The Circle Eight: Tobias (8 page)

“You look like shit.” This time his words were clear, if rusty.
 

She swung her head toward him, surprise in her expression. “You’re awake and already flattering me.”
 

“Not really.” He couldn’t quite keep his eye open. It slid shut again. What kind of idiot was he to keep insulting her?
 

A silence followed. “I suppose you heard all of my ramblings.”
 

“Uh-huh.”
 

Another silence. “That’s unfortunate. I tend to talk to my patients when they’re unconscious. The doctor told me it might help and I like to do all I can to help.”
 

Tobias found another bit of energy and cranked his eye open. “What happened?”
 

She frowned and her hand fluttered. “No one knows exactly. James went into the barn and three men were beating you. He stopped them and brought you in here.”
 

There was a hell of a lot more to the story. He had flashes of the barn, his horse and then fists flying. Damn it, why couldn’t he remember?
 

“My face hurts.”
 

“You have lots of cuts. One rather big one on your forehead bled quite a bit. You’re weak from the beating and losing blood.” Her voice had taken on that doctor tone, the emotional woman he’d heard minutes before gone. He wanted that Rebecca back. He could listen to her every day, possibly each day for the rest of his life.
 

“Deputy?” He tried to shake the fog from his brain. “Did you say deputy?”
 

She got to her feet and walked over to Will. As she placed a hand on his cheek, neck and then forehead, he watched her. She had a natural grace about her, like a doe in the forest. And he was the wild bear scratching bark off trees and snarling at everyone. Opposites in every way.
 

“Yes, there was a deputy here. He wanted to arrest you for hurting the three men. James was going to go to battle to protect you.”
 

He was surprised yet again. James hated him. Why would his younger brother stand up for him?
 

“If it was three against one, there ain’t no call to arrest me. Did I shoot ’em?” He remembered having a pistol but not using it.
 

“No, I think it was fists. The deputy was insistent but James wouldn’t let him in the room.” She frowned. “I had to send them both away.”
 

Not only did he owe James, but he owed Rebecca. She seemed to do nothing but help people and he did the opposite.
 

Rebecca seemed satisfied with Will, and she returned to Tobias. He was able to open his eye a smidge more and he took a good look at his savior. She really did look awful as though she hadn’t slept in days. Well hell, she likely hadn’t. After taking care of Will, then she had to take care of Tobias.
 

“Sorry.”
 

She looked surprised. “What are you sorry for?”
 

“I came here to help Will. Now you gotta doctor both of us.”
 

She smiled and his heart thumped. What was it about this woman that made him want to be a better man and deserve that smile? She leaned toward him. “I need to check your bandages and wounds.” She waited as if he would say no.
 

“Don’t wait on me. I ain’t nothing but a thorn in your side.”
 

“You are not a thorn in my side. You were injured and I helped to take care of your wounds. I waited until you woke to put poultices on your bruises. They’ll help with swelling.” She touched his face and he closed his eye again. Her touch was addictive. Each time her small hands graced his skin, he wanted more, and more again.
 

“I couldn’t be any uglier.”
 

She blew out a breath. “You are not ugly, Tobias. Don’t speak such foolishness.”
 

“I ain’t gonna lie. My face feels like raw meat.”
 

“You aren’t at your best right now, of course, but that doesn’t change what’s beneath the bruises and bandages.” She continued her examination. He flinched a few times when she probed a particularly tender spot but he didn’t complain.
 

“Tobias, I need to ask you something.”
 

His stomach did a funny flip and he wished he had a drink. Or two.
 

“Tobias?”
 

“What?”
 

She hesitated long enough he opened his eye to peer at her. “Please don’t take offense, but you reek of horse, sweat and whiskey. Would you let me bathe you and wash your clothes?”
 

He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He smelled so bad she wanted to strip him and scrub the stench off him. Then again he would be naked and in Rebecca’s hands.
 

Although he was in pain from his head to his toes, the idea of this woman bathing him made everything harden. Everything. She would get an eyeful if she decided to pull the blanket back. He had no control over his body whenever he was around her.
 

“Am I making your eyes water?”
 

She managed a tired smile. “Perhaps. But I’ve discovered a clean patient is healthier. You have, ah, accumulated grime on you.”
 

Now his brief arousal had turned to shame. He did have grime on him. Hell, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d bathed. And of course he
smelled like whiskey. By now his blood had been replaced with the damn stuff.
 

“I guess I need to get clean.” He forced the words out, knowing it was the right thing to do. But damn he wanted to be anywhere but in her care, hurting and unable to walk. It was his worst nightmare.
 

“I’ll go get some hot water and fresh towels.” Rebecca rose and grimaced, pressing her hand into her lower bag. Guilt sunk its teeth into him. She should be resting in the very cot he laid in. Instead, she had two people to nurse to health.
 

Tobias could hardly turn his head without wanting to scream, but he did it anyway. Will lay still as death across the room from him, his head swathed in bandages. Tobias stared at his brother, willing him to wake, to smile and be alive. Yet he didn’t move.
 

Something niggled at the back of his mind. A memory that wanted to make itself heard. He squeezed his eye shut and damned himself for being a drunk. The damn booze had pickled his brain.
 

Rebecca returned with a pail of water in one hand and an empty one in the other. She set them down beside the bed.
 

“Mr. Donovan’s housekeeper is heating the water for us. There is a hip bath we can use to mix the hot and cold. I’m going to clean up Will too. Both of you need a good wash.” She was brisk in her movements and her tone. “I’ll return shortly.”
 

He watched her leave again and wished like hell he could move off the damn bed. She was too independent, too in control. He supposed it was necessary for someone who doctored people. She couldn’t run around with her hands in the air panicking.
 

Soon Rebecca returned this time with a wooden hip bath and another woman on her heels. “This is Mary.”
 

The older woman nodded at him, but she didn’t meet his eyes. The gray-haired housekeeper knew his brothers, presumably, but wanted nothing to do with him. After the fight in the barn, which he was determined to remember, the people who worked at the ranch probably thought him a drunken madman. Not that he blamed them. It’s what he was.
 

Mary tipped the bucket of hot water into the hip bath holding the handle with a rag. She spoke to Rebecca. “I’ll get another bucket of cold for ya, Doc.”
 

Rebecca murmured a thank you and poured cold water into the hot, then reached in and stirred the mixture. Wisps of steam rose, curling
around her face, kinking the curls that had escaped her braid even further. They bounced as she moved, making him want to wind one around his finger and tug until she kissed him.
 

It had been a long time since he tasted her mouth, the sweet essence that haunted his dreams. This bath, traditional or not, was not a good idea. There was no retreat now. She dipped the bucket in the water for rinsing.
 

It was time.
 

Chapter Five
 

Rebecca’s stomach quivered and she willed herself not to shake on the outside. She’d offered to do this, for both of their sakes. He did smell and he did need to be clean to heal as quickly as he could.
 

If only her courage was not flagging in the reality of seeing Tobias without a stitch on. She had seen various parts of men naked, after all she had four brothers and two brothers-in-law, not to mention nephews. That wasn’t what bothered her. It was Tobias. She would have to touch him and his skin. This wasn’t the same as bandaging him or stitching a wound. No, this was far different.
 

She would do this because that was what healers did. They took care of their patients, no matter the circumstances. Now if only her knees would stop knocking.
 

He watched her as she prepared the water and then retrieved the soap from her pocket. The bar was what Mary had on hand, a lye soap that would possibly hurt when applied. She had no choice but to use what was available.
 

“Now let’s get you undressed.” The words tumbled out of her mouth, followed by a laugh that sounded slightly off kilter. She pulled the blanket back and reached for his trousers. Rebecca cursed the tremble in her fingers when she started on the buttons.
 

His body was warm, overly so because of the blanket. She’d already removed his shirt when he first arrived. The bloodstained garment lay beneath the bed, along with Will’s discarded clothes. She would ask Mary to help her launder everything when she was done washing the men.
 

First she had to get through it.
 

As she pulled off his trousers, her breath caught when she discovered he wore no drawers. She averted her gaze, focusing on the hair on his legs, which was dense and dark brown in color. He had long feet and toes, narrow with hairs sprouting in various places. She set the trousers with the other clothes and pulled the blanket up on his naked lower half. Right then, she could not look upon him and not lose herself in memories.
 

Heat suffused her cheeks and she moved away to get a clean rag. She soaked it in the hot water and swiped the soap across it a few times. By the time she turned back to Tobias, she had gained back a bit of her self-control. She still did not look at the blanket, or what lay beneath, although that seemed to be the one thing she wanted to do more than anything else.
 

She started with his hands, sliding the rag between his long fingers and down his wrists. He made a small sound, a contented sigh perhaps. It wiggled its way through her defenses to her heart. The organ she had ordered to stop caring for Tobias Gibson.
 

It certainly didn’t listen to her.
 

She washed his bruised torso, taking care to avoid pressing too hard. He was silent as she worked, but she sensed his gaze on her. Tobias wasn’t one to keep his thoughts to himself. Perhaps he was more injured than she thought.
 

“Are you all right?” She couldn’t help but ask.
 

“Mmm, no, but I deserve the pain. If I hadn’t been such a horrible brother, Will and James would be at home, not here. Will wouldn’t be fighting for his life.” His voice was scratchy, full of sadness and self-recrimination.
 

“No one deserves endless pain, Tobias. Not even you.” She looked at his bandaged forehead and frowned. “I need to wash your hair. Can I move you to the top of the cot?”
 

He grunted and dug his heels into the end of the bed and pushed. His groan of pain made her wince.
 

“I was going to move you, stubborn man.” She pushed the hip bath to the top of the cot and picked up the empty pail. “I need to take the bandage off. This may hurt.”
 

“Just get on with it, Becca. Enough foolishness.” There was the Tobias she knew. Obnoxious and bossy.
 

She wet his hair and then soaped her hands. Rebecca tried to be as gentle as she could, apologizing every few seconds when he flinched.
 

“Hell, woman, just scrub my damn head. I ain’t gonna break. Jesus, you’re too nice.”
 

Rebecca frowned at his closed eyes, then stuck out her tongue. “You’re rude.”
 

“Why are you still talking? Just get on with it.”
 

That did it. She scrubbed at his scalp with her nails, digging in to loosen what was probably months of dirt. This time he didn’t complain. He shut his mouth and allowed her to work. Something about Tobias’s behavior always set her off. None of her brothers and sisters bothered her the way he did. No matter how much she told herself to resist the elemental reaction he pulled from her, she couldn’t.
 

She rinsed his hair, but managed to remain gentle although she wanted to smack him. He closed his eye while she cleaned his face, but she knew
the soap burned in his wounds. His right eye was swollen shut so she took special care with it. Anybody would have done the same. At least that’s what she told herself.
 

It couldn’t possibly be because she still loved the bossy oaf. He could never be the man she married. Not anymore. Too much time, and too much heartache, had passed. Rebecca told herself that more than once, but she repeated it again to her heart, in case the errant organ actually listen to her.
 

After she patted his face and hair dry, she reapplied a clean bandage, pleased she had avoided his lower half. Perhaps it wouldn’t be as disconcerting as she expected.
 

“Let’s move you back down now.” She kept her voice as neutral as possible. He took hold of the cot and pulled himself down although his shoulder was a mass of bruises. He groaned again. “Stop doing everything you can to cause yourself pain. I can move you.”