Comanche Haven (The Loflin Legacy: Book 1) (27 page)

“
Thanks, Doc.” Seth glanced
toward the patient’s room.

Doc Wheeler didn’t move. “Son, did you
get into it with any of those ruffians?”

Seth glanced back at the doctor. “No.”
Perplexed, he flicked a glance at the old man. “What makes you
ask?”

The doctor examined his timepiece again
and sighed heavily. “Seth, I’ve been Tyler’s doctor for more years
than I care to remember. With all those years under my belt, I’ve
come to recognize when something’s bothering somebody. You look
positively lost.”

A pregnant pause followed the doctor’s
words.

“
I’m just worried about
Casey is all,” Seth lied.

Doc Wheeler didn’t comment before
glancing back to Casey’s door. “Nothing you can do for her now,
except keep her still.” He waited a beat before making a
suggestion. “Let’s go down to your room and have another drink of
this excellent whiskey I know you have on hand no matter which room
you’re in.” His passed Seth a knowing grin.

They walked down the hall. Seth closed
the door behind them. With the drinks poured, the two old friends
sat in the comfortable rosewood chairs of the sitting
area.

Doctor Wheeler continued with his
advice. “You know Seth, if you’re really concerned about Casey,
you’ll get her out of that hell hole she works in and take her home
where she belongs.”

Seth’s jaw worked as he met the Doc’s
eyes. “Thank you for that,” he said with a bit too much sarcasm
tainting his mirthless laugh.

The old man leaned back in the comfort
of the chair and stretched out his legs in front of him while his
eyes watched the liquor swirl in his glass. “Well, I guess I have
an opinion just like everybody else in Tyler. The Silver Spur is no
place for a lady.”

“
If she’s working there,
doesn’t that make her a whore?” Seth eyed the doctor with a benign
cock of his eyebrow. Even though he’d meant his words to be
facetious, Seth felt his gut tighten. His sister worked in a
saloon. He knew what everyone thought. It didn’t make a damn, he
told himself. He still cared about her.

“
Now Seth, you and I both
know that Casey was born a Loflin.” Waving away the imitation of a
startled expression, which came into Seth’s eyes, Wheeler
continued, “Don’t give me that look. You and I both know the
speculation that travels in a town like this. Maybe Casey’s tried
to convince herself that it’s not common knowledge.” He dropped his
head and sighed deeply. “She confided in me one night when she
thought the scarlet fever was going to take her. I guess she
considered me her confessor.” His belly shook as he huffed out a
breath. She told me, too, that she kept a small room behind the
hotel. I believed the girl when she said she only serves drinks at
the Spur. She’s not a soiled dove.”

Seth didn’t look up, but deep in his
gut he felt the churning subside some. Grateful to the old man for
the consideration, Seth nodded.

Doc Wheeler folded his hands over the
mound of his brocade-covered belly while smiling benevolently for
Seth. Wheeler watched him.

“
I wasn’t arguing the point.
Whether she is or isn’t a whore is nobody’s business, including
mine. I don’t give a rat’s ass what anybody in this town thinks,
anyway.” Seth let the statement linger between them.

“
Well, it’s true that the
fine, upstanding citizens of Tyler consider any association with
the Spur, or any of the other saloons in town, to be tantamount to
selling one’s body, but I, for one, have seen too many false
assessments of a person’s character based on gossip over the years.
I don’t listen to what the fine, upstanding citizens of Tyler say –
it’ll jade a man.” Doc Wheeler cocked one bushy, white brow before
inclined his head at Seth, “Didn’t get to be as old as I am by
relying on gossip for facts, huh?” With a good-natured wink,
Wheeler reached over and patted Seth’s arm. “Now, if there’s
anything you need, just let me know. Okay?” Gripping the ornate
arms of the red brocade covered chair, Doc hoisted himself up.
Settling his boiler hat on his baldhead, he turned for the
door.

“
Thanks, Doc.” Seth watched
as the old man ambled to the door.

“
Don’t mention it. Just
consider what I said. It would be best for all concerned,
especially Casey.” With his bag in hand, Doc Wheeler headed out and
closed the door behind him.

He brooded into the liquor swirling in
the cut crystal glass in his hand. “Bye, Doc.” Seth said to the
empty room.

***

“
She’s gonna be all right.
“Doc Wheeler said so.” Maggie plumped the pillow behind Casey’s
battered head. Nodding in agreement with herself, the housekeeper
cast worried eyes on Casey.

Celia watched from the opening formed
by the red velvet drapes hanging at the balcony door. She had to
sigh with relief. Thank goodness for small favors, she
mused.

“
She’s gonna need rest.
She’s broken several ribs and has numerous bruises and abrasions.
She can’t be moved for at least two weeks.” Maggie straightened the
quilt covering the young patient, yet again.

Doc Wheeler had explained all of it to
Celia earlier, but she let Maggie prattle. Anyone could see how
distraught the housekeeper was.

Laying another blanket over the young
woman in the big four-poster bed, Maggie folded her hands and took
a step back. “Doc left laudanum for the pain. If it gets really bad
he said he’d have to prescribe some opium, but not unless it was
absolutely necessary - too easy to become addicted to the
powder.”

Celia glanced at the patient and then
Maggie. “Well then, I guess we wait and watch. If she starts to run
a fever or becomes fretful, we’ll need to contact the doctor
again.” More for Maggie’s benefit than direction, Celia repeated
the doctor’s orders. She grieved for the people in the room and
Casey’s brothers, such a sad set of affairs.

Nodding in agreement, Maggie looked
down. Wiping the damp hair off the woman’s forehead, she smiled.
“Her name is Casey.” The older woman’s words were
subdued.

The affection was evident. Celia looked
up at her then and figured the timing was right to ask the question
that had been hounding her ever since they’d come upon the young
woman in the street. “Why is Seth’s sister working in a
saloon?”

Maggie heaved a heavy sigh and shook
her head sorrowfully. “Child, it’s a sad tale. I don’t want to
burden you with our shortfalls.” The housekeeper dabbed at her eyes
with the handkerchief in her weathered hand.

“
Maaaggiiee…” Celia let the
woman’s name drag off her tongue. She was frustrated with a number
of things and confused by others. Her patience was in limited
supply. On top of everything, she was exhausted. “I believe I have
time to hear the story.” Celia glanced down at the patient and then
back into the housekeepers’ worried expression. “After all, we
aren’t going anywhere for two weeks at least.”

A brief struggle played out on Maggie’s
face before she let out a ragged breath. “Seth’s mom died having
Casey.” The housekeeper let that simple statement slip. “The
Captain was destroyed by the loose of his wife. He grieved and
drank and grieved some more.” Maggie tugged at the handkerchief in
her hand as she glanced glassy-eyed about the room.

Celia watched and her heart went out to
the woman.

“
I did all I could for him.”
Sniffing, the housekeeper dabbed at the tears with the
handkerchief. “He was lost in pain and wouldn’t see anyone, not
even his new daughter.”

Maggie wiped the tears that now fell
liberally from her faded blue eyes.

“
I tried to get him to at
least hold Casey, but he would have none of the baby. He refused to
even say her name.” Maggie drew in another ragged breath before
trying to control the sobbing that stole her composure.

Celia stepped around the bed. She went
to Maggie gathering the woman in her arms.

“
Earl told me to get rid of
the thing.” Maggie looked up at Celia with a pained bewilderment in
her features. “He didn’t want his own child,” she whispered in
disbelief. “Just get rid of it, he said, like she was an old pair
of boots or something.” Maggie shook her head woefully. “He
threatened drowning her, if she stayed. In his frame of mind, I was
afraid he would make good on the threat.” She dabbed at her eyes
again and looked back at the girl lying still in the
bed.

“
Oh, Maggie, surely not,”
Celia’s own disbelief surfaced in the words.

Vehemently, Maggie shook her head.
“It’s the God’s truth, rest his soul.” She made the sign of the
crucifix over her breast. “I barely knew him, child. He was beside
himself with grief. Oh, but it was a bad time.”

Pain constricted Celia’s chest as she
glanced again at the battered woman lying in the bed. Putting an
arm around the Maggie, who’d cared for them all, like her own, she
did her best to console the housekeeper until she cried herself
out. “I’m so sorry.”

A few minutes passed before Maggie
found her voice. She picked up with the narrative as if she’d never
stopped. “I didn’t know what to do.”

Celia heard the older woman’s
pain.

“
There was no one to talk to
about the situation ‘cept Jake and Shorty. We all decided the best
thing for all concerned was take her into town and leave her with
the padre at St. Helena’s. So that’s what we did. After Laura’s
funeral, the three of us went to Tyler and Father Samuel took Casey
in as an orphan. No one in Tyler, other than the padre and the
three of us, knew who’s she really was.”

Celia felt the tremors in Maggie’s
shoulders. “Didn’t Seth’s father ever change his mind? Ever come
around?”

Maggie shook her bowed head. “No. He
never even spoke her name.” Maggie’s hand came up and fisted at her
mouth. “Whenever one of us would try and bring up the subject, Earl
would fly into such a tirade that a body wasn’t safe remaining in
the same room with the man.”

Tears slid silently down Maggie’s face
as she looked at the young woman lying in the bed. She reached out
a trembling hand, brushing at the flaxen hair around the battered
face. “She was such a jewel. She went to school, you know.” Maggie
lifted her tear-filled eyes to Celia’s as she rubbed her weathered
hand over the patient’s fingers. “We saw to that.”

Such conviction and love filled
Maggie’s words. How tragic that the poor girl’s beginnings had to
be so. A lump formed deep in Celia’s throat. She was theirs,
despite the circumstances. “When did Seth find out?”

“
Oh…well.” Maggie paused,
peering off into middle distance. “That would have been about the
time that Casey started working at the saloon. See, she found out
who her parents were. The girl was always getting into things she
didn’t have any business getting into and one night, when she was
visiting from school, she broke into the padre’s safe. She may have
been looking for valuables, but she found much more. The knowledge
that she was Earl’s drove her to do things, I don’t think she would
have considered otherwise. The fact that her father disowned her
did something to her. It hardened her. She resented so much. Yet…”
Maggie looked up at Celia then. “I think she wanted her father to
notice her so desperately. She dropped out of school and came back
to Tyler. That’s when she came up with the idea to become a
waitress at the Silver Spur. She told me she wanted to shame the
name Loflin as much as possible.” Maggie dabbed at her red eyes and
shook her head. “Only, it backfired on her.” Tugging absently at
the handkerchief wadded in her hand, Maggie shook her
head.

“
One night, after Earl and
Seth got through loading the supply wagon at Smitty’s, they got the
notion to stop by the saloon. Casey was serving drinks to the
miners that night and she saw them come in. She confronted Earl in
the middle of the saloon and in front of God and everybody. Oh, the
quarrel they had.” Maggie shook her head again and wiped at her
nose with the wrinkled hanky. “Casey threw things at Earl and
called him every vile name she could think of before Seth drug his
pa out of there. Later, Seth questioned us about what we knew. I’ve
got to tell you, he wasn’t very pleased with us for a long while.”
Maggie wrapped her arms around her ample bosom and rocked herself.
“I don’t think Seth ever forgave his father.”

“
Why didn’t she come home
with you after her father died? Surely, you and Seth would have
encouraged her to do so.” Celia felt a numb tingling in the pit of
her stomach. So many lies and smothering of the truth. Where would
it ever end?

Maggie’s mouth thinned into a white
line across her tear-splotched face. She continued to rock for
another minute. Then her lip trembled and she began to weep again.
“The will had been read and everything had gone to Seth and Ty.
Earl never even mentioned her.

Seth tried talking to her. She spat at
him and vowed she had no home. She told Seth if he tried to force
her to come to Shooter Creek she’d make sure she escaped and he’d
really be sorry then. Seth simply let her be.” The words, issued in
a whisper had Maggie dropping her head once more to weep silently
into her hands.

Celia stepped away from the bed and
back to the window alcove. She slid boneless down onto the window
seat’s velvet cushion. Her own secrets and lies settled beside her
like an unwelcomed and unpaid debt. She thought of her own secret
and the lies. Her own omission of truth weighted heavily. Seth
would never forgive her, she mused. Celia felt her own heart
sink.