by Anna Schmidt
“Amanda, pull yourself together,” Ezra Baxter instructed. “Come, let me take you back to the house and…”
She tightened her arms around Seth. “Get away from me,” she whispered in a feral hiss he barely recognized as her voice. “You belong in jail—you and the sheriff and…”
Afraid that she was about to get herself shot as well, Seth found the strength to touch her hand. As he had hoped, the unexpected sign of life ended her tirade and brought her attention fully to him. “Seth?”
“Right here,” he managed.
“Oh, Seth, please don’t die on me.” The tears were a downpour now, as she placed kisses on his hair and forehead.
“Not planning on it,” he whispered, and then things went black.
The next time he came to, it was daylight, and he was lying on a bed in a room with large windows that looked out onto the town. He was back at the boardinghouse, but this wasn’t his room.
He let his eyes adjust to the light as he scanned his surroundings and saw Amanda asleep in a rocking chair pulled close to his bedside. She was still wearing the blue party dress, now scorched at the hem, and her hair covered her shoulders and half her face, which was smudged with soot from the fire.
He heard footsteps in the hallway and turned his attention to the door. For one brief instant he wondered what had happened to his gun. For that matter, where were his clothes? He was shirtless and wearing only his underwear under the covers. When he tried to move, he saw his torso had been tightly wrapped in a bandage that looped over his left shoulder.
“Well, look who decided to come back among the living,” Miss Dooley whispered as she tiptoed into the room and set a tray on the edge of the writing desk near the window. “Glad she finally lost the battle to stay awake.” She jerked a thumb at Amanda then poured tea into a cup and brought it to him. “She was determined to keep her vigil, and my guess is she’ll be madder than a—”
Amanda sat up suddenly. She looked at Seth, her eyes wide with panic, and he realized it was half a minute before she realized he was awake and sipping some of the bitter brew Miss Dooley called herbal tea.
“Mornin’,” he croaked. If he had hoped she would run to him, throw herself onto the bed and wrap her arms around him, he was sadly disappointed.
She scowled at the sunlight streaming through the large windows, then turned to Miss Dooley. “You let me sleep.”
“I didn’t ‘let you’ do nothin’, missy. You’re as human as the rest of us, and that means, sooner or later, you’re gonna need to close those big green eyes of yours whether you like it or not.”
Amanda’s expression softened to one of tender concern as she stood next to the bed and brushed Seth’s hair away from his forehead. “How’s the pain?”
“It’s there,” he said, and tried to grin.
“I’ve sent for Addie. Jim was amazing in getting the bullet out, but you need to be examined by a real doctor. Addie will know what’s best.”
“We have doctors here in Tucson,” Miss Dooley said.
Amanda and Seth ignored her.
“Any word from Sam?” he asked.
“Who is Sam?” The two women spoke in unison.
Seth shook his head to clear it and grimaced at the pain that shot up his side. “My brother,” he managed, realizing there had been no time to let Amanda know that he had found his brother.
“He had a part in this business?” Miss Dooley eyed him suspiciously, as if she had not quite made up her mind if he could be trusted.
The jig was up, and he’d already decided to leave his job with Wells Fargo, so what would be the harm in telling them everything? But caution was inbred in him, so he ignored the landlady’s question. “Did the Stock gang get away clean?”
“So far,” Miss Dooley replied before Amanda could tell him anything. “Them and that woman. Mrs. Rosewood indeed,” she huffed. “Well, I’ll let you know soon as the doctor gets here. Meanwhile, Miss Porterfield, may I suggest you find time to make yourself a bit more presentable? You can use my room and the bath downstairs.”
“Someone needs to stay here with—”
“I’ll be all right, Amanda. Go on now.” The truth was he needed time to think, to replay everything that had happened before he got shot. Where had he last seen Sam? And where was the kid now?
* * *
Amanda gathered fresh clothing while Miss Dooley kept a close watch on her from the doorway. Taking things from her wardrobe with Seth lying there watching her seemed incredibly intimate in spite of Miss Dooley’s presence. She had refused to leave Seth when they brought him back to the boardinghouse, but Miss Dooley had insisted it would be inappropriate for Amanda to be in Seth’s room, and had finally agreed to allow him to lie in her bed—as long as the door remained wide open.
As she gathered her brush and extra pins for her hair, Amanda felt her cheeks and the back of her neck flush. She found it impossible to look at Seth directly as she bundled her things in her arms and left the room.
Downstairs, Miss Dooley instructed Bessie to prepare a bath for Amanda and to see that she had something to eat. Under any other circumstances, Amanda would have been tempted to linger in the warm water, even after she had soiled it by washing the grime and smoke from her hair. But now that Seth had regained consciousness, there were other matters that needed her attention.
Eli and Ellie topped that list. Kitty Caldwell had assured Amanda that, even as their father was led off to jail by the sheriff’s deputy—the sheriff himself having been killed—she would stay with the twins and make sure they were safe. That had been a relief. On the other hand, Eli had clearly had a part in it all—even serving as messenger—and she worried that he might take matters into his own hands and make a run for it.
With a weary sigh, she climbed out of the tepid water, wrapped herself in a towel, combed her wet hair before braiding it, and then got dressed in the clothes she regularly wore for teaching.
“I need to see about the Baxter children,” she told Bessie as she hurried through the kitchen on her way out the back door. “Please come get me as soon as Dr. Porterfield arrives.”
To her relief, when she reached the Baxter house, she found Kitty and the twins clearing away the aftermath of the previous night’s party. All three turned to her when she entered the dining room.
“Is he dead?” Eli asked, stuttering with fear.
“No. The doctor is on her way, and we will know more about the extent of his injuries once she has examined him. In the meantime, Eli, I would like a word with you.” She pointed to the library, waited for him to precede her, and then closed the sliding doors with a soft click. “Sit down.” She indicated the chair where his father usually sat and then took the chair opposite him. “You are an extremely intelligent young man, so I assume you have already realized the extent of the trouble that you and your father are in.”
“I wanted to help my father. I heard him telling Sheriff Richter that the bank was about to fail, so I went to the sheriff, and he said I could help my father by running those messages to and from the old ranch.”
“Are you saying that your father is guilty in this crime?”
“No!” Eli’s eyes were wide with confusion. “They blackmailed him. It was the only choice. Sheriff Richter said that they would ruin him and the bank unless I did…”
The boy was near hysterics as he defended his father, who had struck him repeatedly and abused him verbally. There were some things about love that Amanda would never understand.
She reached across the space between them and patted his knee. “It’s all right, Eli. I’m just trying to understand.”
“My father is not a bad man, Miss Porterfield.”
She wondered if Ezra had any idea how loyal and devoted his son was to him. “Then let’s try and figure out how we can help get him through this. Start by telling me everything you know a
bout the gang and the plan to rob the bank.”
“I already told the detective all I know.”
“The detective?”
“The guy that got shot. He works for Wells Fargo undercover, but the gang had him already figured out.”
Amanda took a moment to digest this news. It made sense of the secrecy and the late night outings. On the other hand… “Eli, do you know someone named Sam?”
The boy frowned. “Sam?”
“He’d probably be a little older than you, and he would be involved somehow in this mess.”
“There was a kid—after the old prospector stopped being the one to leave the notes for me to pick up, it was that guy.”
“He was a member of the gang?”
Eli shrugged. “All I know is one night when I picked up the messages I took to that woman at Miss Dooley’s place, there was an envelope with my name on it, and inside was a message I was to deliver to Mr. Grover.”
“And did you?”
“That’s how he knew to be there last night at the bank.” He refused to look directly at her.
“Eli, did you read that message?”
He nodded. “I know I wasn’t supposed to, but I thought maybe…” He stopped talking and stared out the window. “I don’t know what I thought, Miss Porterfield.” He glanced at her. “What do you think will happen to Father?”
Eli looked so miserable that Amanda’s heart went out to him. “I don’t know, Eli, but while this gets sorted out, you must tell the authorities everything you know, everything you saw or heard in the weeks leading up to the robbery. Never has it been more important that you tell the truth, do you understand?”
“Yes, ma’am. Can I go now?”
“You may,” she replied. “Just stay here. We’ll work this out, and Ellie needs you more than anyone else right now.”
Eli nodded and left the room. Amanda stayed seated by the cold fireplace. If the youngest member of the gang was Seth’s brother, what would happen to him? And what would that do to Seth? He was in no condition to go after his brother and rescue him from the gang, and yet she knew he would try.
Kitty knocked lightly at the library door. “The lady doctor and her husband just pulled up.”
Jess. Her brother would surely know how best to go about tracking down Seth’s brother and getting him safely away from the outlaws. “Make sure Eli and Ellie stay here, Kitty,” she said as she hurried away.
Jess and Addie were climbing the front steps when Amanda came running to reach them before they entered the house, where Miss Dooley or someone else might hear her. Her breath still came in short bursts after the smoke and fire. She told them about Seth’s injuries in as few words as possible, and blessedly, Addie didn’t wait for more information. Instead she grabbed her black bag and entered the house, but Amanda kept Jess from following with a hand on his forearm.
“I need your help, Jess.” She told him about Seth’s younger brother and her fear that the boy was mixed up with the outlaws. “I think Seth will try and go after him, and he’s in no condition—”
“It’s out of my hands, Amanda. I have no jurisdiction, even if I wanted to help.”
“But, Seth will—”
Jess took hold of her shoulders and stopped short of shaking her. “Seth Grover is nobody you need to concern yourself with, Amanda. He’s on the right side of the law, but he’s not for you. He’ll break your heart at the very least, and at the very worst, he’ll get you killed if you insist on hanging around him. So stay clear, understood?”
He didn’t wait for an answer, but released her and followed Addie inside.
Amanda remained standing on the steps, her mind working as she tried to think what her next move should be. Jess didn’t know Seth the way she did. The man would take a bullet for her—had taken a bullet for her—and the only possible way to repay him would be to find his brother. Her decision made, she marched up the front steps and then to her room, where Addie completed her examination of Seth’s injuries.
“Well?”
“He’ll live,” Addie replied as she replaced her stethoscope in the bag and stepped into the hall. “It’s a flesh wound. Could have been a lot worse. That pharmacist of yours did a very good job bandaging him until he could get the stitches he needed.”
“But he’s going to make a full recovery?”
“It’ll be awhile before he’s back on his feet, especially given the damage he did to that ankle on top of getting himself shot, but he’ll be all right.”
“That’s good.”
“I gave him a sleeping powder,” Addie continued. “The best medicine right now is rest, and under no circumstances should he try to get up—except for personal reasons, of course. What’s he doing in your room instead of his own?”
Amanda wasn’t in the mood to explain. “It just turned out that way. We didn’t have a lot of time to think. He was bleeding and kept blacking out and—”
“He asked for you,” Addie interrupted. “He seemed quite concerned that you might be in danger.”
Amanda saw that her friend was studying her closely. “He has no need to worry.”
“And yet worry he does. Perhaps it would be best if you stayed nearby. Being under duress will not help the healing.”
“He’s occupying my room. I have little choice but to.”
“Jess and Bessie can help him move back to his room. I believe he will be more comfortable there—less likely to concern himself with the idea that he is putting you out. But he’ll want to know you’re nearby—and safe. So stay put.”
“Perhaps I should sit with him until the medicine takes effect.”
Addie smiled. “Perhaps you should. I think having you as his nurse would be very good for Seth’s recovery. I also think it would be quite positive for your peace of mind.”
“Stop playing doctor,” Amanda replied, but she grinned at Addie as she returned to the chair near Seth’s bed.
An hour later, Seth was settled in his room, half sitting against a stack of pillows. Jess stood nearby, his arms folded, his expression one of exasperation. “Are you gonna tell me what you know?” he repeated.
“Probably not,” Seth replied calmly.
Jess threw up his hands and advanced a step closer to the bed. Knowing her brother’s hair-trigger temper, Amanda moved between him and Seth. She could feel the edge of the bed pressed against the backs of her knees.
“Calm down, Jess,” she said. “Addie says that—”
“Addie’s done her job here, and now I need to do mine, so back off, Sis.”
“You calm down first, and then we’ll see.” Behind her she heard something close to a snort and guessed Seth was covering a laugh. “And you,” she continued, turning to face him, “are hardly in a position to hold secrets, so tell the man what he needs to know to hunt down those outlaws.”
She looked from one man to the other. Both scowled as if she were somehow the problem. She placed her hands on her hips and tapped one toe impatiently to emphasize her point. “Well?”
Seth eyed Jess the way he might gauge the trustworthiness of a wild mustang. “My best guess is they’re headed for the border.”
Jess laughed. “Tell me something I don’t already know, Grover.”
“All right. My younger brother might be trying to trail them. He fancies himself a detective, working for Wells Fargo.”
“Takes after you, does he?”
Seth shrugged. “Fact is, I couldn’t give a hoot if Rudy Stock and his mama get clean away at this point. But my brother is another matter.”
“You can’t expect me to go after your brother when there’s a gang of outlaws on the loose.”
“I didn’t think tracking down outlaws was in your jurisdiction,” Seth shot back.
Amanda was fast running out of patience with the two of them. “For goodness sake, c
ould we not argue the finer points here, and decide what’s to be done?”
“You stay out of this,” the two men said in unison.
Amanda could not help but smile. It was the first time her brother and the man she loved had agreed on anything.
* * *
Seth liked Amanda’s brother, and he was pretty sure that if anybody could hunt Sam down and get him to safety, it would be the marshal. Problem was the marshal wasn’t interested, and Seth understood that. Jess was not there to find some lost kid. He was there because dangerous outlaws were on the run.
He decided to tell him what he could. “I’ve been tailing them for a couple of years now,” he said, and saw the tension in Jess’s shoulders ease slightly. He also noticed how Amanda’s expression radiated interest. “Amanda, could you get me some fresh water?” he asked, making sure to add a little grimace of pain to the request.
She was obviously reluctant to leave the room, but he was pretty sure her concern for his comfort would overcome anything else. She picked up the pitcher and headed for the door, then turned back. With a smile that dripped with sweetness, she said, “Whatever you tell my brother, be prepared to repeat it when I return.”
As soon as she had shut the door, Jess chuckled. “My sister has a way of getting what she wants, Grover.”
“Well, in this case, a little knowledge could be a dangerous thing. Unless you promise to help find my brother, Amanda will strike out to find him herself.”
Jess’s smile turned to a frown. “Then we’ll tell her it’s all arranged…right?”
“You’re saying you’ll look for Sam?”
“I’m saying I’ll do whatever is necessary to keep Amanda safe, including lie to her. You, on the other hand, have a choice to make—your brother or my sister. If you tell her the truth, that I’m only interested in hunting down the outlaws, then you’re right. She’ll strike out on her own to find your little brother. On the other hand, if you love her—and I think you do—you’ll go along with whatever I tell her.”
