Depending on the Doctor (Nevada Bounty Book 2) (12 page)

“Our choices were limited to execution or servitude,” I said, pouring the coffee. “Servitude seemed the better of the two options.”

Billy sat across from us. “Clyde’s not too bad. He’s fair, and takes care of us. Most of us saw combat in the war, and when it was over we didn’t fit in anywhere anymore. Here we do.”

“Not much chance we’ll fit in here,” Emmett said. He sipped his coffee and eyed Billy with distrust.

“You’re a cook?” Billy asked me.

“I am,” I said.

“It’ll be a relief to turn over that duty. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind doing it, but with one hand, it’s not so easy.”

“Will you help me? Three hands will be better than two,” I said, offering him a friendly smile. Emmett and I could use all the allies we could get here, and I sensed Billy would be a good place to start. I had a feeling Billy was sort of an unofficial good luck charm, a mascot of sorts, so having him on our side could prove useful.

He grinned. “Of course I’ll help.”

I took a sip of coffee, then stood with the intention of getting a look at what sort of setup I had to work with. “Those men are going to be hungry after a long ride. Do we have anything to feed them?”

“Lydia, you’ve been riding all day, too,” Emmett said. “You don’t owe them anything. They’ve done fine this long without you, they’ll survive another night.”

“He’s right, ma’am. There’s enough beans for now. You should get some rest.”

I considered them both for a moment. I was very tired, and I’d have to be up early to make breakfast. “I suppose,” I said.

Emmett stood and came around the table to take my hand in his. “Where do we sleep, Billy?”

Billy shuffled his feet, shifting from one to the other. “Well, Clyde said Miss Lydia should sleep in his bed…”

“And the lady said no,” Emmett said.

Billy shot Emmett a pained look. “I know it ain’t really any of my business, but why would you let Clyde have your woman?”

Emmett’s brows shot up in surprise. “What makes you think she’s my woman?”

“Well,” he glanced down at our hands then back up. “The way you look at each other, and how you touch. I just thought you belonged to each other.”

I didn’t know what to say. Did we really give off that impression? Certainly he’d been protective of me, and I appreciated that. I’d assumed it was because of what he owed Randall, but every now and then I’d catch him looking at me in a way that, as absurd as it seemed, suggested he was attracted to me. I let myself consider for just a moment what it would be like to belong to Emmett Wilder. He was handsome, and thinking about the way he’d kissed me made my lips, and other parts of me, tingle in anticipation of more. He took my breath away, made it difficult for me to think straight, and I felt like I always blushed in his presence. But beyond those confusing physical reactions, I knew he was an honorable man despite his protestations to the contrary.

None of that mattered much, though, because if we ever got out of the Hole in the Wall, I had to go to Omaha, and Emmett would go back to his life. If we didn’t get out of Hole in the Wall, apparently I belonged to Clyde. I might be able to put him off for a while, but short of killing him, I doubted I’d be able to put him off forever.

“It’s a complicated situation, Billy,” I said.

Emmett looked at me, his face a study in frustration, anger, and confusion. He looked like he wanted to hit someone, or break something. Finally he said, “You’re right. She’s mine. My responsibility. She made an agreement that would keep us alive, but it’s not one I’ll allow her to keep.”

“I don’t think you’ll have much choice,” I said, snatching my hand out of his and propping my fists on my hips.

“There’s always a choice, you just have to find it.”

I threw my hands up then dropped them, slapping the sides of my legs. “That’s exactly what I did. If I hadn’t, we’d both be dead right now, and you know it,” I said, tired of his judgment.

“Maybe, but now we have a much bigger mess to fix.”

“At least we’re here to fix it, aren’t we?”

Billy chuckled. “You two sure fight like a couple.”

“Ungrateful,” I grumbled under my breath, turning my back on Emmett. My skirts swished, a decisive dismissal. “Billy, where can I sleep?”

“The two bunks on the right—top and bottom. You pick which one you want, and the doc can have the other. Unless you want to share,” he said, winking at me.

“Ugh,” I said. “Men.” Shaking my head, I stomped over to the bottom bunk on the right, yanked the covers back and threw myself into it.

Lydia’s rigid back didn’t invite conversation. She was tired, anyway, and talking would only lead to more animosity.

“I’m going out back,” I said to Billy.

He just grinned an annoyingly smug grin and held his coffee cup up in salute.

I ignored him and grabbed my coat before heading outside. Out on the porch, the sun had finally sunk far enough that the stars were visible overhead in the dark sky. I huddled deeper into my coat. It was damn cold, and the clear night only promised more of the same.

I’d need to get a feel for this operation quickly. I’d never let Clyde get his hands on Lydia, so I’d have to come up with some way to keep them apart while I assessed how to get hold of some supplies and horses, then create a distraction to allow us to escape.

It was a big order, and difficult to fill. But not impossible. Now that we were there, I had to admit Lydia had a point in that it was better to be alive with the opportunity to solve the problem, rather than dead, which was a lot more permanent. Unfortunately, the worst of it wasn’t just being held captive by bandits, it was the added issue of Clyde’s lascivious intentions.

I needed to give him a reason not to touch her.

I headed down the steps and around the back of the cabin toward the privy, puzzling over the problem. Whatever I told him needed to be believable, so telling him she had an illness wouldn’t work because she had no symptoms to speak of.

After I’d done my business, I headed back to the porch. I dug my icy fingers into my pockets, and looked forward to snuggling under some warm covers.

When I rounded the front of the house, Clyde stood on the porch smoking a cigarette.

“Evening, Doc,” Clyde said. The words were friendly, but he hadn’t given me any reason yet to trust him, so genial or not, caution seemed a good idea with him.

“Evening,” I said, climbing the steps and giving him some distance. I headed for the door, because the last thing I wanted was to be alone with Clyde.

“She your wife?” Clyde asked.

I paused with my hand on the door. I didn’t think we’d given that impression of our relationship, and I sensed, given the way he watched me, that it was important how I answered. If I said yes, would he back off? Would that solve our problem, or would he just kill us as he’d originally planned? Neither of us wore a ring, and we didn’t particularly act like we were married, so I didn’t think he’d accept it if I said yes. He’d assume I grasped for an answer that would keep us both alive, and keep Lydia out of his hands.

“No. Not yet,” I said.

“Promised?”

I leaned a shoulder on the rail post and shrugged the other one. “More or less.”

He looked confused. “What’s that mean?”

“I got her in the family way, so I planned on making things right. She insisted we travel to Omaha so I could meet her brother,” I said, making up the story as I went and unsure what the result would be, but as a salesman—and even as a doctor—I’d always been good at reading people and although Clyde was a no good outlaw, I had the impression he lived by a twisted sort of honor. Accosting a pregnant woman conceivably went against even his shady principles. But if he believed I was in love with her, he might think twice and do it, just out of spite. “That’s where we were headed when you showed up.”

His interest indicated the story had hooked him, but he wasn’t sold yet. “Why didn’t you say something earlier. You were ready to let me kill you both.”

I snorted, “Her brother’s an evangelical minister, so I’d almost rather die than marry into that family. I suppose I hoped maybe you’d think twice about killing a woman.”

It wouldn’t hurt to play to what few morals he had.

He sucked a long drag on his cigarette, and looked out over the meadow and creek, illuminated by a bright full moon. Lydia’s and my future depended on my salesmanship, and Clyde’s gullibility. I hoped I’d done enough.

He finally dropped the cigarette stub and crushed it under his boot. “Fine. I ain’t never had to force myself on a woman, anyway,” he said, and with a sly smile he added, “but since she’s expecting, and you’re likely to be here a while, we’d better get you hitched all official like. Wouldn’t want that poor babe to be a bastard, would we?”

Aw shit. “‘Spose not.”

“Don’t look so hang-dog. You were going to have to marry her anyway. I’ll grant you, she ain’t the prettiest thing to be saddled with, but she was good enough for you to sample already. And she ain’t the worst I’ve ever seen. So you may as well get it over with.”

It was one thing to insinuate Lydia and I were promised, but quite another to actually marry her. On a purely theoretical level, I had no qualms about marrying Lydia. I’d be lucky to have her as my wife. But on a practical level, marrying her meant making Randall family, and I doubted he’d find that acceptable, given my past. The last thing I wanted was for Lydia to learn about what I’d done.

I tried not to choke on my words. “May as well. How do you suggest we manage a wedding? Where are we going to find a minister out here?”

“Dom’s Catholic. Used to be a priest, but had trouble with all the rules so he left his church.”

“So he’s not a priest anymore?”

“They didn’t kick him out, he just walked away. He’s still technically a priest.”

“Neither of us is Catholic.”

“Don’t much matter.”

“I guess it doesn’t.”

What were the chances I got tangled up with the one outlaw gang with a disgraced priest among their number? My luck couldn’t get much worse.

“All right then, it’s settled. We’ll have a wedding tomorrow, you’ll stay on as part of the gang, and your wife’ll be our cook and help Billy take care of the place.”

“I’m not signing on for the long term, Clyde. This isn’t a life for a baby.”

“This is a perfect place for a family. It’s safe and there’s always plenty to go around. You go to Omaha, you’ll be beholden to her family, you’ll have to work hard to earn a living and it’ll never be enough. Besides which, none of this changes the original deal—Ernie’s dead. At the very least, you have to work that off.”

“I didn’t kill him,” I said, trying to follow his crooked reasoning.

“You didn’t keep him alive.”

“Nobody could have.”

“Nobody else was there. You were.”

I could think of no response to that, so I didn’t answer. I just stared out at the moonlit valley, wondering whether we’d be able to escape alive.

Clyde stepped for the door.

“Clyde,” I said.

“Yeah?”

“Not tomorrow. Give me a couple of days to break it to her. I think, even given her condition, she hoped for a nice church wedding.”

He narrowed his eyes a bit, probably wondering what I was up to, but he finally shrugged. “Fine, two days.”

“And don’t say anything to her about the baby. She’s already embarrassed to find herself in this position. She doesn’t need everyone here bringing it up.”

“She’ll find out we know soon enough.”

“True. Just let me figure out how to ease her into the idea.”

I followed him inside where Billy had banked the fire and blown out the lamps before crawling into the other bottom bunk. Clyde headed for the ladder to the loft, and I went for the ladder of the bunk above Lydia. With one foot on the bottom rung, I glanced down at her. She still had her back turned to me. Her hair fell from the pins, and even fully clothed that curve from her ribs dipping to her waist then back up to her hips called to me, begging my fingers to trace it.

I scrubbed my hand over my face. I was too tired to resist her and the comfort of her warm body against mine, so I toed off my boots and lifted the blanket to crawl in next to her. I fit perfectly against the curve of her back, and when I snuggled behind her, she shifted and murmured in her sleep.

I brushed a loose curl from her neck and leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Shhh, sweetness. Go back to sleep.”

I dropped a kiss on her neck just below her ear, and felt her little shiver right before she sighed and wriggled her bottom further back into me. I had to stifle a groan.

She settled and her breathing became the even motion of sleep, but despite the comfort of her body next to mine, sleep wouldn’t come for me. How would I explain to her that in two days we’d be married? I couldn’t see her agreeing to it, even if it meant saving our skin. Given her recent fearlessness, she’d probably rather brave Clyde’s wrath than marry me.

Still, I’d made the choice to play the ruse with Clyde, and if he found out I’d lied to him, there’d be hell to pay. I had to find a way to convince her, and then, before we met up with Randall I’d have to figure out a way to tell Lydia my darkest secrets and hope against all hope she could accept me anyway. If she knew the truth, Randall would have no hold over me. But sharing that truth meant taking a giant leap of faith I didn’t know if I could manage.