Ana Seymour (6 page)

“Kate!” Lyle Wentworth yelled, helping the doctor as he bent with the weight of Kate’s unconscious form. Together the two men lowered her to the floor.

“Lordy!” Brad Connors breathed, still holding his derringer pointed toward the sheriff.

Jennie wailed and sank down next to Kate, her eyes on the doctor. “What’s happened?” she asked in a choked voice.

Dr. Millard shook his head gently. “I’m not sure, child. Perhaps she’s just fainted. We need to get her to a bed.” With a minimum of words, he instructed the three miners and Lyle on how to lift Kate gently and bear her upstairs toward her room. “I may need your help, Dorie,” he told his daughter, and she turned to follow him up the stairs.

Jennie stood immobile as an icy fear spread through her. When the procession had disappeared around the curve of the stairs, she turned to face the group who stood waiting around the doorway. “Get out of my house,” she said to them.

Sheriff Hammond turned around to scan the faces of the women. Even Henrietta looked a bit taken aback at the turn of events. Turning back to Jennie, he said, “I’m not sure this will change the order, but I guess we can wait to deal with it until tomorrow.”

Jennie looked first at him, then one by one at the women behind him. Most wouldn’t meet her gaze. “If my sister dies,” she said, “it will be on your heads. You will be responsible for the death of a sweet, gentle angel who’s never harmed a soul in this town. Her crime was to love too much and give too much. But
your
crime will be murder.”

At the very end she let her stare rest on Carter. “All of you,” she ended.

Then she turned, put a shaky hand out to the banister and started up the stairs.

J
ennie had never much liked Lyle Wentworth. As son of the town banker, he’d always seemed to consider himself a cut above the rest of the students at Vermillion School. When it was time for lunch out on the enclosed dirt play yard, most of the children brought out tin pails full of cold biscuits or dried bacon slabs. Lyle had had a cloth-lined wicker basket that every year seemed to overflow with more delicacies—tins of salmon paste, marchpane candies—foods that Jennie and Kate had never even heard of.

Jennie remembered the first time that Lyle had offered to share some of his bounty with Kate. They’d giggled about it on the way home that day, but it had become less funny to Jennie as the days passed and it became increasingly obvious that stuck-up Lyle Wentworth was sweet on her baby sister.

Fortunately, Kate never seemed to find much appeal in the idea, either, though she was too sweet to ever tell Lyle to his face. She couldn’t even bear to turn him down when he’d asked her to the harvest dance the year she turned sixteen. He’d tried to kiss
her, she’d confided to Jennie later. Jennie had been shocked.

But tonight she was happy that Lyle had stayed. It was comforting somehow. He was one of Kate’s oldest friends, a man with money and power. He’d help see that nothing happened to her.

“How is she?” he asked as she started down the stairs. He was still standing in the front hall where she’d left everyone over half an hour ago. The others had left, including Carter.

“She’s awake. The doctor sent me down for some tea.” Lyle looked almost as worried as Jennie felt. She forced a small smile. “Kate’s strong.”

Lyle shook his head. “No, she’s not. You’re the strong one, Jennie. Kate’s always depended on you to take the lead.”

Jennie’s smile died and tears filled her eyes. “I wish there was something I could do for her now.”

Lyle took her arm as she reached the bottom step and said with surprising gentleness, “There is. You can bring her some tea, like the doctor said. All Kate needs is to know that her family is there by her side. That’s all she’s ever needed.”

There was a touch of wistfulness in his voice. Another surprise. Perhaps she’d misjudged Lyle. Suddenly she felt almost sorry for him. She was sure the Wentworth family had never had the kind of closeness shared by the Sheridans.

“Jennie, I want to talk with you.” Dr. Millard had appeared at the top of the stairs.

Jennie clutched Lyle’s arm. “Has something happened? Is she all right?”

The doctor gave a wave of assurance as he descended the stairs. “She’s fallen asleep. Just a natural sleep, I think. She’s exhausted.”

“We’ve been careful, I promise. I haven’t let her do a thing.”

The doctor reached to pat her cheek. “You’ve been doing a fine job of taking care of her, little one. But your sister’s condition requires professional care.”

“Then she’ll get it,” Lyle said firmly.

“You mean we need to make an appointment with that special doctor you were taking about?” Jennie asked.

Dr. Millard leaned against the banister and looked from Jennie to Lyle, then back to Jennie. “Do you want to talk about this with Lyle here?” he asked.

The question took Jennie aback. She hadn’t been thinking about the propriety of discussing her sister’s condition with an unrelated male present. But looking at Lyle’s determined face, she had the feeling that he wouldn’t leave without protest. And, anyway, she and Kate could use a friend. She’d thought Carter would prove to be one, but that illusion had been thoroughly smashed tonight. “Lyle’s concerned about Kate,” she answered finally. “You can speak in front of him.”

Dr. Millard nodded. “Kate admitted to me that she’s had the bleeding again.”

“She didn’t tell me.” Jennie threw an agonized glance up the stairs.

“I know.” The doctor’s eyes were warm. “She said you had enough to worry about, keeping the house running for everyone and trying to work out the finances. But she’s in serious danger of losing her
baby, which at this stage could put her own life at risk. She’s going to need constant care.”

“I can do it,” Jennie said. “Barnaby and I will take turns with her. And I’ll get the miners to do more of the cooking…why, they all helped out tonight…and…”

Dr. Millard gently grasped her shoulder. “No, Jennie, you can’t do it this time. You have all the will in the world…and all the love. But right now Kate needs medical skill.”

Jennie looked down at the hall carpet. It was threadbare in spots. Mother had been talking about ordering a new one from back East. “What do we have to do?” she whispered without raising her head.

“There’s a hospital in Virginia City with a maternity ward. She needs to be there.”

“For how long?” Jennie asked, scuffing her good patent leather shoe against the side of the stair.

“Until the birth most likely.”

Jennie swallowed. “Two more months?”

Dr. Millard nodded. “If it goes full term.”

She let out a long breath. “Can I stay with her?”

Dr. Millard pursed his lips. “Well, now. I don’t know. I don’t think they’d let you stay right there in the hospital for two months, but I suppose you could find a boardinghouse nearby. I hate to think of you in a strange city by yourself…”

His words drifted off and there was silence as all three considered the ramifications of the move.

Finally Jennie said, “And what about my own boardinghouse in the meantime? Who takes care of
that? How do I pay my bills?” A sudden thought hit her. “Will this hospital be expensive?”

“I’m afraid so, Jennie. But you have no other choice. I could help you out with some of the bill—”

Lyle interrupted, “The money is unimportant. If Kate needs the care, she’ll get it. I’ll pay for it.”

Dr. Millard raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. As far as Jennie knew, Lyle had no funds of his own. He’d just begun to work for his father at the bank.

“Kate and I pay our own way,” Jennie said, finally lifting her head and looking at first Lyle, then the doctor with a strong gaze. “I’ll find the money. We can always sell this house.”

“And live where?” Dr. Millard asked. “That baby’s going to need a place to come home to once it’s born.”

Jennie’s head had begun to pound. “Kate’s sleeping now, right? We won’t be doing anything until morning?”

Dr. Millard nodded.

“Then if you don’t mind, gentlemen, I still have a kitchen full of dishes to clean. Tomorrow we’ll work this out. Whatever it is that Kate needs, I’ll see that it’s done.”

Jennie thought she’d cried every tear in her head when her parents died, but by the time she was halfway back to Vermillion after leaving Kate in that sterile room in Virginia City, she realized that she must have an endless supply. She was sunk in the cushions
of Dr. Millard’s comfortable carriage, oblivious to the scenery they were passing.

“I’m sorry,” she said between hiccups. “I can’t seem to stop. She looked so alone there in that stiff bed.”

Dr. Millard kept his eyes on his horse. “Just cry it out, child. You’re almost as worn-out as your sister. I should have made you stay at the hospital for a rest, too.”

“You know I couldn’t do that. I have to go back. We need the rent money.” Kate had been scared and reluctant when Jennie had sat down this morning to tell her about the hospital stay, but both sisters had realized that without the rent money, they’d lose their house. Jennie would have to stay in Vermillion. Kate would have to be alone.

“I wish you’d let me help.”

Jennie shook her head. “I’ll manage. I intend to get another boarder to take Kate’s room.”

“But what about the court order?”

“At one time, Mr. Jones said that the group moving against us would be willing to allow me to have four boarders if my sister was not living there. I intend to talk to him about that offer.” In spite of the fact that she’d rather pet a rattlesnake than talk with Carter Jones about anything, she would swallow her pride and ask for his help.

“Good. He seems like a nice young man, Jennie. He could prove to be of help to you.”

A nice young man who could kiss her one minute then turn his back on her an hour later. “All I want
is the compromise on the court order. I don’t intend to have any other business with Mr. Jones.”

Dr. Millard turned his head to give her a sharp look. “You sound angry.”

“No. In order to be angry with Mr. Jones, I would have to care what he does or says or thinks. Which I don’t”

“Ah.” The doctor reached an arm around Jennie and pulled her against his side in a fatherly hug. “You’ve taken on a big burden, Jennie. Just remember that it’s not a crime to ask for help from your friends.”

Jennie sagged a little bit against his wool serge coat. “I know. I don’t want to sound ungrateful. But, Carter Jones is not one of those friends. In fact, Doctor, sometimes I think that you and Dorie are the only friends we have left.”

The doctor gave her another quick squeeze, then she straightened up and they continued along the rutted road in silence. Jennie’s eyes stung and she could feel the trace of dry tears on her cheek, but their flow had ceased. The thought of once again confronting Carter Jones had stopped them cold.

Jennie had never been in the district attorney’s office on the second floor of the tiny Vermillion courthouse. It wasn’t anywhere near as impressive as the law offices she’d visited in Virginia City when she and Kate had gone for the reading of their parents’ will and then later for help with the boardinghouse fight. In fact, it was small and bare, with a cheap desk that made it look as if it might be a tiny cubbyhole
for the janitor rather than the man entrusted with justice in Vermillion and six surrounding communities. Carter may be a fancy Harvard man with clothes to match, but his workplace was more than modest. Jennie found it comforting.

“How’s your sister?” was the first question he asked.

“Fine, thank you.” She wanted to leave no doubt that they were no longer on the social terms that had been implied by the invitation to dinner three nights ago.

“I heard that you got her situated in a hospital in Virginia City.”

“Mr. Jones, I didn’t come here to discuss my sister. I came to find out the status of the order closing down my boardinghouse.”

Carter shifted, making his chair creak. Jennie’s eyes went to his long fingers, which were playing with a row of pencils. “I just thought we’d wait a few days until you could take care of things with your sister…”

“My sister is no longer living at Sheridan House. You once told me that under those circumstances, the town council was willing to give me a permit to take in boarders.”

Carter nodded. “That was the original vote of the council.”

“Good.” Jennie was determined to get through this interview without the nerves that had seemed to afflict her every previous time she’d been in the presence of Carter Jones. “Then I’d like to request that you inform the council that we have agreed to these terms
and would like for them to issue the permit or proceed with whatever bureaucratic nonsense they require as soon as possible.”

Carter leaned back, creaking. “You’re angry with me.”

Jennie managed a small laugh. “I have no emotion toward you whatsoever, Mr. Jones. I merely need to get these formalities out of the way so that I can return to my duties. I’m a busy woman.”

“No, you’re angry with me,” he insisted. “Is it because I backed up the sheriff the other night?” His gray eyes roved over her, taking in the plain blue cotton dress and bonnet. Her
plainest
dress, which she had donned purposefully that morning. His voice grew softer. “Or is it because I kissed you?”

The tiny upstairs office was sweltering in the late autumn heat, and the heavy cotton was suddenly entirely too warm. Jennie stood, holding the edge of the desk with her fingertips for support. “I’m going to assume that this matter is now settled,” she said, her voice cool. “I’ll continue to operate my establishment just as I have been doing. And I won’t expect to be bothered by this discussion again.”

Carter rose to his feet more slowly. The teasing smile was gone and his expression grew serious. “Are you going to be all right over there alone with those miners, Jennie? Is there anything I can do to help you?”

Jennie picked her reticule off his desk and adjusted her gloves. “As I was saying, Mr. Jones. I consider the matter settled. I won’t expect to be bothered by
you again, either.” She met his eyes for a full ten seconds, then turned to leave.

Jennie threw two more green beans into the pail, then straightened up, rubbing her back. She’d started her day before dawn fixing flapjacks for the miners. It was clean sheet day. The morning had been taken up boiling the linens, and now she’d spent three hours this afternoon working on the garden. She missed Kate. She missed her so that it had become a kind of ache, like a bad tooth. And like a tooth, every now and then the ache would turn into a painful twinge when she’d remember how sick her sister had looked when she’d left her in Virginia City. Lord, don’t let anything happen to my sister, she mumbled under her breath in a prayer that had become as natural as breathing.

Criminy, the silverheels were coming down the street and she hadn’t even started on supper. They were always ravenous the minute they arrived home. She looked up at the trio with an apologetic smile as they came up the front walk. “I’ve gotten behind today, boys. You’ll have to wait a bit to eat.”

Dennis Kelly stepped over a small hedge to stand next to her and reached for the pail. “Poor lassie, you look as if you’ve been wrestling a den of grizzlies today.”

Jennie swiped back the hair that had fallen around her face. “Nope. Just a kettle full of sheets and a garden full of weeds. I made some apple crisp, though.” It was the silverheels’ favorite dessert.

“Whoopee,” Brad Connors yelped, leaping over
the same hedge Dennis had crossed. “Looks as if we’ll just have to help you move things along so we can get around to eatin’ it.”

Smitty lingered for a moment on the walk, then dropped the knapsack he was carrying and joined his friends next to the garden. “What do we have to do?” he asked, eyeing the neat rows of vegetables with mistrust.