One Bright Morning (8 page)

She peeked out of the front window to
perceive Dan Blue Gully’s big chestnut horse slide to a stop across
the bare winter yard, sending up a spray of dust and pebbles. Dan
Blue Gully was off the horse and running toward the house before
the horse had finished skidding. Another horse and rider were
following fast on his heels, and Maggie hoped that person was a
friend and not an enemy.

Whoever the second rider was, she was
overjoyed to see Dan Blue Gully again. She had the door opened by
the time he had run up to it.

“
Are you all right?” He
grabbed her by the shoulders in a grip that Maggie knew would leave
bruises. Her face squinched up in pain and he eased his
hold.

“
Sorry, Mrs. Bright. Are you
all right?”

“
I’m all right, Mr. Blue
Gully. And I’m so happy to see you, I can hardly see
straight.”

Maggie almost giggled when she realized she
could hardly see straight even before he showed up.

“
I’m real, real sorry, Mrs.
Bright. French Jack got by us when we doubled back. I thought for
sure you was dead when we rode up and heard the shots. Who was it
shot his partner?”

Dan glanced toward the bedroom. He knew
better than to expect Jubal Green was well enough to defend the
little cabin, but he couldn’t imagine anybody else shooting that
well.

“
Me,” said Maggie
proudly.

Dan’s gaze flew away from the bedroom door
and landed on her with an amazed thump.

“
You
?”

“
Yes.” Maggie’s face,
through the grime and exhaustion, was beginning to register the
tiniest bit of offended pride.

“
Kenny taught me how to
shoot, Mr. Blue Gully, and I know I’m not much of a shot and I
can’t see worth a darn, but—but, well, I guess I got
lucky.”

Dan just shook his head as he peered down at
her. She looked as though it had been a rough night for her.

“
I think that shot was more
than luck, Mrs. Bright. You got him right in the butt. He won’t be
able to ride for a month.”

The Indian grinned and Maggie blushed.

“
I’m real sorry I left you,
ma’am,” he said. It sounded as though he felt genuinely
guilty.

“
Well, I guess I’m all
right. I don’t know about your friend, though.” A sudden fear for
Jubal Green almost swamped her.

She hoped Dan wouldn’t be angry or upset
with her. She’d done the best she could.

“
Well, let’s take a
look.”

They both walked toward the bedroom, Maggie
trailing a little behind Dan, worry making her footsteps drag.

Jubal Green looked almost good. He even had
a little color in his cheeks.

“
My God, ma’am, what did you
do to him?” asked Dan in amazement.

Maggie’s face fell tragically.

“
Oh, dear,” she whispered.
“I tried to do what you told me to do. I had to change the bandage
one extra time because he flung his leg around so bad that it began
to bleed again. I sponged him off and poured bark tea down him and
soup, and—oh, God, Mr. Blue Gully, I’m sorry.”

This had been
such
a trying few hours.
Maggie was too tired to stop the tears of remorse that slid down
her cheeks. She was sure she had killed Jubal Green with her poor
nursing.

Dan’s gaze left his friend and shot over to
Maggie, a puzzled frown marring his face.

“
You’re sorry?”

Maggie’s hands had flown to her cheeks and
she was shaking her head miserably. “I’m so sorry. Is he dead?” she
whispered.

“
Dead
?” Dan stared at Maggie incredulously. “Ma’am, I didn’t expect
him to look this good for a week or more. I don’t know what you
did, but I swear, you must be magic. He looks
wonderful.”

Maggie blinked several times, certain that
she had misunderstood the man.

“
I did all right?” stumbled
out of her mouth so softly that Dan had to strain to hear
it.

“
You did more than all
right, ma’am. You did—you did superior,” he said. He wasn’t used to
talking to women and didn’t quite know how to go about
it.

Maggie looked up at him with astonishment
evident in her big, tired eyes. “Thank you,” she murmured.

“
Thank
you
, ma’am,” said Dan Blue
Gully.

He took in Maggie’s ragged appearance, her
obvious exhaustion, and a sympathetic frown tugged at his lips. The
poor woman needed rest. That was obvious.

“
Ma’am, you got French Jack
to back off for a while. Now I’m going to take over nurse-maiding
Jubal here, and I want you to clean up and rest. All
right?”

Maggie stared at Dan numbly and nodded. She
didn’t trust herself to speak. Nobody had ever said she had done
anything superior before in her life. That made her want to cry
even more than thinking she had killed Jubal Green did.

All at once fear for her daughter shot
through Maggie’s conscious mind, and she very nearly broke down
completely. She had forgot clean about Annie. She realized she must
be a terrible mother to have forgot about her own daughter, and
guilt almost swamped her terror about Annie’s safety.

“
Mr. Blue Gully, I’m worried
about Annie,” she blurted out in a rush.

“
Annie, ma’am?”

Dan had been staring at Jubal Green but at
Maggie’s words, he peered down at her in confusion. Then his face
cleared as though it had been wiped with a wet rag.

“
Oh, your
daughter.”

Maggie’s head bobbed up and down; she didn’t
dare speak for fear her voice would crack. She wasn’t sure how much
more of this confusion she would be able to take without falling
down in hysterics.

“
I saw your daughter last
night, ma’am. She and that screamer lady were walking into a cabin
a mile or so down the road to Lincoln. She looked right
happy.

Maggie’s knees nearly buckled with relief.
“Thank God,” she whispered. “I was afraid that man got them.”

Suddenly, another man burst into the house,
and Maggie whirled around with a tiny shriek.

“
They’s a dead man on the
wood pile,” the new man said.

Maggie stared at him in fright for only a
second before she realized he must be the second man who had ridden
up behind Dan Blue Gully.

“
A dead man?” Dan looked
down at Maggie, a question in his eyes.

“
Ozzie,” whispered Maggie.
“That French Jack person shot him last night, I guess. I don’t know
who else would have done it.”

Dan Blue Gully shook his head as he stared
at Maggie.

“
It’s been a bad time for
you, ma’am, ain’t it?” he asked softly.

Maggie could only nod numbly. It had been a
real bad time, all right.

“
I’m sorry we brung bad
times on you,” the Indian said.

Maggie just looked at him. She was too tired
to form a coherent refutation. Besides, she thought numbly, it was
true. They had brought bad times.

Dan took her gently by arm and led her to
the kitchen chair.

“
You sit right there, ma’am.
Me and Four Toes will take care of everything.”

She blinked up at him. “Four Toes?” she
asked in a tiny voice.

“
Oh, yeah,” said Dan Blue
Gully. “This here’s Four Toes Smith.”

He gestured toward the second man. Maggie
could now plainly see that he was another Indian. She was too tired
to ask what tribe he originated from and hoped that wasn’t impolite
of her.

Four Toes Smith nodded at Maggie and tugged
at his hat, which was a greasy, floppy-brimmed model with a
pheasant feather sticking out of the beaded ribbon that encircled
it.

Maggie nodded back at Four Toes Smith and
sat down as Dan Blue Gully had instructed her to do. She was too
tired and bemused to do anything else.

Dan looked around the kitchen for a minute,
then slopped up a big bowl of Maggie’s soup. He figured out where
the bread was kept and hacked her off a big piece.

Then he set that fare before her and said,
“Here, ma’am, you eat this. You need to eat something.”

Maggie did indeed look as though a strong
wind might just carry her off.

Dan Blue Gully and Four Toes Smith conferred
for a few minutes, then Four Toes headed out onto the back
porch.

“
He’s going to fix you a
bath in that tub on the porch ma’am. That will make you feel
better.”

Maggie was eating. She hadn’t realized how
ravenous she was until she’d had a chance to sit down and think
about something other than keeping Jubal Green and herself alive.
She couldn’t remember ever being so hungry. At the moment, she was
so busy shoveling soup and bread into her mouth that she didn’t ask
the first question that flashed through her brain at Dan’s words,
which was where she was supposed to bathe with her house full of
strange men. It was, after all, pretty nearly the dead of winter,
so the porch would be too blamed cold. She decided she’d ask
later.

It turned out she didn’t need to. Four Toes
Smith rigged up a curtain out of two bedroll blankets in a warm
corner of the kitchen. Then he carried in the heavy tub as though
it weighed a mere pound or two and set it down behind the
screen.

Maggie and Ozzie used to have to struggle
and struggle to get that tub into the kitchen. During the summer,
Maggie used to bathe on the porch because it was easier. It was too
cold for that during the winter, though, so she usually only gave
herself thorough sponge baths. This tub bath would be a rare,
welcome pleasure for her.

“
Thank you very much,” she
murmured when she saw what the two men had rigged up for her
bathing pleasure. She was very grateful.

Then Four Toes began to heat water on the
stove for her and Maggie thought her cup might just overflow. She’d
never had anybody to heat bath water for her. She was infinitely
grateful to be spared the back-breaking work of filling the tub for
herself.

Before she took her bath, she tiptoed into
the bedroom to fetch clean clothes and check up on Jubal Green. Dan
Blue Gully was sitting next to the bed, staring down at his
friend’s face.

“
How’s he doing?” Maggie
whispered.

Dan Blue Gully shook his head slowly, as
though he couldn’t quite believe what he were about to say.

Maggie immediately feared the worst had
happened.

“
He’s doing good, ma’am.
It’s because of your fine care, and I thank you. I don’t know what
I’d do without Jubal Green. Him and me has been partners
for-damned-near-ever.” then he looked up quickly, and amended his
words. “I mean we’ve been together a long time, ma’am. I didn’t
mean to swear.”

Maggie was so relieved she actually smiled.
“It’s all right, Mr. Blue Gully. I understand. I’m just glad I
could help.” She didn’t bother to tell him that she herself had
taken to swearing like a drunken cowboy during the last few
months.

Maggie took her clean clothes behind the
screen with her. When she sank into the tub, she thought this must
be pure bliss, to be able to bathe in her own warm kitchen and not
have to think about anything at all for a while. She fell asleep in
the tub.

Chapter Four

It was while Maggie dozed in her bath that
Jubal Green came fully conscious for the first time since French
Jack’s bullets had knocked him senseless.

Dan Blue Gully still sat at his side. He was
staring at Jubal’s face with a frown, and that was the first thing
that Jubal saw when he, with a monumental effort, pried his
heavy-as-lead eyelids up over his bloodshot eyes.

“
Jesus Christ,” Jubal
whispered when he saw the Indian’s ferocious scowl. “Whatever it
is, I didn’t mean it.”

Jubal had a faint, misty memory of waking up
once before and finding an angel in his bed. No, he corrected
himself. It hadn’t been an angel. It had been a—what? A whore? No.
Nor a devil. He decided that that particular memory was buried too
deeply and that it would require entirely too much energy to dredge
it back again to investigate, so he gave up.

He had no trouble at all in recognizing Dan
Blue Gully, who gave an enormous start at his friend’s words.

“
You’re awake,” Dan said,
emotion making his voice a bland, toneless rumble. Emotion always
did that to Dan Blue Gully, which was one of the reasons nobody in
the world except Jubal Green ever knew what he was
thinking.

“
What happened?” Jubal
asked, conversationally. He was almost afraid to find out. Whenever
Dan sounded like that, Jubal knew whatever it was that had happened
was really, really bad.

“
French Jack shot
you.”

Jubal frowned so hard at his friend’s words
that his head began to ache, so he stopped frowning and merely
glared.

“
No he didn’t,” he said at
last.

“
Yes he did,” Dan
contradicted.

“
Hell.” Jubal sounded very
disgruntled. “I never let myself get shot before.”

“
Weren’t your
fault.”

“
Like hell.”

Jubal Green didn’t believe in chance
accidents or luck, good or bad. He knew he must have done something
stupid to let French Jack shoot him. After all, now that he thought
about it, he remembered that it was French Jack that he and Dan had
been after. It made sense, therefore, that he was supposed to have
shot French Jack, not the other way around. That annoyed Jubal a
lot.