Whirlwind Wedding

The words erupted from him.

His words sank in and her mouth formed an
O
. Her cheeks pinkened, but she didn't run.

She plucked nervously at the top button of her bodice and he said tightly, “Go on back to the house.”

She didn't. Looking uncertain, she drew in a deep breath, then said in a rush, “I wish I'd kissed you when I had the chance.”

He nearly swallowed his teeth. “You can't say things like that to a man, Catherine. To me.”

‘It's true.”

“I don't think so.” Want thrummed inside him. He gripped his crutch so tightly that his knuckles burned.

Her skirts whispered around his legs, between them, and her pulse fluttered wildly in the hollow of her throat.

“Dammit, woman! Back up. I may be injured, but I'm not dead…!”

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

West Texas, 1884

C
atherine Donnelly had never been adept at handling men, and now she had to admit she was no better with boys. After more than a day spent searching in and around dusty Whirlwind, Texas, until well past dark, she'd finally located her oft-missing younger brother, Andrew, and marched him home.

Now Catherine sat alone at the small dining table in the front room of what had been her mother's house. A loud knock sounded on the door. After the harrowing span of time she had spent worrying over her twelve-year-old brother, she wasn't inclined to be charitable to whoever was calling so late.

Picking up the kerosene lamp from the small kitchen table, she opened her door to one of the tallest men she'd ever seen. The mild May night seemed to swirl around him. He wore a dark hat pulled low, and was dressed all in black except for his blue shirt, which looked nearly white in the filmy amber glow from the lamp. Moonlight sliced a sharp cheekbone and a whiskered jaw, making him quite possibly also the most intimidating man she'd ever seen.

Eyes that might be either blue or silver stared flatly at her. He braced a shoulder on her doorjamb, regarding her as if she were the one invading
his
territory. His dark, ragged hair and a tangible determination gave him the look of a man unused to niceties.

“Name's Lieutenant Jericho Blue.” He held up an official-looking piece of paper. “I'm a Ranger and this is my Warrant of Authority issued by the Adjutant General's Department under authority from the government.”

Apprehension skittered through her and her grip tightened on the lamp. The Sisters of Mercy had taught her too well for her to dismiss anyone out of hand. Still, she would dispense with him quickly. She smiled and asked as kindly as she could, “May I help you?”

He seemed to have trouble getting the paper back into his trouser pocket.

“Sir?” Out beyond him, at the edge of the lamplight, she saw a riderless horse, and another one beside it with a dark shape slung across its back. A body? The warnings about nearby outlaws she had heard only hours ago, as she had looked for Andrew, rushed back.

According to Sheriff Holt, the McDougal gang had ambushed a pair of lawmen yesterday. Catherine had been nearly ill with worry over the possibility that her brother might run into the outlaws. The sheriff had offered to look for the twelve-year-old with the posse he'd formed to track the gang. She'd accepted, but continued her own search, frantic that her brother might have gotten in the way of the brutal men and suffered a fate far worse than her denying him any more of her apple pie until he stopped sneaking out of their house at night.

The Ranger said huskily, “I'm on the trail of the McDougal gang.”

“Our sheriff said they were nearby.”

“Very near.”

She had to lean closer to hear. His voice was grainy and flat, and his skin had a waxy sheen. He didn't look well. “Are you all right?”

Catherine had worked with enough patients at Bellevue Hospital in New York City to know when someone was ill. Something was definitely wrong with the man.

He stared over her shoulder into the house, as if searching for something. “Do you mind if I look around?”

“In the house?”

He gave a sharp nod.

She didn't want to advertise that she and Andrew lived alone. If one or more of the McDougal gang were hiding around her house, she certainly didn't want to be the one to find them. But neither did she want to let this strange man into her home.

“So, you don't mind then?” He straightened sluggishly and made to move inside.

A bit surprised, Catherine stepped back. A shotgun was out of sight behind the door, but she felt more confident about using a skillet if necessary. “All right.”

He mumbled something and swayed, his eyes glazing. As if being pushed from behind, he toppled to the floor with a crash.

The wood shook beneath her and for a moment Catherine stared disbelieving at the long length of man stretched out at her feet. He had fallen over the threshold, half of him still outside.

In a flash, Andrew, his dark hair rumpled and his blue eyes drowsy, appeared beside her. He wore only the droopy cotton drawers she had seen when she'd checked on him an hour ago after marching him home. “What happened?”

“I'm not sure.” Shaking off her shock, she knelt, holding the lamp high. He'd said his name was Jericho. “Help me turn him over.”

Andrew was stocky and strong. With his help, she got the Ranger on his back. Blood smeared the weathered wood floor.

Her brother drew in a sharp breath and Catherine glanced up. He was pale, his eyes huge. “What's he doin' here?”

“Looking for the outlaws that Sheriff Holt told us about.”

“Is he dead?”

“No. Not yet.”

“He's mean-lookin'.” Andrew stood frozen, staring warily at the stranger.

Catherine turned her attention back to Jericho. The man's black vest fell open to reveal the waistband of his trousers and a lean torso, but her gaze was drawn to the dark bandanna tied below his elbow. His shirt was torn and she could see a nickel-size hole in his forearm. Gunshot. “He's bleeding.”

She reached for the chambray cloth, intending to roll back his sleeve.

“He's bleedin' there, too.” Andrew's finger shook as he pointed to the man's leg. “Is he gonna die?”

“I don't know.” She tempered her impatience. Her brother's sharp unease was undoubtedly due to witnessing the recent death of their mother.

Summoned by Mother's urgent letter, Catherine had spent two weeks traveling by train and stage from New York City to Whirlwind. By the time she arrived, Evelyn Donnelly was dead from consumption, and the brother Catherine had never known was fending for himself.

She shifted the lamp to get a good look at the Ranger's leg. A blood-soaked length of rope was tied high on his right thigh. Catherine had thought it was the leg strap for a gun belt, but he wasn't wearing one. An egg-size hole tore his denims. She spread open the fabric with gentle fingers. A low groan escaped the man.

“It's okay,” she said, automatically soothing him while she
continued to examine his leg. His blood-caked flesh gaped. Raw, ragged and still oozing, the wound was deep.

She glanced up at Andrew. “We need to get him all the way inside.”

“
Our
house?”

“Yes. There's no one else to help him.”

Her brother swallowed hard.

“Andrew,” she said sharply.

“He's big!”

“You pull one arm and I'll pull the other.”

With considerable effort, they dragged him across the wood floor, angling around the table to position him a few feet from the stove. Catherine knelt, checking the injury to his arm again. It would keep, but his leg needed immediate attention. His pants were torn on his outer thigh several inches above his knee, and she discovered two small holes in his leg there, where the bullets had entered. Blood still seeped from the open flesh where the slug had exited. Because his trousers were stuck to his skin, she couldn't tell if the wound was on the top part of his thigh or the inside.

She stood and retrieved a pair of scissors from the free-standing cupboard behind the table, and cut through the rope. Laying the rope and scissors aside, she pressed her hand firmly to his leg, finding the rock-hard muscle hot and feverish beneath her touch. She ignored the flutter in her stomach. She wasn't generally nervous around
unconscious
men.

“Andrew, get me a clean cloth and some water. Put one of the brick pieces from the stove in the water to warm it up.”

It was something the Sisters had taught her, and Andrew followed her instructions as carefully as she had always followed the nuns'. She cleaned the Ranger's injury as best she could, applying pressure when fresh blood seeped out. His denims stuck to his leg and Catherine knew she might have
to cut them off in order to see the damage. Despite working with the Sisters for four years at Bellevue Hospital and around New York City, she didn't have all the skills needed to tend such a severe injury.

“You've got to ride to Fort Greer for Dr. Butler,” she told her brother. “This man has lost a lot of blood. We can't let him die, and I'm afraid if we don't get the doctor here soon, he will.”

In the wash of lamplight, the furrow of pain between the stranger's brows seemed to be permanently carved. An old scar ran high on his left cheekbone.

“Don't dally, Andrew.” She got to her feet and took him by the shoulders. That she was his only family had thus far meant nothing to the boy. Quietly belligerent, he came and went as he pleased no matter if Catherine cajoled, threatened or bribed. “Don't disobey me in this, I beg you. This man's life could depend on it.”

He nodded solemnly. For the first time since she'd come to Whirlwind, there was no hint of defiance in his face. Just a sober understanding and a hint of fear.

She walked to the corner behind the door and picked up their father's old shotgun.

“What're you doing?” her brother breathed.

She turned, her hands trembling on the stock. “Do you know how to use this?”

He nodded.

“Take it and go for Dr. Butler.”

“Okay. Moe's fast—”

“No.” The Ranger had said the outlaws were near. Until she knew where the McDougals were, she had to be careful. She didn't want Andrew taking any chances by getting their horse from the barn, where any or all of the gang might be hiding. “Take the Ranger's horse and don't disappear. Come straight back.”

The boy rushed to his room and returned wearing his brown homespun trousers and buttoning the placket of a brown-and-white checked shirt. He stomped his feet into his worn shoes. At the door, he took the gun. “I'll hurry.”

“Good.” She began to roll up the sleeves of her plain white bodice.

“What will you do?”

“See if I can stop the bleeding.”

He grimaced and disappeared into the night. His shoes scudded across the porch, then silence fell. Unease at being alone with the man tightened her shoulders, but she calmed herself by observing that he was unconscious. He couldn't hurt her.

Catherine knelt again, dragged in a deep, steadying breath and unfastened his pants. Her hands trembled so badly it was difficult to tug the heavy material down his hips. She abandoned that, fearing he might die before the doctor arrived. Picking up the scissors, she cut at the denim just below the rip so she could press her hand fully against the wound on the inside of his thigh.

She dipped the rag in water again and gently cleaned away more dried blood. Fresh crimson seeped out and she applied firm pressure.

He was lean and hard and his body burned with fever. Even in the pale light she could see the angry red of infection around the wound before fresh blood covered it again.

Maybe it was the fact that her mother had been buried two days before she'd arrived, but Catherine was determined that no more death would happen in this house so soon.

She kept the cloth in place, pressing with her hands. She closed her eyes, praying Andrew would reach Fort Greer and the doctor in record time.

When a rough, callused hand grabbed hers, her eyes flew
open. Her stomach dipped to her knees as she stared into his pain-filled silver eyes. Then they closed.

“Hurts,” her patient croaked.

“Yes,” she murmured soothingly, telling herself to stroke his brow as she'd done to so many patients these last few years. But she couldn't.

Something about this man's voice, or maybe his touch, shook her inside, setting off a spark of fear mixed with an anticipation she didn't understand.

His hand went limp and she stared at his pale, whiskered face. Relief eased out in a long breath.
Hurry, Doctor.

 

Half an hour later, Dr. Butler helped get the man into her bed. The Ranger was so tall his booted feet hung off the end, so they laid him at an angle.

After examining the patient, the doctor turned to her, compassion in his tired brown eyes. “He's lucky he ended up on your doorstep. Not everyone has your skill at nursing.”

Thanks to the nuns who'd raised her. “It's bad, isn't it?”

“I don't expect him to make it. There's a lot of tissue damage, possibly nerve damage, as well. Infection has already started and he may have gotten help too late. Looks like he was shot twice in the leg, so I'm going to check and make sure there are no bullets left inside. My poking around can't make things any worse for him.”

She nodded, hoping he was wrong about the stranger dying. Maybe this Texas Ranger was as tough on the inside as he looked on the outside. “I'll heat some water and get some soap for you to wash your hands.”

“I'll need your help.”

“All right.” She stepped out of the room and wrapped a cloth around her hand, reaching into the stove for one of the brick pieces she kept inside. She dropped it into a bowl, which
she pumped full of water, then scooped up a tin of lye soap and carried everything back into the bedroom.

In the two weeks she'd worked for Dr. Butler at the fort, her aid had been confined to helping deliver babies and stitching the toe of a little boy who'd cut himself with his daddy's ax. But during her work with the nuns, she had assisted in surgery a few times.

After the doctor washed his hands, he removed the blood-soaked pad Catherine had placed on the Ranger's thigh. Dr. Butler's fingers probed the gaping exit wound. Catherine looked away, took a quick steadying breath, then stepped up beside him. She wet a folded square of linen with the carbolic acid Dr. Butler sometimes used for sterilizing wounds.

He cleaned around and inside the wound, then Catherine handed him a pair of forceps. He located a bullet quickly, but it took several minutes to dig it out. Though still unconscious, the Ranger moaned. This time Catherine reached up to stroke his brow.