Come the Spring (35 page)

“Hello, Mr. Bobcat.”

“Just plain old Bobcat will do,” he explained. “Don't need a ‘mister' in front of it.”

“How did you ever get such a nickname?” she asked, her curiosity piqued.

He grinned at her. “A while back, I ran into a bobcat and had to wrestle with him. I got the scars all over my belly to prove it. If you'd like to see…”

“No, no, that's quite all right. I believe you,” Grace rushed out.

The sheriff couldn't seem to take his eyes off Grace, and the rudeness irritated Daniel. “Was there something I could help you with?” he asked impatiently.

Bobcat vigorously nodded. “We've got some trouble here. I was telling the porter about it, and he mentioned he'd seen you wearing a badge and thought maybe you could help.”

“What exactly is the problem?” Daniel asked, wishing the sheriff would get to the point.

“Yesterday, Gladys Anderson's boy, Billy, pulled a man out of the lake. Billy was doing some fishing instead of going to work at the stables like he was supposed to, but it was fortunate he's such a slacker. The man would have drowned if Billy hadn't been there, and that's the truth. Billy saw it happen too.”

“Saw what happen?”

“Billy was sitting on his boat watching the train go over the trestle when all of a sudden he sees a man come flying out and plunging down into the water. The poor fella hit hard and went right under, but Billy fished him out, and that's when he noticed the man had been shot. I'm thinking he was thrown off that train.”

Grace was horrified. “How awful,” she said. “Is the gentleman going to recover?”

Bobcat mournfully shook his head. “Doc says he's in a real bad way, ma'am. Real bad. The bullet went through, so Doc didn't have to dig it out, but infection already set in. I figured you'd want to know, Marshal, being as the dying man is one of yours.”

Daniel was already reaching for Grace to pull her off the train.

“He was wearing a badge,” Bobcat explained. “And the porter told me his name is Cooper. Do you know him?”

“Where is he?” Daniel asked, his voice sharp with fear and anger.

“Inside the way station. Doc wouldn't let us take him any further. He's in one of the sleeping rooms upstairs. The marshal's fighting for his life, but Doc doesn't think he's gonna make it.”

Shaken by what he had just heard, Daniel grabbed Grace and quickened his pace toward the building. The sheriff ran by his side.

“Did you question everyone on the train?” Daniel demanded.

“I did,” the sheriff answered. “One woman saw him going over the trestle, but she didn't see anything else. No one heard the gunshot either,” he added in a pant. “A window was shattered by one bullet, and I figure two were fired. The second went through the marshal.”

Daniel reached the door to the way station, threw it open, and rushed inside. His gaze was on the crowd sitting at the long tables waiting for their food to be served. He kept Grace tucked into his side, spotted the stairs in the corner, and headed across the room.

As they raced up the narrow steps, he glanced back at the sheriff. “What about the woman Marshal Cooper was traveling with? Where is she?”

“There weren't no woman.”

“Yes, there was,” Daniel muttered.

“The porter told me the marshal had a woman with him, and other folks remember seeing her getting on the train. She might have been there when they started, but she weren't there when the train was stopped. That's the God's truth.”

“What about her things?” Grace asked. “Did you find a valise or a bag?”

“No, ma'am. We didn't find anything. That compartment
was empty, and there weren't nothing left behind to prove a woman had ever been there.”

They reached the end of the hallway, where the physician was standing. He nodded to Daniel and then opened the door and went back inside.

“Grace, wait with the sheriff out here,” Daniel said. “Sheriff, don't let anyone up those stairs. You understand me?”

“What do you want me to do if someone wants to come up?”

“Shoot him.”

The sheriff's eyes widened. Grace waited until Daniel had gone inside Cooper's room before bowing her head and saying a silent prayer that his friend would survive.

“Was the missing woman Marshal Cooper's wife?” Bobcat asked.

“No,” she answered. “They weren't related. Marshal Cooper was escorting Rebecca to Texas.”

“Well, where in tarnation is she?”

Grace shook her head. “I don't know,” she whispered.

A shiver passed down her arms. Rebecca had vanished.

God help her.

Thirty-Three
 

Daniel kept vigil by his friend's side all through the night. Cooper, locked in a fitful sleep, was having nightmares and mumbling words about monsters and traitors that didn't make any sense.

Grace took care of practical matters. She asked the porter to remove their bags from the train, ordered a tray of food be sent up for Daniel to eat later if and when his appetite returned, and kept Sheriff Bobcat company at the small round table in the corridor adjacent to Cooper's room.

The sheriff kept up a constant flow of chatter while he and Grace ate supper together. The food was bland but filling, and an hour later she couldn't remember what had been served. Her mind was filled with fear for Marshal Cooper and Rebecca.

The physician came out of Cooper's room around nine that evening. He shook his head sorrowfully and told the sheriff there was little improvement.

“I opened the wound near the rib cage to drain the infection. I don't know what good it will do now,
though. The man's burning up with fever. I mixed up a batch of my herb brew, and if I could only get him to wake up long enough to swallow some, I know it would do him some good.”

“You can't get Marshal Cooper to wake up?” Grace asked, her worry apparent in her trembling voice.

“No, ma'am, I can't,” the doctor answered. He scratched his whiskered jaw and added, “That poor man is delirious and ranting and raving about monsters.”

“Sounds like he's plumb out of his head,” Bobcat interjected.

The physician agreed with his friend's diagnosis. “It looks that way. I don't believe there's anything more to be done tonight. I'm going to go on home and get a couple of hours sleep. Then I'll venture back here and have another look at him. Miss, if you don't mind me saying so, you look awful weary. Why don't you find a bed with clean sheets and get some rest.”

“We got her all fixed up in the room next to your patient. It's the only door with a lock on it up here.”

After the doctor went down the stairs, Bobcat turned to Grace. “I'm right proud to be of help to Marshal Ryan, and now that I know you need protecting, I'll just set myself outside your door with my loaded rifle.”

“Do you think that's necessary? The train left hours ago, and the only other people here are the owners.”

“Of course it's necessary. The Blackwater gang ain't going to knock on the door and ask if they can come inside and shoot you. They'll try to sneak in. Now, don't argue with me. You go on ahead into your room and get some sleep. I'll keep my eyes open.”

Grace didn't argue. The room she'd been assigned was sparsely furnished. There was a bed with a wooden headboard, a chest of drawers, and three hooks on the wall to hang her clothes on. She put her
gloves and hat on top of the dresser, and then went right back out into the hallway.

“I'm just going to look in on Daniel for a moment,” she explained as she hurried past the sheriff before he could try to stop her. “I won't be long.”

She didn't knock on Cooper's door, for she knew that Daniel would send her back to her room. She simply went inside and quietly shut the door behind her.

Daniel was standing at the window but turned when she entered the room. His surprise at seeing her was quickly replaced with a frown.

“What are you doing here? You should be getting ready for bed. You're going to have to get up early tomorrow.”

“I would like to help you take care of your friend.”

“There isn't anything you can do.”

He looked haggard and sounded defeated. It was as though he had already accepted Cooper's death and was mourning him. She wanted to tell him to have hope, but she didn't think anything that she said would change his attitude.

“You're exhausted,” she said. “Why don't you get some sleep? I'll sit with Marshal Cooper. You still haven't recovered from the influenza.”

“Don't fuss over me,” he growled.

She gave up trying to talk sense to the obstinate man and turned her attention to Cooper. He was sleeping on his back in the double bed with just a sheet covering him to his waist. He was as still as death. A thick bandage was wrapped around his middle, and there were spots of bright red blood seeping through the white packing. His complexion was a chalky gray, and in the dim light from the two lanterns on the bedside tables, Cooper looked as though his next breath would be his last.

“The doctor couldn't get him to wake up and drink the medicine?”

“No. He kept choking.”

She got down to business, unbuttoned the cuffs of her sleeves and rolled them up to her elbows. Then she went to the basin and washed her hands.

“What do you think you're going to do?”

“Daniel, try not to take your anger out on me. All right? I know how upset you are about your friend, but being hostile isn't going to help. To answer your question,” she continued. “I'm going to try to bring his fever down.”

“What makes you think you can do what the doctor couldn't?”

“I'm going to try. That's all. I have had some experience nursing the sick. My grandmother was ill for a very long time.”

“What happened to her?”

“She died.”

“So much for your nursing expertise.”

She lost her temper. “Will you stop being so sarcastic? I simply don't have the time or inclination to deal with it. Come over here and help me. One way or another, Marshal Cooper is going to swallow the medicine.”

“I don't think—”

She wouldn't let him finish. “Either help me or stay out of my way. Understood?”

Daniel was astonished by her burst of anger. This was the second time he'd seen her lose her composure. Lady Winthrop, he decided, definitely had a dark side. The discovery made him smile.

Between the two of them, they were able to get most of the medicine down him. She then pulled a chair up next to Cooper's side and began to apply cold compresses to his forehead.

“Your fever was just as high as his,” she remarked.

“Maybe, but I didn't have a bullet hole in my side, and I wasn't riddled with infection. The doctor says that's what's going to kill him.”

“When did you become such a pessimist?” she asked.

“When my wife and daughter were gunned down in a bank.”

The horrifying admission stunned her. She dropped the compress she was holding and watched Daniel restlessly pace in front of the window. She didn't know what to say to him, and all she could think about was not crying in front of him because she knew her reaction would make him angry.

Neither one of them spoke again for almost an hour. Then Grace finally broke the silence. “Do you blame yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I wasn't there to protect them,” he whispered. “That's why.”

“I see.”

“Aren't you going to argue?”

She picked up the soaked cloth from the basin, wrung the excess water out, and gently placed it on Cooper's forehead.

“What would you like me to say, Daniel? You've already made up your mind and condemned yourself because you couldn't stop it from happening. Isn't that right?”

“I wasn't even in town when they died.”

“Were you working?”

“Yes.”

“But if you had been in town, then you would have gone to the bank for your wife? Would you have done that?”

“I don't know. I don't want to talk about it.”

He sprawled out in the chair on the opposite side of the bed. “I should have been there, and I wasn't. It's as simple as that.”

“Did you always do the banking business for your wife?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Did you do other errands?”

“Like what?”

She shrugged. “Like going into the general store to shop or—”

He interrupted impatiently. “No, Kathleen did all the shopping.”

“I see.”

“What do you see, Grace? Enlighten me.”

She ignored his hostility. “If your wife and daughter had been killed while they were shopping or while they were walking down the street, you would still blame yourself. I think I understand why. It's because you're a lawman, and it's your duty to protect the innocent.”