Home by Morning (24 page)

“Because I wanted you to go to war with Riley?” Pop persisted. He put his elbows on the table and leaned forward a bit. “Well, let me tell you something. I thought it was the right thing to do at the time. Now…”

“And now?”

Cole waited, for what he wasn’t sure. Approval, praise, some comment that wasn’t laced with criticism. But it didn’t come.

He waved Cole off and pushed himself from the chair with a loud groan. “Now I’m going to bed.”

Cole watched him shuffle across the floor. Sighing, he stared at the rain-washed windows and at the blackness beyond.

Early the next morning, Amy returned to Laura Donaldson’s house to recuperate. That meant the infirmary would be losing the woman’s help, but given her emotional personality, Jess didn’t think the loss was that great.

Jessica purposely stayed at her office doing paperwork until she knew that her sister had gone. Their public scene had been ugly, and worse, Jess sensed the subtle division of supporters among the people in the infirmary. Some were sympathetic to Jessica, others to Amy. Jess didn’t care who took which side—she found the entire situation embarrassing. If only Cole had waited for a more opportune moment to open this can of worms.

While she sat at the desk in her back room, she caught herself waiting for signs of activity at the shop next door. The sound of hammer on metal, the smell of the forge, the whinny of horses. But there was nothing.

That afternoon after she returned to the high school, she was listening to the sodden lungs of Jeremy Easton, fearing the worst for him, when she heard a commotion outside. She shut out the noise, trying to concentrate on her patient. Laying a hand against his face, she could feel the fever burning within him. Please, she thought, not Jeremy too.

“Well, land sakes!” Granny Mae blurted from across the cavernous room.

Jessica looked up and saw Granny and Iris Delaney at the window. “What’s going on out there?”

“I can’t tell. But Adam Jacobsen is with a group of people, and they’re coming this way.”

A cold hand of dread stole around Jessica’s heart. Adam had not been seen at the infirmary since the morning he’d jumped out at her and Cole, pointing a finger of judgment at them as if he were an avenging archangel. She walked to the window to stand beside Granny Mae and pulled down her mask, aghast at what she saw outside.

Adam Jacobsen and a ragged band of followers, which included Laura Donaldson, James Leonard, and his reluctant-looking wife Dolly, had gathered on the steps of the high school. James Leonard carried a badly painted sign.

God will judge fornicators
and adulterers!

Through the glass, Jess heard Adam’s muted pontificating. “…want your loved ones left in the care of an immoral harlot who masquerades behind her honorable profession?”

A wave of
no
s swelled from the group, like a breeze wafting across a field of summer wheat.

“For all we know, Dr. Layton might have brought this plague with her. We didn’t have it until she got here,” Adam said.

“Hey, that’s right!”

“It’s like you said, Mr. Jacobsen. The last days.”

“The town council has refused to remove her, refused to admit that I’m right—that she’s not fit to practice medicine. Granny Mae can take care of our people. Dr. Layton is not a Powell Springs citizen any longer.”

General babbling came from the group, and a couple of people stared at Jessica with angry, spite-filled gazes, making her back away from the glass.

“But we are not powerless,” Adam continued, speaking at full volume. “The democratic process that has made us a great nation will let us prevail. Sign the petitions I’ve given you. Circulate them among everyone you know. If it means going into that saloon that serves demon rum at the end of the street, amen! I know that’s where the harlot’s fancy man goes to drink, but every signature counts. Do
whatever
it takes. God is on our side!” He pointed to the double front doors of the school. “The harlot is
inside
!”

“Oh, dear!” Iris exclaimed.

“This is horrible,” Jessica said, her heart drumming in her chest. “He’s inciting them to violence. Cole needs to know about this.”

Granny Mae watched the hubbub, her gray bun slightly askew on her head. “Looks like you made yourself an enemy. A dangerous one, too. That little weasel has reported me to the American Protective League twice already.”

Jessica sighed and interlaced her hands under her chin, making a steeple in front of her lips with her two index fingers. Why, oh, why hadn’t she listened to Cole about Adam? He was not only unhinged, he was as malevolent as a viper. To suggest that she infected Powell Springs with influenza—the man was filled with hate. She almost expected to see Amy in the group, too, except Jess knew that she was still too weak to take part in something so strenuous. And a small part of her heart refused to let her believe that her sister, regardless of what she had already done, would go as far as the people outside.

“I’m going to have to get Sheriff Gannon over here if this gets worse,” Jessica said. “Those people could decide to attack the infirmary, and we’ll be sitting ducks here with all these patients.”

While she waited for the crowd to disperse, Winks Lamont and Bert Bauer came in the back door to collect the two bodies waiting in the cloakroom for burial. Bauer, with his ratlike face, gave Jessica a salacious look that made her cringe.

Adam and his followers finally left, full of righteous purpose, to follow their minister’s bidding. Once Jessica was certain they’d gone, she ran back to her office to call Cole on the telephone.

“I’m so glad you’re in the house.”

“I just came in for a sandwich. I was out in the barn pitching hay. What’s the matter?” he asked.

Knowing full well that operators and other parties on the line often listened in on telephone conversations, Jessica hedged. “Plenty. I can’t talk about it now. I need to discuss it with you privately.”

“Privately—who else is with you, Jess?”

Impatient and frightened, she replied, “Only Birdeen.”

A decidedly female gasp sounded that was not Jessica’s, followed by a sharp click on the line.

“See?”

“Okay, I’ll be there right away.”

Jess paced the length and width of her downstairs office, occasionally going to the window to look for both Cole or signs of trouble. She massaged her neck as she walked. After everything that had happened, she began to ask herself, what was the point? Why should she continue to work in medicine?

At last she heard the truck engine and ran to the window. “Thank God,” she said aloud, and watched Cole park in front of the shop. She pulled open her front door, and he smiled at her as he approached. Her heart lightened just at the sight of him. Even though he still looked a little haggard, he didn’t seem quite as worn out and bedraggled as he had before.

“Jess.” He stepped inside and closed the door. Taking her into his arms, he gave her a quick kiss. Releasing her, he said, “Sorry, I guess I’m a little ripe.” He smelled of clean sweat and hay and horses, but it was very male and enticing, and a welcome difference from the musty-smelling black suit and scent of hair oil that always wafted from Adam. This close, she noticed Cole was wearing a gun belt with a long-barreled revolver in the holster.

Men in New York didn’t wear guns, but things were different here. This was still the Wild West.

“I’m glad you’re here.”

“I left as soon as I hung up. Are you all right?”

“No.” It wasn’t like her to be so blunt—people expected to hear that she was fine, no matter what. But she wasn’t fine now, and because he was affected by the reason, he needed to know why. “Come and sit. I wish you’d brought that bottle of whiskey.” With a last quick look out the front window, she reached over to lock the door. Then she motioned him toward her back room.

He frowned at her obvious nervousness. “What’s going on? Sounds serious.”

“It is serious.”

They settled in the only two chairs left in the back, and she explained what had happened.

His expression turned as dark as storm clouds. “Damn that rotten son of a bitch! I knew should have decked him when I had the chance.”

She shook her head vigorously. “Cole, no, you don’t understand. We’re both vulnerable. If you had hit him, he’d only have more ammunition to use against us. He’s going to ruin my reputation for sure. Maybe…maybe even Amy will help him.” Her voice trembled for a moment, and tears gathered behind her lids. “Don’t think that you aren’t on his blacklist too.” She propped her forehead in her hand.

He thumped the arm of his chair with his fist. “Oh,
hell
, I wish you hadn’t let him come around here.”

She rolled her lips against her teeth and looked at her lap, feeling as guilty as a child caught stealing.

Reaching out, he touched her knee. “I’m not blaming you, Jessica. It’s just that he wouldn’t have had the chance to make this mess if he hadn’t gotten so close.” He sat forward in his chair. “But what can he do to me? Accuse me of being unfit to raise horses? You’re the one I’m worried about.”

“He can have us arrested—”

“Oh, brother, I’d like to see him try.” He uttered a short bark of laughter. “Arrested! On what grounds?”

“These days, reasons don’t matter. The APL encourages people to inform on their neighbors, their friends,
everyone
. It’s turned into a witch hunt.”

A frantic knocking on the front door interrupted their conversation. Jessica sidled up to the glass to see a breathless Granny Mae. She yanked open the door and let her in. Cole joined them.

“Mae, what’s the matter?” he asked.

“Someone is critical?” Jess asked.

Granny Mae waved a hand, then put it on her chest. “Let me get my wind.” After drawing a couple of deep breaths, she replied, “That mob—they’re on their way—here. James Leonard is leading them.”

“What? Why?” Cole asked.

“Did they hurt the patients?”

Mae shook her head. “No. They came into the gymnasium, looking for you. I didn’t tell them where you went, but I heard James say they were coming here.”

“Is Jacobsen with them?”

“Of course not, that coward,” the old woman said.

Just then, the crash of breaking glass sounded in the front. Raised, angry voices, trampling over each other, created the sound of angry, milling wild animals. Jess let out a little shriek.

Cole jumped from his chair and ran to the waiting room, with Jessica fast on his heels. A rock the size of a baseball lay on the floor. He picked it up.

“Oh, dear God. They’re attacking the office!” she said.

He looked out the windows and saw some of the people she’d told him had gathered outside the high school. He jammed his hat down on his head.

Furious, he opened the door and faced them. Jessica started to follow, but he pushed her back inside and into Granny Mae, who was behind her.

“There is the fornicator, right here at the scene of the crime!” James Leonard boomed, waving his sign. His wife, Dolly, lurked on the edge of the crowd, looking like a miserable and unwilling participant.

“What are you talking about, Leonard? And what proof do you have to make your accusations?”

He wore a short beard that followed only his jawline and a black felt hat. “Reverend Jacobsen’s word is good enough for me.”

Cole tossed up the rock and caught it again. “When I report your vandalism and the destruction of my property to the county sheriff, you’ll be facing the circuit judge. That will be almost good enough for me. When he sentences you to jail time, I’ll be downright happy.”

Leonard swelled up like an angry toad. “I didn’t throw that rock.”

“Really? But here you are,
at the scene of the crime
.”

“We want Jessica Layton to stop practicing medicine in Powell Springs and to leave town. She isn’t welcome here anymore.”

Cole tossed the stone aside and let his hand linger near the pistol on his hip. “Now you listen to me, all of you troublemakers. You get off this property right now, or I swear to God, I’ll have Whit Gannon on the telephone so fast you’ll all be in a county cell by tonight.”

Granny Mae sidled out from behind Cole. He studied the angry crowd and decided that given their rabid attitude, she could be hurt. He put an arm out to block her. But she would not go back inside. She let her sharp gaze fall on each sheeplike follower. “You know, I saw some of you people in the infirmary when you were so sick, we didn’t know if you would live or die. Dr. Layton took care of you and your families—wives, brothers, sisters, children—and she never asked for one thing in return. This man,” she said, referring to Cole, “carried you inside from the backs of wagons the day we opened for business. He didn’t ask for anything either. His brother just died in France, his family is in mourning, and this is how you repay them—with your dirty-minded assumptions?” She made a noise of contemptuous disgust. There was a shuffling of feet and muttering among the rabble. “Now you do like Cole said. You go on home, mind your own business, and stop pestering people who aren’t bothering you.”