Jodi Thomas - The Lone Texan

"We're not married” Sage snapped. "He bought me. That doesn't count”

"Well, until you pay me back, the divorce isn't happening. You're my wife, like it or not”

Harmon fought down a laugh. "I'd like to hear all about this, but I'd better get you over to Travis. I wouldn't tell him too soon about this marriage that doesn't count. He's never had much of a sense of humor like me." He opened the door.

"We know the way." Drum stood and followed Sage out, yelling. "And in an outlaw camp, we're married."

They were still arguing when they reached the hotel steps.

Travis, the tallest of the big McMurray men, met them on the porch. He grabbed his little sister and swung her around in a bear hug that looked to all like he might crush her.

Drum watched, knowing that he'd lost her all over again. She wouldn't sleep in his arms tonight or any other night in the future. He was an outsider in their world; he always would be. For a while, on the trail, they'd been in a world all their own. Now she was back to being Sage McMurray, quarter owner in the most profitable horse ranch in Texas.

He turned to walk away, but Travis's voice stopped him. "Roak, thanks for bringing her back."

He didn't want thanks. In truth, he wanted to keep her, but he couldn't very well say that to her big brother. "You're welcome," he managed. He looked back and noticed Sage was now hugging the homely nurse. "I need to see to the horses” It was all he could think of to say. He wanted to get away. He'd never been a part of a family reunion, and he wasn't a part of this one.

Travis stormed down the steps and offered his hand. "The captain said that place was impossible to get into. I knew you'd manage it. Come to supper in a few hours and tell me all about it.”

Drum tried to think of an excuse. Travis had been a Ranger. He knew all about outlaws and, though he now lived the life of a powerful lawyer in Austin, he still loved to know what was going on. Drum owed Travis a great deal. If he hadn't spoken for him, the Rangers might never have trusted Drum enough to work with him.

"I'll be back at sundown," Drum offered.

"I have a room in your name waiting here at the hotel," Travis said.

"I'll make my own plans” Drum answered too quickly.

Travis nodded, taking no offense. He might have ordered Drum around when he was a boy, but now that he was a man, the McMurrays knew to give him space. "Fair enough.”

Drum walked away. He wished he was back on the trail eating squirrel for supper with Sage. Fancy places, like the hotel dining room, always made him feel uncomfortable. He took the horses to the stable and told the owner that the bay Sage had been riding for a week belonged to the Rangers. Then he brushed Satan down himself and mixed a rich blend of oats and hay seasoned with carrots cut lengthwise.

When he hung the gear by Satan's stall, he checked the secret pouch he'd had made years ago between the leather. He'd spent almost all his traveling money buying Sage. He would have to make a trip to the bank before long. Most of his pay from the Rangers went into the bank. He had accounts in Galveston, San Antonio, and Austin. Drum wasn't even sure how much he had. It didn't really matter. Money wasn't worth that much to him.

He pulled a twenty-dollar gold piece out and headed for a tailor. He'd buy clothes for the road and a hat, but he needed a proper coat for tonight. Tonight, he didn't want to look like a gunfighter. He wanted to look like he belonged with Sage.

Two hours later, when he looked in the mirror, he hardly recognized himself. He'd rented a room down the block from the Grand, had a shave and a haircut. He'd taken care in his bath to soak off the last of the bloody dressing on his arm and tried to rewrap it neatly so that the bandage wouldn't show beneath his shirt. The suit delivered was black, well-fitting in the shoulders, with a white shirt.

"I look like a preacher.” He swore at himself and tugged off the string tie. This wasn't him. He couldn't pretend.

After tugging off his jacket, he went down to the hotel desk and asked one of the runners to deliver a message to Sage that he wouldn't be joining them for dinner, then he ordered a bottle of whiskey for his supper. He knew he should be grateful they were back safe, but part of him needed time to mourn the loss of Sage by his side. They'd had a few peaceful days where there was no one else to see them or comment on how the fine doctor didn't fit with the gunslinger.

Drum opened the windows to the night air and lay on the hotel bed. It felt soft and uncomfortable after so many nights sleeping on the ground. He drank half the bottle and couldn't drown the ache for Sage. He didn't bother to light the lamp; he could see everything he needed to see in the darkness. The noises in the street sounded off-key after listening to nights in the open country. Hell, he thought, he even missed the coyote.

He was almost asleep when he heard a tap on the door.

"Go away” he said, not caring who it was. He'd make it up in time to meet Captain Harmon at dawn. Until then, his time was his own.

The knob turned, and he reached for his gun, realizing he hadn't thought to lock the door.

He blinked, not trusting his sight, as Sage walked into the room. She had her medical bag in one hand and a basket of what smelled like hot bread in the other. Without saying a word to him, she moved to the table by the window and lit the lamp.

When she turned, her eyes danced with anger. "I knew you wouldn't come to dinner. I knew you wouldn't take care of yourself. I knew you'd probably drink the night away.”

He shoved his hair back and sat up. "Well, if you know me so well, why haven't you figured out that I want to be alone?"

"Because you don't," she said as she turned and opened her bag. "Take off that shirt. I'm going to check your wound one more time and put some proper medicine on it."

"I'm fine.”

She faced him. "Strip off that shirt or-"

"Or you'll what? Strip it off for me?"

"Or I'll go get my brother.”

"Threats of your big brothers don't scare me anymore. They haven't for years.”

"Then why didn't you come to dinner?"

He tugged off his shirt, knowing she wouldn't leave until she'd done her duty as a doctor. "I'm not afraid of your brothers, Sage," he said as she cut the bandage he'd tried to tie. "I'm afraid of being with you”

He could see that her concentration was on her work. The wound was healing nicely, but it would leave a scar.

She spread salve over the scab. "Why would you be afraid of being with me, Drum? We've been together all week”

"Then, you needed me to keep you safe, and I did. Now, who will keep you safe from me?"

She laughed as she wrapped the bandage. "I don't need to be protected from you. We agreed, we're friends. I'm not afraid of you, Drummond, so stop trying to convince me of how tough you are.”

He tugged her onto the bed as she knotted the bandage. "Then lie beside me for a while just like you did on the road, if you're not afraid?"

"But-"

"Tomorrow I go after the outlaws, and you head west to Whispering Mountain. It may be months before our paths cross again. Stay beside me an hour. Sage.”

To his surprise, she seemed to understand.

She brushed his jaw. "Funny thing, out there on the road, I was afraid. The only time I felt safe was with you. Now that we're in town, I feel safe, and I think you might be just a little afraid."

"No.” he lied. "I just want to feel you near.”

"All right. I'll stay a few minutes, but no more.” She placed her hand on his chest and pushed him against the pillows. Then she twisted so that she fit against his side just as she had every night for a week.

He took a deep breath of her hair, clean and smelling of honeysuckle. "How'd you find me?"

"It wasn't hard. I asked the boy you sent with the message that said you weren't coming.”

He rested his arm across her waist.

"Try to sleep," she whispered. "I don't think you slept more than a few hours a night for the entire trip."

"I had to watch over you?"

She rolled to face him. "Sleep now.” she ordered and watched him close his eyes. "I'll watch over you”

He was almost asleep when he felt her kiss his cheek and whisper, "Sweet dreams, my hero."

SHE'D MEANT TO SLIP FROM HIS BED AS SOON AS HE fell asleep. From the half-empty bottle, she guessed it wouldn't be long. But he felt so good beside her, Sage drifted off in the warmth of his arms.

She awoke to him shaking her shoulder. "Sage, honey, you've got to wake up."

Stretching, she felt the cold from the open window for the first time and tried to remember where they were. Drum's room. She'd come to a man's room.

"It's late, long past midnight. Too late for a respectable lady to be walking through two hotel lobbies." Worry lines crossed his forehead, making him look older.

She sat up. "I'm starving.”

He laughed. "I figured you'd worry more about your stomach than your reputation”

She spotted the basket she'd brought. "Can I eat before I'm condemned as a fallen woman?"

He climbed off the bed long enough to grab the basket and two glasses. "Who knows you're here?" he asked as he handed her the food and poured them each a drink.

"No one, yet. When I found you weren't at dinner, I told Teagen I was exhausted after we had soup and said I planned to call it a night. He said he wanted to go over to the Ranger station and make sure the boys were having fun. Will and Andy wanted to spend their last night in town with the Rangers. It's all arranged for us to leave tomorrow. Travis will take us as far as Austin and then pick up his family, and we'll all go to Whispering Mountain.” She laughed. "We'll look like a band of gypsies on the road.”

She saw the sadness in his gaze a moment before he turned away, and she decided it was safer to talk about her reputation than her leaving. "I waited until Bonnie went in her room, then closed my bedroom door, picked up my bag, and slipped out. Teagen's room is across the hall, but I'd be very surprised if he came into Bonnie's and my suite tonight. It wouldn't be proper."

She handed Drum a roll with meat inside. "I had the restaurant make these up. I said they were for the boys, but I thought you might not have eaten. I didn't realize how slim you are until I hugged my brother. You're almost the same height, but I swear he's twice your width."

Drum took a bite and smiled. "He gets regular meals. I guess. What else is in the basket?"

"Fruit pies." She giggled, thinking of how little either of them had eaten for a week. "It's a regular feast." She fed him a bite of the first pie.

They sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed and ate as they talked of their adventure. Sometime in the past few years, she'd forgotten how much she loved adventure. When she was about eight, she and her brothers would go up to their grandfather's winter camp. They'd hunt and fish and live among the Apache for weeks. She'd throw a tit if she wasn't allowed to do everything her brothers got to do, and because she was the chief's granddaughter, it was allowed.

"I feared you were dead," she said as she finished her second glass of whiskey and water.

"Which time? When you shot me, or when I tumbled down the hill?"

She laughed. "When you tumbled. I knew my aim was off in the upstairs room. Of course, if you'd been fatter, I would have hit your chest and not your arm, and you'd be dead. I guess that would make me an outlaw widow."

"In outlaw camps there are no widows. If your man is killed, you're simply thought of as eligible.”

They talked and laughed for an hour before she said, "I have to go” She dusted crumbs off her very proper navy blue suit with its slightly wrinkled white blouse beneath. "You don't happen to have a disguise I could wear to make it past the front desk?"

He grinned. "I'm afraid there's nothing that would hide that body."

She frowned, looking around the room for something that would work. She reached for his new coat and pulled it on, then added the hat. "This might work, and it's warm.”

He stood and tugged the hat off. "It'd never work, but you can have the coat. At least you'll be less easy to see in the dark, but in the hotel, even a drunk will see a beautiful woman wearing a man's coat”

She sighed. "Then I guess I'm ruined. Not that it matters. I'm long dead to even wanting to court much less marry again."

He tugged on his boots. "Here's the plan to save you. I'll lower you down out the window, then I'll walk you through the alleys to the back of the Grand. You should be able to get up the back stairs this time of night without running into anyone. I'll be with you, so you should have no trouble from the usual alley rats who roam at night."