Randall Riches (8 page)

The nurse held the injured arm, staring at it. “Why is this skin all red?”

“It’ll be black and blue real soon, I expect,” Lavinia said. “The guy who attacked her was pulling her and she was resisting. I bet he bruised it.”

“You can leave on your bra and jeans, dear. Just slip this gown over them and we’ll be ready.”

Samantha didn’t feel she had any choice. After she’d put on the gown, the nurse opened the door for the doctor.

When Doctor Jacoby came back in, it was clear he’d been talking to Rich. “I hear you’re new to Rawhide.”

“Yes,” she said, glaring at Rich, who followed Doc into the room.

“Now, don’t blame the boy for that. I know everyone in town. Haven’t seen you before.”

She ducked her head.

“This man that hurt you. He got a beef with you?”

“He wanted me to be his fifth wife,” Sam said in disgust.

“His fifth? What happened to the others?”

“The police are looking into that.”

“Mercy, I hope they keep him locked up. Doesn’t sound like someone we want here in Rawhide.” He picked up her arm and looked at the cut again. “I’m going to have to clean this up. It may sting a little, so Nurse Banning is going to give you a local to ease the pain. Once it’s clean, we’ll stitch it up and give you a tetanus shot as well. Probably eight stitches. Okay?”

Samantha lay still, staring at the ceiling as the nurse gave her a shot just above the cut. She couldn’t believe she would need that many stitches, but she was feeling a little dizzy. It was easier to let him get on with it.

A few minutes later, the doctor assured her they were all done with the stitching. “Now then, your arm is all red. Looks like a pretty bad bruise.”

Samantha only nodded.

“Do you hurt anywhere else?”

She tried to move her cut arm, but the nurse stopped her and asked, “Can you use your other arm, dear?”

Samantha used her other arm and touched her shoulder on the injured side. She thought she’d pulled a muscle.

“Ah,” the doctor said. “I think we’d better do an X ray. We don’t want to miss anything.”

“Something else is wrong?” Rich demanded, stepping into Sam’s line of vision.

“Won’t know until we look. You and Lavinia are going to have to wait outside.”

“Why can’t we stay?” Rich demanded, a frown on his face.

“Because we’re going to do an X ray. Go sit down and we’ll let you know when we’re done.”

Samantha watched Rich and Lavinia leave with a sense of loss. For a young woman who had always been alone, she’d quickly come to appreciate their company.

The nurse told Sam to remain on the table. Then she left the room only to return right away with a big machine she could just barely get through the door. Then she handed the doctor a lead apron and put one on herself.

“How’s the pain?” the doctor asked as the nurse slid an X-ray plate under her right side.

“Bearable,” Sam told him as she gritted her teeth.

“You’re braver than some of these cowboys around here,” he assured her with a chuckle. “By the way, I noticed Rich has a cast on his foot. How come?”

“He fell wrong from the back of a bull.”

“Where?”

“Flagstaff,” she replied, grimacing at the nurse’s movement.

“Okay, we’re almost ready,” the doctor said. “When I tell you, hold your breath.”

Rich immediately began to pace in the waiting room. Lavinia took a seat and chatted with her neighbors, explaining what had happened.

Suddenly the door flew open and Janie, closely followed by Red, entered the room.

“Rich? Where is she? Is she all right?”

He hugged his mother. “Doc sewed up the cut, but he’s doing an X ray now.”

“Why? What else is wrong? And who is this man? Why would he attack Samantha?”

Lavinia moved down the sofa and patted the seat she’d abandoned. “Sit down, Janie. We’ll tell you what we know.” She waited until Janie had done so. “The man said his name was Brad. Apparently Sam used to work for him. And he wanted her to go back to Arizona.”

“And she agreed?” Janie asked, her voice rising.

“No. He was trying to force her.” Lavinia pressed her hands together. “That’s when I ran to get my rifle. When I got back, he was knocked on the ground. That’s when I saw Sam was bleeding. I got a towel to stop the
bleeding. Then Rich arrived and we brought Sam in. The sheriff took that Brad fellow into custody.”

“What I don’t get is how he knew where she was,” Rich said, anger in his voice.

“She said she didn’t tell him,” Lavinia replied. “Said she knew he was dangerous.”

“The important thing is she’s going to be all right, isn’t she?” Janie asked. “I told Toby to tell your dad.”

As if on cue, the phone on the receptionist’s desk rang. She answered it, then looked at Janie. “Ma’am, your husband wants to talk to you.”

By the time Janie finished her conversation with Pete, the nurse was waiting to take them to the doctor’s office.

All three of them asked questions nonstop. The nurse opened the doctor’s office door and asked them to be seated. “The doctor will be here in a minute to fill you all in.” Then she disappeared.

Fortunately, Dr. Jacoby entered just then, his hand raised. “My nurse warned me you were all demanding answers. Samantha lost quite a bit of blood, and she’s turning black and blue on her arm and shoulder. The man wrenched her shoulder. It will be okay but it’s painful. She’s being taken to a room and we’re keeping her overnight at least. Maybe two nights.” After a pause, he said, “And that’s all I know, except she is a strong woman. Suffered a lot of pain without complaining.”

“Can we see her?” Janie asked.

“In about two hours. After they settle her in, they’re
going to give her some pain medication that will knock her out. When she wakes up, she’ll feel a lot better.”

“Okay, thanks, Doc,” Janie said, and led her son and mother out to the waiting room where Red was waiting.

O
NCE THEY LEFT
the clinic, Rich glowered. “I think I’m paying the sheriff a visit.”

“Is he going to charge the man with anything?” Janie asked.

“He’d better,” Rich returned.

“I think we should go get Samantha her own things,” Lavinia said. “I remember that made me feel lots better when I was in the hospital.”

“After we stop at the sheriff’s office,” Rich replied.

“All right, dear.”

“While y’all do that, Red and I are going home to reassure Mildred and pick up Pete. He’ll want to see Sam, too.”

Rich got in his grandmother’s car on the passenger side, irritated that he had to rely on anyone to drive him wherever he needed to go.

Lavinia pulled up beside the sheriff’s office but stayed in the car. “I’m beginning to feel a little sore and tired,” she admitted. “I’ll just wait here until you’re ready to go home.”

“You sure you’re all right, Grandma?”

“I’m sure. Maybe I’m just hungry. It’s past lunch-time.”

“I won’t be long.”

When Rich walked in, he discovered the sheriff talk
ing to one of his deputies. “Sheriff Metzger?” he called.

The sheriff spun on his heels. “Rich. How’s your friend?”

“Doc’s keeping her overnight.”

“I’m sorry. Her attacker is going back to Flagstaff first thing in the morning. He wasn’t supposed to leave town. They’ve got new evidence on his last wife’s death. Looks like they’re going to charge him with her murder and look into his other wives’ deaths, so your little lady won’t have to worry about him.”

“That’s good news, but she’s just a friend, not my lady.”

“Uh, right.”

“So does Sam need to file charges just in case he beats that rap?”

“That would be best.”

“If you’ll give me the forms she needs to sign, I’ll bring them by later.”

The sheriff gathered up several sheets of paper and handed them to Rich. After saying goodbye, Rich hurried back to his grandmother’s car.

“You want to get some lunch before we go back to the ranch?” he asked her.

“No, we’ll grab something to eat when we get home. I want to get Samantha’s nightgown and grooming things to her as quick as possible. I was right glad to get out of that thing they called a nightgown when I was in the hospital.”

Rich nodded, but he wondered what Sam would have
in the way of a nightgown. Then he shook his head. That wasn’t a good thing for him to worry about.

When they returned to his grandmother’s house, she ordered him to get the ham out of the refrigerator. They’d have sandwiches. He did as she asked, taking out mustard and bread as well.

His grandmother then went upstairs to Samantha’s bedroom. A few minutes later, she came back down with Samantha’s duffel bag. “Did you say this was the only bag she brought?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“There’s no nightgown in her room. Just a couple of T-shirts and a spare pair of jeans.”

“I figured.”

“Well, why didn’t you say something? We could’ve gone to a store.”

Rich shook his head. “Sam’s real independent, Grandma. I’m not sure but what buying her something will upset her.”

“Mercy!” Lavinia exclaimed. She picked up the phone to call her daughter. “Janie, Samantha doesn’t have hardly anything. There’s no nightgown and Rich says buying her something will upset her. What do we do?”

After listening, Lavinia hung up the phone and started making sandwiches.

“What did Mom say?” Rich asked, frowning.

“She said she and Pete would talk to Samantha. We’re each going to buy her a nightgown, so she’ll have more than one, but we’ll keep them simple. How many
sandwiches do you want?” she asked, switching the subject.

“One,” he said, absentmindedly.

“One? You usually have two at least,” Lavinia pointed out.

“I’m not getting a lot of exercise with this cast on my foot. What should
I
get her?”

“Well, I don’t think it would be proper for you to get her a nightie,” Lavinia assured him with a grin.

“Of course not! I didn’t mean— I wasn’t thinking of that. But if you all are taking her presents, I don’t want to show up empty-handed,” he explained in irritation.

He had no intention of getting intimate with Samantha. Unlike Russ, he wasn’t ready to marry. But Samantha was a friend. He’d brought her here. And it was normal to get a little warm thinking about a woman’s nightclothes. It didn’t mean anything.

“Maybe your mother will think of something,” Lavinia said, fixing the sandwiches.

Rich poured two glasses of iced tea. “When is she coming over?”

“As soon as your dad comes in.”

Rich frowned again. “Dad doesn’t come in until almost dark. I thought we should take Sam her things now.”

“Don’t worry. He’s coming in early.”

Rich stood there, his hands on his hips. Did his father really think of Samantha as a daughter? Rich certainly didn’t think of her as a sister. In fact, he realized now that he’d been attracted to her from the beginning. On the drive up, the more she pushed him away, the more
he’d wanted to know about her. He’d visited a couple of times since she’d moved to his grandmother’s, but Sam hadn’t shown any delight upon his arrival. If anything, she’d withdrawn again.

“Sit and eat, boy. They’ll be here in half an hour,” Lavinia ordered, a smile on her lips.

T
HE DOCTOR HAD
instructed the nurses to give Samantha painkillers after they got her in bed. As the medicine took effect and she slid into sleep, she vaguely heard voices talking by the bed.

“Who is she? Doc said she’s a friend of Rich Randall.”

“Maybe some woman’s finally caught him. She’s pretty enough. And I heard she took down a big man, so maybe she took Rich down, too. In a different way,” the voice added with a chuckle.

Samantha tried to speak, but her tongue seemed thick. She tried again, but finally gave up, losing consciousness.

When she awoke several hours later, it wasn’t just her tongue that didn’t operate. Her mind seemed blank, too.

“Samantha?”

She struggled to open her eyes and discovered Dr. Jacoby by her bed, taking her pulse. “Hi,” she whispered. “Throat dry.”

“Nurse, get her some water,” the doctor ordered and the woman came into Sam’s line of vision with a glass with a bendable straw in it.

Samantha sipped the water slowly.

“I believe you have some visitors waiting,” the doctor said cheerfully.

Samantha frowned. “No. No visitors.”

“You don’t feel up to visitors?”

“No. There’s no one to visit.”

“You’re wrong there, young lady,” he said before departing.

“Shall I raise the head of your bed a little? It will make it easier to visit.” Without waiting for an answer, the nurse pushed a button, elevating Samantha’s head.

Almost simultaneously, the door opened again and Lavinia and Rich, accompanied by Pete and Janie, came into the room.

Pete reached the bed and leaned over to kiss her cheek. “Hi, honey. Sorry you had such a hard time. How are you feeling?”

“Pete,” she managed to say, suddenly fighting tears.

Janie replaced him and kissed her cheek, too. “Poor dear. I’m sorry it took us so long to bring your things to you. Did you sleep some?”

“Yes,” Sam replied. “You didn’t have to come.”

“Do you think I’m going to let my handsome husband visit a beautiful woman and me not come? Why, there’d be rumors all over town.” Janie’s big grin told Sam she didn’t mean it. At least she hoped so.

Lavinia stepped forward. “Did Doc give you some medicine?”

“Something to help me sleep. Pete, can you talk to him? He wants me to stay overnight.” Alarm had her voice rising.

“What’s the matter, Sam? You got a heavy date to
morrow?” Pete asked grinning. “I think you’d best do what Doc says.”

Almost as if he felt he was being ignored, Rich came to the other side of her bed and picked up her left hand. “Did he say why?”

“No. He said we’d talk about it later.” She looked at Rich hopefully. “I can take care of myself. I won’t cause Lavinia any trouble, I promise. I think she’ll let me stay at her house until I’m feeling better.” Her gaze shifted to Lavinia to see if she objected to that remark.

Janie and Pete exchanged a look that she couldn’t interpret. Then Pete said, “Honey, I told you, you belong with us. No one is sending you away. We’re going to take care of you. You’re one of us, now.”

“I can’t stay, Pete. I put Lavinia in danger. I can’t promise it won’t happen again. Brad is mean and vicious.”

“If anything does happen, it won’t be Brad causing trouble,” Rich assured her. “They’re charging him with the murder of his fourth wife. And maybe for the others, too. He’s going to be put away for a long time.”

“Besides, we did a good job of protecting ourselves, young lady. We’re the talk of the town.” Lavinia beamed at her, as if that were a desirable thing. “Now, open this.”

She thrust a box at Samantha that she hadn’t noticed before.

Samantha stared at the box. “I—I can’t— What is it?”

“That’s why you’re supposed to open it, silly,” Lavinia teased her.

Her gaze flashed to both Pete and Janie, then Rich. “I can’t.”

“Rich, you help her,” Janie ordered.

He put something on the floor and stepped to her bedside, lifting the lid off Lavinia’s box. Inside, nestled in tissue paper, was a pale-green short nightgown, along with a matching robe. Rich lifted the two garments out of the box, putting them across the cover so she could see them.

“No! No, I can’t. Lavinia—”

Janie stopped her. “I know you’re independent, but, Sam, we’d do the same thing for anyone else. If you don’t want them when you leave, you can just leave them behind. But we want you to have them.”

Sam looked even more alarmed. “Them? There’s more?”

“You’ll need a change, especially if you stay another night,” Janie explained. “Besides, do you know how long I’ve waited to have a daughter to shop for? You’ll be doing me a favor.”

Rich reached out for the next box and opened it, too. Inside was a white gown and robe. It, too, was simple, but it had lace edging the neckline and armholes.

Sam reached out and stroked the soft material of both gowns. She’d never had anything as nice. “You’re all so sweet. I—I don’t know how I’ll repay you.”

“We’ll tell you when our birthdays are coming up. And we’ll expect good presents,” Pete told her, grinning.

“Now, you men scoot out so we can make Sam comfortable,” Janie ordered. The men quickly departed.

“She lives with me, so I say she wears the green one first,” Lavinia insisted.

“Of course, Mom,” Janie said, “if that’s okay with Samantha.” She looked at her and Sam nodded. “Okay, lean forward just a little bit and I’ll untie the one you’re wearing. I hate those ties.”

When she pulled the hospital gown away, she immediately slipped the pale-green gown onto Sam’s head. Then, very gently, she put Samantha’s injured arm through the armhole. “We picked out gowns with big armholes, so it would be easier.”

Lavinia, on the other side of the bed, held the gown for Sam to put her uninjured arm in. Then she smoothed it down over Sam’s body and drew the cover up over her. “The green looks good. Makes those huge eyes of yours look even bigger.” Then she looked at her daughter, grinning, “Do you think it’s safe to let Rich see her like this?”

Something in what she said reminded Samantha of that conversation she’d overheard as she drifted into sleep. She frowned, trying to remember what had bothered her.

“You don’t like it?” Lavinia asked.