him, moving with him each step. He hadn’t touched a woman in over two years, and the nearness of her shocked his system.

  They stepped through a doorway into a small living quarters. As they moved to a table with only one chair, he tried to take in all that surrounded him. At first all he saw were colors. Reds and yellow and blues everywhere. Upholstered chairs and curtains and rugs. Shiny pots and glass ornaments, and flowers blooming indoors. This had to be Maggie’s apartment, but he’d never have dreamed that she would live surrounded by color.

  “If you’ll tug off your coat and shirt, I’ll see what I can do to clean up the wound before Doc Mitchell gets here.” She turned around and began pouring water into a pan as if she expected him to follow orders.

  “You don’t—”

  She cut in before he could finish. “Don’t be a fool, Mr. Thompson. I’ve had training in nursing. I’m perfectly capable of cleaning the wound of the stranger who saved my life.”

  She tied an apron around her waist and began rummaging through a drawer.

  “I’m not a stranger, Maggie,” he said as he tugged off his coat. “We used to be friends. I’m . . .”

  She looked up, her green eyes challenging. “You’re Samuel Thompson. I remember you.”

  He smiled as he unbuttoned his shirt. “I’m glad.”

  She carried a bundle of cotton bandages toward the table. “You were the only one in the school here who was nice to me. I remember running home every day and crying. I’d tell my mother the only one who didn’t yell at me was Samuel Thompson, and my mother would always say, ‘That Samuel Thompson must be a saint.’”

  He relaxed with a smile. “Funny, I remember you and those green eyes, but I’d forgotten Miss Rogers called me Samuel.”

  Maggie put her hand on his bare shoulder. “It’s good to see you again, Samuel. I wish you’d told me who you were when you first came in.”

  He wished he had, also, but he wasn’t sure how he would have reacted if he’d introduced himself and she’d said she didn’t remember him. She’d meant so much to him growing up. Even though he rarely saw her after that year, she’d made him a better man. So many times when he’d almost given up on getting started and building a life, he’d thought of her and how she’d always pushed him to do his best.

  Sitting very still, he watched her as she cleaned away the blood. “It’s not bad. An entrance and an exit wound at your shoulder. Looks like it missed the bone, but it sure is bleeding. I’ll try a cold compress.” As she worked, she lectured him on how he shouldn’t step into the middle of a robbery.

  She was so close to him, he could feel her breath against his jaw and the slight hesitation of her touch as if she were afraid of hurting him. Taking a deep breath, he relaxed remembering the smell of her hair. Honeysuckle. Somehow he knew she’d still smell of honeysuckle.

  “Can you clean it good and bandage it tight for me? I really need to be getting home. I’ve got a lot of work to do before this storm hits.”

  “Of course. Your wife is probably wondering about you.” Her voice sounded more formal suddenly. “But I’d recommend you see—”

  “My wife died two years ago in childbirth,” he interrupted.

  Green eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry. Did the baby live?”

  Sam watched her closely. “He only weighed a little over three pounds.”

  She shook her head. “I’m so sorry, Samuel.” Her hand brushed his shoulder as she pressed against the wound to stop the bleeding.

  They heard someone coming up the stairs and waited until the sheriff appeared, his hat in hand. He looked around and hesitated as if unsure if he should come inside.

  “The doctor?” Maggie said without moving away from Sam.

  Sheriff Raines seemed relieved to have something to say. “He ain’t coming. I found him passed out at the Wilson party. Someone had propped him up in a chair, and I don’t think anyone had noticed he was out cold.”

  “I don’t need him,” Sam snapped. “Maggie can bandage me up better than he could anyway.”

  Raines looked confused. “That right, Miss Allison?”

  She smiled. “I’ll do my best. Samuel and I have been friends for years, Sheriff. I’d hate to lose him to poor skills. Though I’m no nurse, I have an ointment in my medical k
it that will keep down the infection, and I do know how to dress a wound.”

  The sheriff looked confused. “You two are friends?”

  Sam smiled at her as she worked. “We have been since the first grade.”

  “Well, good, ’cause my deputy says the two outlaws we got over in the jail are yelling about how Boss Adler will be back soon to kill both of you. I’ve been trying my best to think of somewhere Miss Allison could go to be safe, but I doubt anyone in town would want to risk their family to offer her a place. Now I know you two are friends, I think it might be a good idea if you took her home with you, Thompson. Nobody but your kin has ever been down in that part of the canyon, so she’d be safe there. If Boss does try to come after you and her, he’ll never figure out which place is yours, and if he knocks on very many Thompson kin doors, they’ll probably shoot him for being a bother.”

  “More than likely,” Sam said as he agreed with the sheriff. “But I’m sure Maggie would be safer here.” He couldn’t shake the feeling that the sheriff wanted her gone more than he wanted her safe.

  “No,” she whispered. “I know of no one who’d risk his or her life to hide me, and I’d never ask you to.”

  When he turned to look at her, he knew she was telling the truth. In almost twenty years nothing had changed, he realized. Neither one of them had any friends in this place. He didn’t want to take her home with him, but he couldn’t leave her here.

  She tied off the bandage as he looked at the sheriff. “If you’ll stay here while she packs a few things, I’ll go get my horses and take her with me, but you’ll tell no one, not even the deputies, where she’s gone.”

  Raines looked like he wasn’t in favor of the idea he’d suggested, but he nodded as Sam pulled on his bloody shirt over the bandages. “No one would believe me anyway.” The sheriff shrugged. “I’ve never known a Thompson to invite anyone down into that canyon.”

  Sam didn’t argue. He just nodded once to Maggie and walked out.

  Wrapped in his own thoughts, Sam walked back to where he’d tied his horses. He had little use for the sheriff. If it didn’t happen in his town, he really wasn’t interested. Three years ago when Otis Dolton, Sam’s neighbor, beat his fifteen-year-old daughter half to death, the sheriff didn’t bother to come out and talk to Otis.

  The next time Danni Dolton was beaten, she made it as far as Sam’s house, crying that if she’d gone toward town her father would just find her and beat her for running away. Sam took the kid in and cared for her. Danni was more girl than woman, afraid of the world. She’d been keeping house and cooking for her old man since her mother died. Even though Sam never hurt her, she was usually as far away as she could get from him in the house and she refused to go farther than the barn for fear her father would snatch her.

  When her dad showed up to take her back, Sam stood between them while the old man yelled at her. Dolton swore he’d be back with the sheriff. Sam doubted that, but to make sure Danni never had to go back to hell, they went over to Tascosa and got married.

  After that, she’d come by the fire at night and he’d read to her from one of his books. It didn’t seem to matter what he read, she just liked listening. She never ate a meal with him or talked unless she had to. They’d been married about six months when she crawled in bed with him. She lay perfectly still without her nightgown on as if knowing what was to come. He rolled near her and asked her twice if she wanted this before he saw her nod in the shadows.

  Without a word, he’d mated with her. After that, she’d come to him now and then. She never touched him. He never forced her or even touched her more than was necessary. He knew nothing of lovemaking, but he knew how to mate. When he finished, she’d move away and he’d feel so hollow inside he feared he might freeze to death.

  After she died, he swore he’d never get involved with anyone again. Now he was taking the one woman he’d ever cared about home with him. If he hadn’t stayed away from Danni when she was under his roof, how was he ever going to stay away from Maggie? Danni never even told him she liked him, much less loved him, and Maggie had just made it plain that he was probably the only friend she had.

  He swore, suddenly realizing when Maggie got to his house she’d probably turn around and ride right back to town. What faced her at his place just might be more frightening than Boss Adler.

  Chapter 4

  Maggie moved through the small rooms of her apartment over the store. In the past hour she’d been frightened almost out of her mind. She’d shot a man and found a friend. She wasn’t sure how much more excitement she could take, but now it seemed she was going home with a man so that an outlaw wouldn’t kill her. Considering everything, packing seemed a simple thing to do, so she concentrated on that.

  She’d need warm clothes. If he was a farmer, he might live in a shack where the wind circled through. She’d need sturdy shoes and warm socks. Maybe wool trousers would be more serviceable than a dress. With bag in hand she ran downstairs and pulled clothes from the shelves of her own store, something she rarely did.

  By the time Samuel returned, she had two carpetbags full and was waiting by the back door. She’d also packed a tote sack of food. She didn’t want to put Samuel out or shorten his winter food supply and, since she didn’t know what he had, she didn’t know what she needed, so she took one of everything. Sheriff Raines told her he’d send telegrams out tomorrow about Boss Adler, but he doubted with Christmas and the storm if anyone would have time to look at them for a week or so. With luck someone would spot Adler and hold him.

  “A whole week,” she whispered, almost afraid to be excited. She’d grown up traveling to school and on vacations with her aunt. Except for the summer, she’d spent all school holidays with teachers who’d offered her a place for a small fee. The past year she’d spent in Kasota Springs had been torture. Everyone welcomed her, but no one invited her anywhere. People her age were married with families of their own, and those older always seemed to have their settled groups. Maggie had no museums to wander through or libraries to spend her free afternoons in. No plays, no music, and most important, no one to talk to.

  She’d grown from a bossy, know-it-all little girl to an opinionated, overeducated woman. It bothered her that she’d be spending another Christmas alone if it hadn’t been for Boss Adler and the robbery. Maybe she should send the man a thank-you card once he was incarcerated. Even a drafty barn of a place sounded better than being all by herself.

  “Oh, one more thing,” she said as she passed the sheriff and ran back into the store. “Tell Samuel to wait for me.”

  She could hear the sheriff complaining that there couldn’t possibly be anything else. He claimed to have seen wagon trains coming west with less baggage.

  Maggie ignored him as she searched the counters. A watch—too much. A knife—too impersonal. Cuff links—too formal. A ring—too expensive. Then she saw it. A book. Not too personal, or formal, or expensive. She shoved it into a third carpetbag along with the cash box, her journal, and a shirt to replace his bloody one. As she passed the counter, she left a quick note to the woman who worked for her saying simply, “Take care of things for me until I return.”

  Sam and Raines were loading up her luggage when she reached the porch. “Sheriff, will you have someone hammer a board over the broken door?”

  “Sure,” the sheriff answered as if bothered by the request.

  “I’ll ride the horse without the saddle,” Sam said as he smiled at her, “but you’ll have to carry most of the luggage tied behind you.”

  “I can’t ride. I’ve only been on a horse one time in my life and I fell off then.” Panic log-piled in her brain. “I don’t know anything about how to handle a horse. Don’t you have a buggy? I can handle a buggy with some skill.”

  The sheriff and Sam looked at her as if she wasn’t speaking English. How could a woman in this part of the country not ride? It must seem as strange as saying she couldn’t eat or breathe.

  “You’re joking.” Sam r
aised an eyebrow. “Why would I own a buggy? I’m sorry, Maggie, but the only way down into the canyon is on horseback. You’ll have to ride.”

  She shook her head and thought about informing him that many ladies in the cities didn’t straddle a horse, but she didn’t think now was the time to educate him since she seemed to be the one lacking in skill.

  Raines stepped inside and grabbed a sawbuck from the store. He tossed the pack saddle over the extra horse. Without a word, the men moved all the luggage to the bareback horse. When the sheriff loaded the last bag, he turned and asked, “You sure that’s all, miss?”

  Before she could fire back an answer, Sam said simply, “Maggie, you take as much as you need to be comfortable. I don’t want you feeling like you’re doing without.”

  She almost kissed the man. If his cheek had been free of hair, she might have tried. She could never abide a man with hair on his face. It always seemed so backwoods somehow.

  The sheriff helped her up into the saddle as if in a hurry to be rid of a problem. He didn’t like trouble, and if Boss Adler came back to kill her, there was bound to be trouble. He held the horse while Sam swung up behind her with one hand.

  Sam reached around her for the reins. “I’ll check in with you in about a week,” he told Raines. “If you need us before then, leave a red bandanna on the north corner of Lamar’s fence. I’ll see it from the canyon.”

  “Don’t suppose you want to tell me where you live?” the sheriff tried. “That canyon runs for a hundred miles.”

  “Not on your life. The only way I’ll know Maggie is safe is if no one can find her.” He looped the lead for the other horse around the saddle horn and urged his mount forward as his legs settled in behind her and he pulled her body back against his.

  Maggie sat as still and straight as she could, but she was very much aware of the man behind her as they seemed to ride into complete blackness. In sudden panic, she glanced back at the fading lights of town.

  “Don’t worry, Maggie, I’ll bring you back when this is all over.” His words were low near her ear and she calmed.