Jonathan's fingers slid through her hair and held her there. Only for a moment did they stand there frozen in the aftermath, only a moment before Jonathan said softly, "You have a patient to attend to."
She looked up into his somber, gray eyes and saw him nod in the direction of the porch.
"He needs you. Go! I'll see to your Dad." He released her, walking quickly to her father.
Ethan's head drooped on his chest. Running up the steps, she knelt beside him. Seeing her father's bag a few feet away, she reached for it and pulled it to her. In her rush, she spilled some of its contents.
Taking air in great gulps, she tried to steady her hands to inspect the fresh wound on his shoulder. It wasn't that bad, she told herself, through the flesh. She could clean it and have him bandaged in a few minutes.
Ethan opened his eyes and lifted his head, turning his pale eyes to her face. "Hey, Dr. Kat. You goin' try and patch me up?" He laughed, a rasping sound that faded into a groan. "Don't you think it's too late for that?"
Kat rummaged frantically through the bag for clean cloths to staunch the flow of blood. There was so much of it. Her pants were soaking it up from the pool in which she knelt. Her medical training had taught her how much blood the body held, and as she stared down her head tried to calculate the percentage that was outside her patient's body, and how little was left inside. She looked up, her eyes welling with tears as she pressed the cloth firmly into the wound.
Ethan's lips were moving, but no sound came. She leaned in with her ear close to his lips.
"Wish I could've been a man as straight as that one," he breathed. He looked beyond her to where Jonathan knelt by Nathaniel's side. "Somewhere along the line I . . .got bent."
Kat touched his lips with her finger and shook her head. "Hush! Save your strength. I can help you."
She pressed the cloth harder against the hole in his shoulder, the blur of tears obscuring her sight. "I can fix this," she whispered.
"Kat, he's gone." Her father was by her side, his hands on hers.
She looked at her father, confused.
"He's gone, Kat. You can't help him anymore."
The words registered in her foggy brain and she looked down at the face of Ethan, his blue eyes open but sightless.
Firm hands gripped her shoulders from behind. Jonathan pulled her to her feet. Trembling, she turned to him, letting him enfold her in his arms again. She stood there with her arms limp at her sides, the blood-soaked cloths still gripped in her fingers.
Beyond where they stood, the bodies of three men lay sprawled in the dirt beyond the help of any physician. All of this had taken only minutes, deadly minutes that had claimed four lives. The adrenaline of the past hour suddenly spent, her knees buckled beneath her.
Jonathan did not let her fall, but gently eased her to the ground, where he knelt in the dirt with her body cradled in his arms. The warmth of him countered the sudden chill that had gripped her. She wrapped her arms around him, drawing him tightly to her.
"I couldn't save him, Jonathan." The words came choked. Hot tears flowed down her cheeks, soaking his shirt.
"No." He rested his chin on her head and spoke softly into her hair.
Kat looked up into Jonathan's face without asking the question.
Jonathan pulled her back to his chest. "But he made the choice of a good man."
Another spasm of trembling gripped her as she buried her face into Jonathan's arm. Gently stroking her hair, he rocked her in his arms as if she were a child.
Around him, Jonathan no longer saw the red that had colored his nightmares. Instead, he saw the colors of morning. The woman in his arms was warm with life coursing through her veins. Against his chest, he could feel her heart beating strong and steady. He was awake and somehow, he knew the nightmare would not return.
Jonathan whispered into her hair, "Dear Dr. Kat, you've saved us both."
Chapter 24
A Healer’s Care
Kat bent over the rosebush, taking in a deep breath of the first open blossom. She sighed as pleasant memories mingled with the sweet fragrance. Mama would have been pleased. With the deftness of a surgeon, she clipped the rose stem just above a branch with five leaves. She carried the rose back to the house and flopped down on the porch swing, burying her nose in the blossom.
Looking toward the west, she watched as the sun neared the summit of the range that bordered her peaceful valley. Pale hues of orange and pink were already brushing warm streaks across the jagged peaks and high valleys. She lay the rose on her lap and reached into her pocket, pulling out the tattered envelope along with the one she'd never mailed.
Snowberry's white-washed buildings glowed in softly painted colors of sunset. This was still her town. Looking down at the envelopes in her lap, she allowed herself a quiet smile. With the same quick, sure strokes she'd used to snip the rose stem she cut the envelopes into eight neat pieces. One at a time she pushed them into her pocket. It was time to write another letter, one that would close a door to a dream. But new dreams can replace the old. And Snowberry offered her enough to satisfy the need she had to use her gifts to heal and bring hope.
The sounds of hoof beats drew her eyes back to the road where Jessie was bringing Jonathan to dinner.
Jonathan slipped easily from the saddle and led Jessie to the barn. Jessie and Blue had a kind of understanding now, and at times could be convinced to share a portion of grass. It didn't hurt the relationship that Jonathan usually added a handful of grain to each portion.
Kat waited at the door to the barn for him to unsaddle the bay. Before closing the paddock gate, Jonathan gave his mare a pat on her rump. Kat reached out a hand to him and he took it with a smile creasing the corners of his eyes. He had a very nice smile, now that he had found it again.
"I'm glad you could come," Kat said.
"I never knew a Texan to turn down a good meal. Don't plan to be the first," Jonathan said in his deadpan Texas drawl.
"I don't think Papa is quite ready. We had two minor surgeries today." She pulled him toward the garden. "Come see the crabapple trees. They're just starting to bud."
The warm light of sunset projected long shadows across the lawn where they strolled, creating a lacework pattern that they interrupted with their passing.
Jonathan stopped halfway across the lawn. Kat turned, throwing him a quizzical expression.
"I told them I'd run," Jonathan said softly.
Kat's eyes widened. "Run for sheriff? But I thought..."
Jonathan laced her fingers through his, studying the contrast of her thin white ones against his rough calloused ones. "I know I did. But I'm just like you in many ways. You can't deny what you've been called to do any more than I can. You heal as you can. I. . . I protect as much as I'm able."
"Dear, Jonathan, you did." Kat withdrew her hand from his, drawing her fingers along his cheek. "You did protect. I'm not sure that I could have lived with the knowledge of taking a life."
For a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her. Instead, he stepped back and reached into his pocket, pulling out a flat metal object. Taking her hand again he held it in his, her palm up. Into her hand he placed the star of the Texas Rangers. She looked up into his face, her brow creased in question.
"I think you should keep it. You're the one who brought law back to this valley. On your own, you braced the sheriff. I just backed you up."
At first, she thought he might be teasing, but she saw the solemn expression on his face and knew no joke was intended.
Kat stood looking down at the star in her hand, her mouth slightly open. In a sense, she had taken the law into her own hands, but she felt no sense of satisfaction in it. It had come at too high a cost. Two weeks had passed since that deadly morning, and each move, each shot fired she recalled with picture clarity. But the question that remained unanswered was why Ethan had defended her. She certainly hadn't inspired his loyalty. Something else had been at work.
Her father's confession of asking a new type
of question made her wonder if she too should be asking who instead of why, because her why questions were coming up empty. Something had happened up there in the high valley, something or someone had played a hand that had allowed all three of them to walk out unharmed.
Jonathan reached for her other hand, not seeing the rose she held.
"Ow!" Kat dropped the rose and looked at where the thorn had pierced her finger. A single crimson drop of blood formed on the tip. Jonathan took her hand, lifted the finger to his lips and kissed it.
Kat laughed lightly. "Do you know how many germs you just injected into my blood stream?"
Jonathan frowned and then shook his head before pulling her into his arms. "I guess I'm the romantic in this twosome." He lifted her chin with his finger. "You and me got a long road ahead to figure this out, because we're about as different as two people can be."
"I have to agree. But it's sure going to be fun getting there," she said with a teasing smile.
She looked up into his strange gray eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck. Pulling his head down to her, she kissed him. Lifting herself to her toes, she pressed her lips to his warm ones. At last, she released him, her mouth sliding up into a smile devoid of teasing. "I'm not sorry for that at all, not one bit."
Picking her up, holding her close to his chest, he kissed her again. This time she allowed herself to experience the intensity of her attraction to him, the tingling joy of his firm arms around her, the longing for more. She yielded because this was a good man, a straight man, a man worthy of the wait.
When he finally let her go, she stood before him breathless, but the words fell from her lips as surely as the petals of a rose in an irresistible summer wind. "I think I love you, Jonathan Winthrop."
Nathaniel Meriwether let out a low whistle. "Thought I'd never hear her say that."
They turned their heads in the direction of the voice.
"Supper's ready, that is, if you're interested," Nathaniel said before turning back to the house.
Jonathan traced her cheek with his finger, before lifting her chin and kissing her once again. This time it was a kiss filled with the passion of a man who knew what he wanted as much as what he needed. Before releasing her, Jonathan brushed the top of her head with his lips. Leaning in close to her ear, he whispered, "I can't help but love you too, dear Kat."
His soft breath on her neck sent delightful shivers down her back. Pulling him close, she lay her head on his chest while he stroked her hair. The pounding of his heart matched hers perfectly, and she was as content as she had ever been in her life. In his arms and in his heart, she knew she was safe and she would stay.
Kat's healing work had already begun to have its effect on Jonathan. Dreams had replaced the nightmare, dreams of a girl with chestnut hair and large brown eyes who could handle a rifle nearly as capably as a scalpel. A woman who valued justice as much as he. Hope had taken root that springs up alongside the lupine and wild roses bordering the wide river. In time and with a healer's care, the wound would heal. Hope would blossom and bear fruit.
With hands entwined, they followed Nathaniel, taking their time while sunset colors bathed the path in soft light. When they stepped up onto the porch, Nathaniel was waiting by the door, a lopsided grin stretching from one ear to the other. With his thumb, he pointed to the newly hung sign to the right of the door. "What do 'ya think, little girl?"
Dr. Kathryn Meriwether
&
Dr. Nathaniel Meriwether
Kat's face opened into a wide confident smile. "Looks perfect, Papa, just perfect!"
Other Books in the Sawtooth Range Series
High Valley Promise
Comes the Winter
Redeeming Lies
A Portrait of Dawn
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Also by Samantha St. Claire
The Sawtooth Range
Kat's Law
High Valley Promise
Comes the Winter
Redeeming Lies
A Portrait of Dawn
A Hartmann Ranch Christmas (Coming Soon)
Kat's Law Page 18
