Beautiful Bandit (Lone Star Legends) (23 page)

Dispensing with polite courtesies, she shoved her way through the crowd and ignored the barrage of questions following her to the big double doors at the back of the church. Her only concern was Esther. As they stepped into the sunny churchyard, she heard the fear in Esther’s voice as she wailed, “Dah-nnuh! Dah-nnuh!”

Years ago, during an influenza epidemic, Kate had volunteered at the hospital in San Antonio, where the doctors and nurses had called upon her time and again to translate the garbled words of fevered patients. Back then, she hadn’t been wise to see it as a God-given gift, but she thanked Him for it now.

Spotting several chairs off to the right, she hobbled over to fetch one for Esther. “I’ll be right there, Sam,” she called, “soon as I drag this—”

“What’s wrong with my grandmother?”

She looked up into Josh’s worried face and wished everyone else who’d gathered would just go away, including his sisters and cousins, and even his parents. “She fainted,” Kate began, “because of the heat. I think. So I asked Sam to bring her out here—to get some fresh air, and—”

As he leaned down to grasp the arms of the chair and lift it out of her hands, he paused and looked deep into her eyes. “Thanks for being there for her.” Straightening, he hefted the chair into the shade of the tree, where his brother-in-law cradled a frail-looking Esther in his arms. Once Sam had positioned her in the chair, Josh crouched beside her. “Looks to me like you didn’t take your own good advice this morning.”

“Whaa?”

Kate had to give him credit. If Esther’s slack-jawed face and watery eyes alarmed him half as much as they frightened her, he was doing an exemplary job of hiding his concern.

He patted his grandmother’s limp hand. “You skipped breakfast again, didn’t you, Mee-Maw?”

Esther leaned back in the chair and tried to shake her head. “Dah-nuhh,” she moaned. “Wrrrr Dah-nuhh?”

Kate was beside her in a heartbeat. “I’m right here, Esther.” On her knees beside the chair, she added, “It’ll take me only a few minutes to head up the road and fetch the doctor. Josh will stay with you while I’m—”

But Esther frowned and flicked the fingers of her right hand, as if shooing away an annoying fly. “No-o-o,” she moaned. “Mke thm go-o-o….”

Kate faced the people who had congregated nearby. “She doesn’t want the doctor, at least not at the moment.” She turned to Esther to see if she’d interpreted her wishes correctly. In response to the old woman’s grateful sigh, she faced the group again. “The last thing she wants is to worry you. I think she’ll pull herself together faster if you’ll do as she asks and go back inside for the service.”

Willie tugged at his mother’s skirt. “What’s wrong with Mee-Maw?” he whimpered.

Susan picked him up and finger combed blond bangs from his eyes. “She’s just tired, sweetheart. Don’t worry.”

“Is she gonna die, Mama?”

Sam slid an arm around his wife’s waist. “’Course not, son.” He frowned. “He doesn’t need to see this,” he mouthed to her.

“Your husband’s right,” Sarah whispered, tugging her sister’s hand. “Let’s go inside. Mee-Maw’s in good hands.”

Amid a din of whispers and murmurs, the people slowly made their ways back inside the church, with the exception of Kate, Josh, and his parents.

Esther began to cry softly. “Go-o-o…plll?”

Kate was about to translate her last remark when Josh said, “Mee-Maw, darlin’, we can’t just leave you out here alone.”

His grandmother fixed her teary-eyed gaze on Kate. “Wnn be ln-n-n.”

“That’s right, Esther, you won’t be alone.” She directed her next comment to Josh and his father. “I won’t leave her side for a moment, I promise.”

Matthew looked almost as vulnerable and upset as Willie had. He bent at the waist, resting both palms on his knees. “Ma, surely you don’t mean for Eva and me to leave, too.”

She locked eyes with her son and gave a firm nod, then reached for Kate.

“It’ll be all right, Mr. Neville,” Kate assured Matthew, taking his mother’s hand. “As you can hear, she’s already talking more clearly, even after just these few minutes in the fresh air.”

Matthew straightened and, folding his arms over his chest, focused on Kate. “I wasn’t aware that you’d earned a medical degree, young lady.”

He had every right to be upset, given his mother’s condition. Every right to be hurt that it seemed his mother trusted a stranger more than her loved ones. Kate could see the pain and worry on his handsome face, and her heart filled with sympathy for him. “I’m sure the only reason she prefers my company is because I’m a stranger, and I won’t fuss over her like a friend or family member might.” She didn’t need to add the obvious—that no one but she could understand a word Esther was saying. “If she isn’t better after the service, we’ll send for the doctor. In the meantime, what can it hurt to humor her?”

Eva whispered into her husband’s ear, inspiring an exasperated sigh and a firm nod. He grumbled something under his breath, then followed his wife up the front steps of the church. At the doorway, he paused and pointed a beefy forefinger up the road, an unspoken command to fetch the doctor.

Once everyone was out of sight, Josh stood behind the chair and watched as Kate tidied his grandmother’s skirts. “Should we do what he asked?” Kate asked him.

“Only if you’re sure you can handle things while I’m gone.”

She met his wary gaze. “Maybe you’d prefer that I go. I can explain things better, anyway—”

“Maybe you’re right.”

“Just take care that she doesn’t tumble forward,” she instructed, marching purposefully toward the center of town and rejoicing that her ankle hardly hurt despite the pressure.

In a matter of minutes, she found herself on the Lanes’ porch, breathing hard and knocking harder than necessary. It never occurred to her to wonder why Dr. Lane hadn’t been in church with the rest of Eagle Pass, so when his wife announced that he’d gone to Uvalde to pick up his special-order cigars, Kate nearly stamped her feet in frustration. “Did he leave someone else in charge of his patients’ well-being?” she demanded.

The mousy little woman hid behind the door. “I’m afraid not,” she squeaked, “but he’ll be back first thing in the morning, if it can wait—”

“Well, isn’t this a fine kettle of fish?” Kate blurted out. “Esther Neville could be dead by then, but at least the good doctor will have a good smoke to comfort him!”

She turned on her heel and hurried back to the church, praying with every step that the slight improvement in Esther’s condition would have increased in the time she’d been gone.

She hoped it for Esther’s sake, and for the sake of her children and grandchildren. Hoped it for herself, too, because she couldn’t leave the Lazy N while the poor old woman had no one but her to interpret her needs.

27

Through trial and error, Kate came up with a method for feeding Esther at mealtimes. Since soup was the only thing Esther could swallow easily, Kate made a big pot of it every night after tucking the woman in. Blotting Esther’s mouth with a cloth after every bite was easier on the woman’s self-esteem, and it kept her nightshirts tidier, too. Kate discovered that chattering about anything that popped into her head helped distract her charge from the fact that she’d lost control of half of her body and, despite her independent spirit, now needed constant care.

“I think, after breakfast,” Kate said, dabbing the corner of Esther’s mouth with a napkin, “we’ll sit outside in the shade and I’ll read to you. Any book you choose!”

Esther nodded despondently and did her best to choke down another spoonful of soup.

Kate prattled on about the weather, little Willie’s latest antics, Sarah’s newest designer gown—anything but Dr. Lane’s dismal diagnosis.

“Or maybe you’d rather dabble with your paints.” Despite the doctor’s gloom-and-doom prognosis, Kate believed that, with practice, Esther could reclaim at least some control of her now palsied hand. It was clear that she understood every word spoken to her, which was proof enough to Kate that, despite her struggle with words, Esther’s mind was intact and functioning perfectly!

“Dah-nah,” Esther said, doing her best to squeeze Kate’s hand, “I glad…you here.”

“And I’m glad to be here.” Wearing the same, forced smile she’d adopted in the church on Sunday morning, Kate spooned several more drops of broth into Esther’s mouth. As she did so, she recalled Dr. Lane’s words: “Apoplexy leaves people forever changed.”

She hid an involuntary shudder as the terrible word echoed in her head. Apoplexy. It sounded almost as ugly as what it had done to Esther, who, just days ago, could have challenged anyone at the Lazy N to a battle of wits—and won! But neither the diagnosis nor the prognosis was as horrible as the last thing the doctor had said: “Prepare yourselves for the worst, because, in my experience, symptoms like Esther’s are generally a precursor to—”

“Ah…I know…you want go,” said Esther, breaking into Kate’s bleak thoughts. “How I…shange…your…? What will…make you stay?”

Kate put down the spoon and wrapped her arms around Esther, mostly to keep the woman from reading her own anxiety. She had promised to stay as long as Esther needed her and had every intention of keeping her word. But the all-too-familiar feeling that somebody was watching, which had prickled the fringes of her mind since her escape from Frank, was spiraling higher, like the growing plumes of smoke that signaled a distant inferno. She knew that she needed to leave before the fire engulfed the Lazy N and everyone who called it home. And Esther had sensed it.

“Don’ be ’fraid,” Esther stuttered. “Josh…he will keep you…safe.”

Sitting back, Kate studied Esther’s haggard face. How much did she know, and how had she come by the information?

Esther responded with a shaky nod and attempted a grin. “I…I saw….”

Not a wanted poster, Kate prayed. Please, Lord, not that!

“Saw,” Esther repeated, wrapping her weakened fingers around Kate’s wrist, “saw K-Kate….”

Somehow, she’d always known this moment was bound to happen. It had been a gift from God that no one had figured things out days—even weeks—ago. Kate hung her head in shame.

A moment later, Esther brought Kate’s hand to her face, gave it a weak hug, and then, frowning, shook her head. “N-no one saw. Just…just me. In Am…rill…o….”

Her heart pounding, Kate fought back tears. She couldn’t bear to meet Esther’s eyes. How had the woman managed to hide the disgust she must have been feeling all this time?

“Because…because it’s…a mistake.” She moved her head side to side. “Can’t be…true.”

Shame quickly turned into guilt as Kate realized what Esther was trying to say. But the information printed on the wanted poster was true—every despicable word of it. She had participated in a robbery, and in cold-blooded murder, too, by not standing up to Frank, not refusing to be his puppet.

If Esther had figured things out, chances were good that the rest of the Nevilles had, too. They’d all had occasion to go into town, after all, and may have seen the poster there. It certainly explained why no one had asked where she’d come from, why she hadn’t made any attempt to reach out to family or friends, why no one had come looking for her. But how long had they known? And why hadn’t they confronted her with what they’d learned and demanded an explanation?

“N-no one else,” Esther managed, her forefinger wagging like a metronome on its slowest setting. She swallowed and closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again and focusing on Kate. “Just…just….”

Kate’s humiliation and remorse were forgotten when Esther’s blue eyes filled with tears of frustration. Oh, Lord, she prayed silently, help me calm her and ease her struggles. “You were in Amarillo,” she reviewed, “so no one but you saw the poster?”

Nodding, Esther heaved a sigh of relief.

Kate echoed Esther’s sigh. “I’m sorry, Esther—so sorry to bring this disgrace into your home.”

Silence hung in the room like a thick, hot curtain, a hush so complete that Kate heard nothing but the older woman’s ragged breaths.

All of a sudden, Esther banged a fist on the table beside her chair. “No!” she roared. “You…are…in-no-o-cent!” And, once she’d commanded Kate’s full attention, she narrowed one eye. “In-no-cent!”

Kate understood perfectly, but the importance of her own safety and security paled in comparison to that of convincing Esther to remain calm. Besides, what did it matter who might have seen the poster when, any day now, she’d have to leave the Lazy N, and—

“No!” Esther cried for a second time. “Stay!”

Kate could have listed all the reasons why the woman’s order was unreasonable, unrealistic, and unsafe, but, knowing they’d only add to Esther’s already agitated state, she held her tongue. “All right,” she said, standing up and gathering Esther’s soup bowl, napkin, and spoon. “I’m sure I can find an able-bodied male somewhere around here to carry you outside.” Moving toward the hall, Kate paused in the doorway. “Have you decided which book you’d like me to read to you?”

Esther looked at the Bible, still open on the table, then met Kate’s eyes again.

“The Bible it is, then.”

With her head down as she made her way down the stairs and toward the kitchen, Kate mentally reviewed her lists of tasks for the day ahead: spend some time outdoors with Esther, feed her lunch, get her settled for an afternoon nap—and then stow her own, meager belongings into the satchel Josh had bought for her. That way, she’d be ready to run at a moment’s notice.