The Sheriff (Historical Romance)

by Nan Ryan

  Now, at quitting time, as the weak winter sun was beginning to set, Kate took a good long look at the little man and ordered him to go home at once and get into bed.

  “You are running a fever, Chang Li,” she said. “I can tell by looking at you.”

  “Maybe little,” he said meekly.

  She stepped close and laid her hand on his fore-head. “More than a little. You’re burning up. Want to go see Doc Ledet?”

  “No, no, not need doctor,” Chang Li said.

  “Very well, but you are not standing guard here tonight,” Kate said emphatically.

  “But what if somebody…?”

  “I will take your place,” she said calmly. “I’ll guard the mine tonight and you will go home and get well.”

  Thirty-One

  Winn Delaney’s henchmen went up to the Cavalry Blue Mine at well past midnight. A full harvest moon shone down from a cloudless sky. Jim Spears spotted the lone sentry at the mine’s entrance. The small figure in a dark coat and watch cap could only be the little Chinaman.

  Spears motioned to Titus Kelton and pointed. Kelton squinted, nodded. The two men crept as silently as possible up the incline. But the big, lumbering Jim Spears stepped on a loose rock and it skittered down the mountainside.

  Alerted, the guard swiftly spun around, yelled “Halt!” and, when they did not, fired a warning shot.

  The one-eyed Titus Kelton immediately fired back, hitting the sentry. A loud moan, and the guard staggered. And Kate’s cap fell off. Her long blond hair spilled down as she grabbed her bleeding shoulder and sank to the ground.

  “We shot the woman!” muttered Jim Spears.

  “Son of a bitch!” swore the one-eyed Titus Kelton as the calico cat that was keeping Kate company hissed loudly, streaked down the incline, made a flying leap at the big man and viciously scratched his remaining eye, drawing blood.

  Holding his bloody eye, Kelton scrambled away, cursing. Spears was right behind him.

  Moaning, Kate tried to rise. But she couldn’t quite make it. Cal made soft mewling sounds and gently nudged her, trying to get her up, sensing that she was badly hurt.

  “It’s okay, Cal,” Kate murmured weakly, drawing him down beside her. “I’m all right. I’ll just rest a minute and get my strength back.”

  The cat lay dutifully still against his wounded mistress’s side. Losing blood and rapidly growing weaker, Kate thought of Chang Li and how he would berate himself for allowing her to take his place on guard duty because he was sick.

  She grimaced and pressed her palm against the bullet wound in an attempt to staunch the flow of blood that was rapidly saturating her woolen wrap. She tried her best to remain conscious, but knew she was losing the battle. She looked up at the cold stars twinkling high overhead in the heavens.

  And she smiled foolishly when the face of the man in the moon became that of Sheriff Travis McCloud.

  He couldn’t sleep.

  The feverish Chang Li tossed fitfully, unable to rest. It was more than just his illness. He was worried about Kate up there all by herself in the middle of the night. He should never have left her there.

  Finally, Chang Li gave up trying to sleep. He threw back the covers and rose from his narrow cot in the drafty canvas tent he called home. He hurriedly dressed in the darkness and headed to the mine. He knew Kate would laugh and tease him about worrying, but he didn’t care.

  His teeth chattering from the cold and the fever, he trudged up the mountainside, his lungs laboring in the thin air. When he spotted her lying on the ground with the calico cat meowing plaintively at her side, Chang Li wailed loudly.

  He hurried to the unconscious woman and saw the blood staining the fabric of her warm woolen wrap. He fell to his knees and pressed his ear to her chest to see if her heart was beating.

  It was.

  But barely.

  Cursing himself in Chinese, Chang Li carefully lifted her into his arms. With the calico cat racing on ahead, Chang Li carried her down the mountain, wondering where he should take her. Doc Ledet was presently not in Fortune. There had been a mining accident over the hill in Goldbug, and the doctor had gone to help. He might not be back for a week or more.

  By the time the exhausted, heavily breathing Chang Li reached town, he knew where he was going. He skirted the rear of the buildings until he was directly behind the city jail.

  “Marshal, wake up, wake up!” he called frantically at the door of Travis McCloud’s private quarters. “Sheriff, wake up!”

  “Hold your horses,” Travis shouted, pulling on a pair of trousers and lighting the lamp by his bed. Frowning, his hair disheveled, he yanked open the door, thundering, “What the hell?”

  Then his dark face went ghostly white.

  “Sheriff, is Missy Kate!” said Chang Li. “She bad shot, may die.” And the frightened little man began to cry.

  Travis was already taking Kate from Chang Li’s arms and carrying her inside to his bed, where he gently laid her down. Not bothering to don a shirt or shoes, he said, without looking at Chang Li, “The bullet must come out now, tonight. Right now! You’ll have to help.”

  Chang Li sniffed away his tears. “Do whatever you tell me.”

  Travis knelt beside the bed. He swept Kate’s blood-soaked wrap open, took it off and tossed it aside.

  And he decisively issued orders. “Light all the lamps. Clean off the dining table. Get a fresh sheet from the shelves in the closet. Spread the sheet out on the table.”

  Chang Li snapped to, rushing about to do as he was told. When the table was draped with a snowy white sheet, Chang Li gathered clean cloths, bandages and a bottle of tincture of iodine. He heated water on the wood stove. He placed everything on the seats of two straight-backed chairs pulled up near the table.

  When Travis carried Kate to the table and laid her on it, he said to Chang Li, “You can either stay here while I remove the bullet, or you can wait in the jail.” Travis glanced at the little man and shook his head. “You’re feverish. Go on into the jail and stretch out on a bunk in one of the empty cells.”

  “No, I help you—”

  “That’s an order, Chang Li.”

  The man nodded and left.

  As soon as he was gone, Travis returned to the bed, reached under the feather mattress and took out his bowie knife. Removing it from its scabbard, he cleaned it, struck a match and ran the tiny flame up and down the length of the sharp blade to sterilize it as best he could. Then he wiped the blade down with a mixture of iodine and warm water. He placed the knife on a clean white towel Chang Li had laid out.

  Travis turned his full attention to the unconscious Kate.

  But he didn’t see a beautiful young woman to whom he was helplessly attracted. He saw a wounded patient in need of immediate medical care. He was no longer the sheriff, but Kate’s physician, entrusted with saving her life. Damn Doc Ledet’s hide!

  Travis didn’t hesitate.

  Clinically and devoid of emotion, he stripped away Kate’s bloodstained shirt and batiste camisole. When she was naked to the waist, he carefully cleaned and washed the wound.

  Then Travis took a deep breath, picked up the knife, asked the Almighty for guidance and went to work.

  Kate remained unconscious while Travis, with his surgeon’s skill, excised the bullet from her left shoulder. It took less than five minutes. He dropped the bloody bullet into a pan and laid the knife aside. He carefully cleaned and bandaged the wound.

  And only then, when his task was completed and he’d draped a clean sheet over her, did Travis tremble with fear. Her life was in his hands. The magnitude of the responsibility washed over him. He felt dizzy, and short of breath. He quickly crossed to the back door, stepped out onto the stoop and took several slow, long breaths of the frigid night air. Seated on the stoop, meowing sadly, was Kate’s cat.

  “Hey, boy, it’s okay,” Travis said as he crouched down and stroked the cat’s head.

  When the big calico didn’t hiss or try to scratch hi
m, Travis smiled, scooped him up and took him inside. He carried the cat close to the table where Kate lay, but kept a firm grip on him lest the calico try to jump up onto the table.

  “See, she’s all right,” Travis soothed, and the nervous cat relaxed and purred softly. Travis lowered him to the floor. The cat yawned and went over to the fireplace, where embers burned low in the grate. Cal stretched out, made soft mewing sounds and went to sleep.

  Travis glanced at Kate. He washed his hands thoroughly, then stripped the sheets from his bed and put on fresh ones. He returned to the table, smiling foolishly as he flipped her covering up to her waist and removed her tall rubber boots and stockings. And he bit the inside of his cheek when he unbuttoned her trousers down her flat belly, then struggled to get the pants down past her hips and off.

  Travis lifted Kate and carried her to his bed. He placed her in the center of the mattress and drew the clean sheet and warm blanket up over her. He exhaled heavily, reached up and swept his hair back from his temples.

  He stared at her.

  She had lost a lot of blood. Her face was as white as the sheets she lay on. Her lips—those perfect Cupid’s bow lips—were a pale, bloodless pink.

  But she would live. He knew she would. She was young and healthy and he would take good care of her. He wouldn’t allow her to move from his bed until she was able, no matter how much she objected.

  Travis crossed to the fireplace, threw a couple of logs on the low-burning embers and jabbed at them with a poker. Flames shot up, but they did little to warm the chilled room. Then he drew on a clean shirt, pinned on his badge, put on his boots and went to get Chang Li, expecting to find the sick Chinaman sleeping soundly. Chang Li was sitting on the edge of a bunk, wide awake, worrying. Travis allowed him to check on Kate.

  “She’ll be all right, Chang Li. I’ll keep close watch over her. Now go on home and get some rest.”

  “You send for me if she need me?”

  “Yes, I will,” Travis promised, and saw the little man to the back door. “Any idea who might have done this?”

  Chang Li shook his head. “No, Sheriff. Who would do such a terrible thing? Shoot woman? Not understand.”

  “I know. Let’s keep the shooting to ourselves for a while. Wait until Kate wakes up. Maybe she’ll know who her assailant was.”

  Thirty-Two

  Travis blew out all the lamps, save one on the night table by the bed. He pulled up a straight-back chair and sat down.

  With a loaded Navy Colt .45 at his elbow, he settled in to spend the long night monitoring Kate’s condition.

  He tried to recall what he had learned in medical school regarding the care of patients with gunshot wounds. The first step was completed; he had successfully removed the bullet without causing too much additional bleeding. Thank God she had been hit in the shoulder.

  A few inches lower and she wouldn’t have made it.

  Travis shuddered at the thought. His brow furrowed with concern, he leaned close and gently smoothed a wayward lock of hair back off Kate’s pale cheek. Just as he’d fancied, that glorious golden hair was the texture of fine imported silk. How many times had he daydreamed about running his hands through her hair?

  Travis quickly reminded himself that this woman lying deathly still in his bed was not a beautiful seductress but a helpless patient whose healing had been entrusted to him by a quirk of fate.

  Travis tucked the covers more closely around Kate’s bare shoulders. He sank back into his chair and laced his fingers over his waist. He never took his eyes off her.

  As the hours dragged slowly by, he examined Kate every few minutes. He checked to see if she was running a fever or if her body temperature had dropped dangerously low. She was, he was relieved to discover, neither too hot or too cold. That was an encouraging sign.

  Kate remained unconscious throughout his deft ministering. A couple of times she flinched slightly when Travis inspected the wound or replaced the bandage. But she never opened her eyes. And once he was finished with his tasks, she sighed deeply, licked her lips and slumbered on.

  Outside, the temperature dropped dramatically.

  Inside, a deep chill had set in.

  Cold and sleepy, Travis yawned and closed his tired, scratchy eyes. He shifted in his chair, trying to get comfortable. He leaned forward, put his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. He stayed that way for only a few minutes before he shifted again. He sank down low onto his spine, laid his head back, stretched his long legs out and crossed them at the ankles.

  That was no better.

  He got up. He paced around the shadowy room. He noticed Kate’s cat was awake and seated directly before the door, tail curled around himself, softly meowing to go outside.

  “It’s cold out there, fellow,” Travis said to the calico.

  The cat looked up at him and edged closer to the door. Travis let him out, closed the door and returned to the bed. He considered lying down on the floor. But the floor would be cold and hard. He sank back down into the straight-back chair, looked at the soft, warm bed and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

  Then shook his head decisively.

  He needed to get some rest if he were to be at his best to take care of this wounded woman.

  Travis took off his boots, glanced one last time at Kate’s face, rose and very cautiously got onto the bed. He stretched out atop the covers beside Kate. He sighed deeply and turned on his side, facing her. Almost instantly he was asleep.

  The two of them slept peacefully side by side in the big feather bed.

  Sometime during the night, Kate awakened.

  The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was a shiny silver badge. A badge that rested on the broad chest of Sheriff Travis McCloud.

  Horrified, she screamed, lunged up and immediately winced in pain, waking Travis.

  “Why are you in my bed?” she wailed, and tried to hit him when he quickly rolled up into a sitting position.

  “Be still!” he ordered, trapping her arms at her sides and holding her immobile against his chest. “Listen to me, Kate! You’ve been shot. You hear me? Someone shot you in the shoulder. You’re injured. You’ve lost blood.”

  “Where are my clothes?” she shrieked, horrified that her breasts were bare. She could feel her nipples rubbing against the abrasive fabric of his shirt. “Why did you take my clothes?”

  “I had no choice. Your shirt and camisole were soaked with blood. I had to take them off so I could clean the wound and remove the bullet,” Travis said, keeping his tone low and soft in an attempt to calm her.

  “Let me go,” she commanded, though she didn’t struggle against him.

  Travis continued to hold her in his arms, soothing her, lulling her with the reassurance that she was going to be fine in a few days. When he was satisfied she would put up no further resistance, he gently eased her back down onto the pillow and drew the covers up over her shoulders.

  “You’ll be okay,” he said, “but you must be quiet and rest.”

  Blushing hotly, embarrassed that he had seen her bare breasts, Kate frantically felt beneath the covers to see if he had removed all of her clothes. She was greatly relieved to find that she still wore her pantalets.

  “Do you remember what happened?” Travis asked as he rose from the bed. “Do you know who shot you?”

  “I’m thirsty,” she replied groggily. Making a face, she added, “I don’t feel well.”

  “I know you don’t, and I’m sorry.” Travis brought her a cup of water. “Just a few sips,” he warned as he helped her take a drink.

  Kate shoved his hand away when she felt the covers slipping, exposing her breasts. “Where’s my shirt?” she asked, clutching at the sheet. “I want my shirt.”

  “And I want you to lie down and be still,” he said as he set the water aside.

  “Where am I?” Kate asked then, her head dropping back onto the pillow. “Where have you taken me?”

  “You are in my private quarters behind the
jail. But I didn’t bring you here,” Travis told her. “You were shot last night outside the Cavalry Blue. Chang Li found you and brought you here.”

  “No. He couldn’t have brought me here,” she said. “Chang Li was sick. That’s why I was standing guard at the mine.”

  “He got worried and went to check on you,” Travis told her. “He found you’d been shot and—”

  Frowning, Kate interrupted, “But why would he bring me here?”

  “Because you needed immediate medical attention. Doc Ledet’s in Goldbug. There was a mining explosion and he went over to help out.”

  Kate nodded. “Yes, I remember. So you…?”

  “I removed the bullet and bandaged the wound.”

  “I see. Well, I’m grateful to you, Sheriff, but now if you’ll kindly fetch my clothes, I’ll be going on home.”

  “You’re going nowhere.” Travis sat down and pulled his chair close. “I’m keeping you here so I can take care of you.”

  “I don’t need you to—”

  “Yes, you do.”

  Kate sighed, defeated. She was in no position to argue. He had her where he wanted her—in his care, in his quarters, in his bed.

  “The minute I get better, I’m leaving,” she stated emphatically.

  “Fair enough,” Travis replied. “Now, suppose you tell me what happened. Any idea who did this to you? And why?”

  Kate stared up at the ceiling and thought back to last night. “I know exactly who did it,” she said, clenching her jaw. “Those two big brutes that beat up Chang Li last summer. The red bearded man and his one-eyed sidekick.”

  Travis nodded. “Spears and Kelton.”

  Kate turned her head and looked at Travis. “Yes, it was them. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

  “Know why they would do such a terrible thing?”

  “They’re mean men, Marshal,” Kate said.

  Travis gave no reply, just waited for her to say more. After a long pause, she told him, “Sheriff, there’s gold in the Cavalry Blue. Lots and lots of gold. That’s what they are after, I’m sure.”