Mail Order Mistake (19 page)

He sighed.  “I don’t want you to stop doing something you enjoy.  I just think you’ve
been working yourself too hard.  One night you stayed up all night working.”  When
he saw the look on her face
,
he added, “You didn’t think I knew that, did you?”

She shook her head.  “I thought you’d slept through it.”
  She was abruptly ashamed she’d tried to hide the fact she’d worked all night from
him.  He was a reasonable man and understood deadlines.

“I woke up and realized you were gone.  When you never came back, I knew you must
be working.”  He looked down at his chicken.  “I hate the idea of you working that
hard.  You’re my wife.  I want to provide for you.”

“So I’ll let people know I’m officially out of the sewing business.”
  She shrugged as if it didn’
t matter, even though to her
it mattered a great deal.

He shook his head.  “No, because I want you to do things you enjoy.  Why don’t you
just cut down on how much you do? 
I don’t have a problem if you make a dress or two a month.”

She contemplated that for a minute.  “Honestly, a dress a week isn’t overtaxing for
me.  Would that be okay?”
  She held her breath
,
waiting for his response.  She didn’t want to do more than he thought she should,
but she didn’t want to sit with nothing to do all the time, either.

He nodded.  “If you really don’t feel like it’s too much, then that’s fine.  Just
don’t do so much you have to get up and work all night anymore.”

“I think that’s a fair compromise.”
  And a compromise she could be content with.  She could still make extra money to
save or spend however she wanted, but he wouldn’t feel like she was trying to out-earn
him.

“And if you don’t want to do it, that’s fine too.  I just don’t want you to feel like
we’re going to starve to death if you don’t work, because we won’t.”

She sighed.  “I know that.  I just worry so much about something happening like what
happened when my father died.  I’ve never been so afraid in my life!”
  There was no way she could convey the panic she’d felt during that time.

“I can understand that.  I really can.  But you need to understand that it wouldn’t
happen to you.  You have my brother and your sister to fall back on if anything happens
to me.”

“I know I do.  Ellen even told me that before we married, but I don’t want to be a
burden on them either.”  She shrugged.  “It’s just something I need to get over.” 
She took his hand in hers across the table.  “I’m really sorry you heard me on the
street this morning.  I would never deliberately hurt you.”

“I know you wouldn’t.  I’m sorry you felt that way to begin with.”

She stood up and cleared the table while he watched.  Lady followed her around
,
hoping she’d drop some food.  After a moment, she scraped all the leftovers into
Lady’s bowl for her
to eat
and started on the dishes.  Wesley walked up behind her and wrapped both arms around
her waist.  “I’m going to miss you this afternoon.”

She turned to him, laughing.  “You will not.  You never even thi
nk about me when you’re at work
and you know it.”
  She smiled up at him, loving that he was returning to his old self now that things
were finally settled between them.

He laughed.  “How can I not think about the beautiful woman waiting at home for me?”

She blushed.  “I miss you when you’re at work, too.”
  She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek on his shoulder for a
moment.

He kissed her softly before turning to the door.  “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

Malinda enjoyed her free time that afternoon.  She didn’t feel the need to rush out
and see if she could find some business, and she wasn’t working on anything for anyone. 
Elizabeth had said something about needing her to make a few dresses for her baby,
but that wouldn’t be until the following week.  She thought about what she and Wesley
had talked about and decided she would stop taking business from the miners altogether.  
They were generally a cranky, smelly bunch who were difficult to work with
anyway
.

She chopped up vegetables to make a thick stew which would taste wonderful on a cool
fall evening.

Wesley was usually home by five-thirty at the latest, but she didn’t start to worry
until after six.  At seven, she started pacing the floor in the parlor and calling
him every name she could think of.  “The no good louse left me here by myself just
because we had a little fight today?  What is his problem?
  I thought things were finally settled!
”  She tripped over
L
ady as she paced back toward the sofa.  “Where could he be?”

A knock at the door caught her attention mid-stride and she rushed to the front door,
wondering who would be coming by at this hour? 
It was past seven-thirty, much too late for unexpected guests.

She opened the door to
find
Patrick standing
there
wringing his hands.  “You need to come with me, Malinda.”

“Why?”
  She couldn’t leave when Wesley would be home any minute.  She needed to be there
for him.

“Wesley’s been shot.”

Chapter Ten

Malinda felt as if she couldn’t breathe.  “Shot?  Are you sure?”  He said his job
wasn’t dangerous.  How could he have been shot?  Patrick must be wrong.
  Wouldn’t she know it if he’d been shot?  Wouldn’t someone have come and told her
right away?

Patrick nodded grimly.  “He’s with the doctor now.”

Malinda grabbed her shawl and threw it over her shoulders before hurrying out of the
door.  “I don’t even know where the doctor’s office is!”
  She’d find it, though.  If it killed her, she’d find it.
  She immediately turned to the left to start searching for the doctor’s house.

Patrick took her arm and led her to his buggy.  “I’ll take you there.”  He helped
her up and ran around to take his place behind the reins.  With a flick of his wrist
the horses took off down the quiet street.

Malinda usually loved fall.  The smell of fresh burning wood in the air combined with
the leaves changing color always put her in a festive spirit, but she’d been so busy
making money this fall, she hadn’t taken the time to enjoy the change of the seasons.
  She needed to slow down and enjoy her life.  She’d been so busy through he
r entire marriage
that she hadn’t really enjoyed her husband like she should have. 

“Do you know what happened?” 
Did it matter what happened?  The man she loved had been shot and was lying wounded
somewhere.  “Is he going to be okay?”

Patrick shook his head.  “
I don’t know anything. 
There was a shootout in front of the bank this evening, but I didn’t take the time
away from my duties to go out and see what was happening.  I already had to work late
tonight, and I didn’t want to get home to Ellen and Jonathan any later than absolutely
necessary.  I was sure Wesley had everything under control.  It wasn’t until twenty
minutes later when I locked up the bank for the evening that I went out and someone
told me Wesley had been involved.  And hurt.”

“Is he going to be okay?”
  Please God, let him be okay.  She couldn’t live without him.  She didn’t care about
the money.  He was all that mattered.

Patrick shrugged.  “I came and got you right away.  I didn’t think you’d
heard, and I needed to make sure you were there with him.  You know everything I know.”

Patrick stopped the horses in front of a small wooden house on the main street of
town, not far from the bank.  Malinda didn’t wait for Patrick to help her down, but
instead jumped down herself and ran up to the house.  Patrick was right behind her
as she knocked on the door.

Dr. Martin, whom Malinda had met at church, opened the door for them.  He held it
wide and pointed to the doctor’s bed behind him where Wesley was sitting up, his left
arm in a sling
, his shirt hanging off him in rags
.  Malinda flew to him, burying her face in his neck, sobbing softly.  “I was so worried.”

Wesley pressed his cheek against the top of her head before kissing her forehead. 
“I’m fine.  You should see the other guy.”

Malinda pulled back and stared up at him, her brown eyes still wide with worry.  “What
happened?”
  She didn’t want to know, but she had to know.  They had to find a way to prevent
it from happening again.

Wesley sighed.  “I was walking up and down the street
,
just like I do every evening.  I always check the b
ank last thing in the afternoon
because that’s where we’re most likely to have problems in a town this small.”  He
rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand as he talked.  “I had just received
a new wanted poster at the sheriff’s office, so I’d just looked at
it
earlier today.  The man on the poster, Jim
Madden
, was there across the street, staring up at the bank and fingering his gun.  I was
pretty sure it was him, but just to make certain, I pulled my gun and called out,
‘Jim
?’
No one can resist responding to their own name, right?

“Well, he turned and pulled his weapon all in one move.  He got off a shot and clipped
my shoulder, but I dropped him.  I made my way over to him and checked for a pulse,
and he was dead.  I was losing strength, so I just sat there on the boardwalk until
someone came along and offered to drive me to the doc’s office.  He got a friend to
put Jim in the back, and we came here.  Doc patched me up.  Said the bullet didn’t
hit anything important, and I just need to take it easy for a day or two.”

The doctor cleared his throat and Malinda turned to look at him.  “I said he needs
to take it easy for six weeks.  The bone in his shoulder is broken.”

Malinda sighed.  Being off work for that long would mean they would have to use most
of the money she’d saved, but she was just glad he was okay.  “I’ll make sure he takes
it easy, Doctor.  Does he need to stay in bed?”
  She was going to make Wesley follow the doctor’s instructions exactly.  He was not
going to not heal properly because he wouldn’t stay in bed.

Dr. Martin shook his head.  “Nothing quite that strict. 
After the first day or two, h
e can do whatever feels comfortable to him
including
slow walks.  Nothing more stringent than that, though.”

“I’ll see to it.”  Malinda glared down at Wesley.  “You are going to follow the doctor’s
orders if it kills both of us.”

Wesley groaned.  “Are you sure I’m not so sick I need to stay here for the whole six
weeks, Doc?  She’s going to treat me like an invalid.”

Dr. Martin laughed.  “Go home and let your wife coddle you sheriff.  That’s what wives
do when you’ve been shot.”

“You ever been shot, Doc?”
Wesley asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, no I can’t say that I have.”

“You ever been married, Doc?”
Wesley asked again.

“No, I haven’t had the privilege.”

“Then I don’t think you need to be talking to me about what wives do when a man’s
been shot, now do you?”

Dr. Martin
ignored Wesley and
looked at Patrick.  “Can you help her get him home and into bed?”

Patrick nodded, rushing forward to put his shoulder under Wesley’s good arm.  “I’m
going to kill you for going to get her,” Wesley whispered to his brother.

“How were you going to hide the fact that you’d been shot from your wife?”

Wesley shrugged, and then grimaced in pain.  “I hadn’t figured that out yet, but trust
me, I’d have found a way.”

Malinda stopped in front of the doctor and shook his hand.  “Thank you so much for
taking care of him.  What do we owe you?”
  She’d give Patrick the money and send him back with it.  There was no way she was
going to leave Wesley when she finally had him home in bed where he belonged.

The doctor shook his head.  “He was hurt doing town business.  There’s no charge for
that.”

Malinda’s eyes widened, but she didn’t complain.
She was relieved none of her hard
-
earned money would have to go for Wesley’s wound.  They’d need it all to get through
until he could work again.
“Thank you again, Doctor.  I’ll make sure he rests.  When do you need to see him
back here?”

“A couple weeks or so.  Change the bandage every night and if it starts smelling bad
or turns green, let me know.”

Malinda nodded.  “I will.”  She rushed out the door behind the brothers seeing that
Wesley was already settled in the front seat beside Patrick.  Patrick helped her to
the back and she settled in for the ride back to the house she shared with Wesley.