Jodi Thomas - The Lone Texan

Daniel changed the subject as if needing to talk about something besides the trouble they might be riding into. "I heard Miss Sage's nurse disappeared for a few days after the robbery. One of the Rangers said she just fell off the earth, and that couldn't be easy for a woman her size. Then she showed back up about the time they'd all crossed her off as dead. She claimed a stranger got her out of Shelley's place when the shooting started and took her to his farm for safety. She swore he was kind to her and brought her back when he thought the trouble was over."

"That was mighty nice of him," Drum said, waiting for the rest of the story.

Daniel shook his head. "Strange thing is, she don't remember what he looked like or what direction his farm was, or how far they rode. Said she was too frightened to think. Some of the boys and I were talking, and we think she probably got hit on the head, lay under the dock for a few days, then came to and made up the whole story."

"Did she look frightened or hurt?"

"No." Daniel thought about it. "If anything, she looked sad, but that was probably from worry over Miss Sage. The woman is always at the doctor's side. She couldn't be ten years older, but she's a mother hen to the doc."

They walked through a deserted street to the livery. Several of the other Rangers were there already saddling up. Drum noticed a difference in the way he was treated. A few of the men took the time to congratulate him for bringing McMurray's little sister back safe. A few more asked questions about how he did it.

Drum left out a few personal details, like that he bought Sage, and she shot him before they escaped.

When the captain showed up, he stepped right in front of Drummond. "Rock, you sure you're ready to ride?"

"I'm ready." The only place he'd rather be was with Sage, but on the trail with her and her brother and Bonnie and the boys, he'd have no privacy, and that would eat at him worse than missing her. He wanted her alone. All alone. "The sooner we get started, the sooner we can develop a plan to clean out this nest of snakes”

Harmon grinned. "I thought that's what you'd say, but this trip. I want you wearing this." He held out a badge: one star inside a circle, the mark of the Lone Star State. "I want you riding as a full Ranger not just as a hired gun”

Drum looked around the circle of men. Not one frowned in disapproval.

He took the badge.

Daniel slapped him on the back. "Welcome to the brotherhood. I've thought you should be one of us for a long time. So did some of the others”

They saddled up and headed southwest. Drum looked back once, wishing he could see the wagons he'd loaded for Sage moving out. Knowing Travis, they were already miles down the road.

Sage and he were going in opposite directions: He was looking for a fight: she was planning to save lives. He had no idea how long it would be before he saw her again, but when he did, there would be no talk of pretending between them. He'd shown her she was still alive, and she'd wanted his touch as dearly as he'd needed the feel of her. As far as he was concerned, the solution was simple. The hard part would be convincing her.

SAGE DIDN'T BOTHER TO SLEEP. SHE PACKED AND WAS ready when Travis banged on the door before dawn. Her brother had hired two men to ride along as guards. They planned to go as far as Austin, then Travis would pick up his family, another two wagons filled with furniture for Sage's new office, and drivers for the rest of the trip.

Travis wasn't too happy about taking a stray dog and an old cat along on the ride, but he'd been married long enough to know better than to waste time arguing with determined women.

As the sun came up, they took a barge, leaving Galveston far behind for the mainland of Texas. Sage watched the water and thought about how Drum used to swim the river to visit her.

The man who'd touched her last night was nothing like the boy from years ago. She knew they were just pretending in the stairwell. He'd made that clear, just as she'd made it plain that all they would ever be was friends. Only for a short while in the total darkness, she hadn't wanted to pretend. She'd wanted a lover. Not Drum, but a real lover. He was too wild to ever be the man she needed.

Only when he'd been kissing her she hadn't thought about him being younger. She'd forgotten how wild he was. She'd forgotten that he made his living with a gun. All she had thought about was how he made her feel. In his arms, she'd been alive.

She'd promised herself when she was eighteen that she'd study and help people. She had also sworn she'd never care for a man who would die by a gun. Somehow Sage believed that promise would keep her heart safe. Only Barret never handled a gun in his life that she knew of, and he'd still died.

"You all right. Doc?" Bonnie said as she knelt beside Sage. "Don't tell me you're sorry to leave Galveston."

"No. I'm not sorry. I'm ready to get home.” Sage looked up at the nurse, thinking about how frightened she must have been during, the robbery. "How about you? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Good, actually. Mostly back there I was worried about you. I'm sure glad Mr. Roak brought you back safe and sound."

"Why do you call him Mr. Roak? He's not much more than a kid really.”

Bonnie shook her head. "I don't think of him as a kid and, judging from the looks other people turn his way, I'd say most people agree with me." She sat down beside Sage and added, "When I was no more than five or six, my parents took me to see a man speaking at our church. My father said he had greatness about him. He said some men are born to it, and there's nothing they can do but step into the shoes already made for them. I feel like Mr. Roak is that kind of man. It wouldn't be proper to call him by his first name."

Sage didn't see it, but Bonnie had her way about her, and she wasn't a woman to change. For the hundredth time, Sage tried to picture how bad things were for Bonnie in Boston. It must have been intolerable for her to agree to come to Texas.

They talked of their mission to open a doctor's office and a small clinic. Sage felt her world coming back in balance. She tucked away the time on the stairs and promised herself not to think about it again.

But that night when they camped, she lay on her bedroll and wished Drum's arm was around her for warmth. She ached for the feel of him against her, and all reasoning wouldn't make it go away.

Will sat beside her after breakfast the next morning. He had the old family Bible, wrapped in what looked like a deer hide, in his lap. His serious gaze watched her, and she knew he was waiting to say something.

"I need to ask you a question," he whispered.

"Of course”

"The captain said you're a real smart woman. He says you'd have to be, to be a doctor."

The boy looked like he was drowning in worry. "How can I help you?" she asked.

"My father told me if Andy and I ever found ourselves alone, that we were to talk to a judge we could trust, but I don't know how to find one. Your brother is a lawyer. Do you think he'd do? The Rangers talk about him as a great man and said he knows the laws”

Sage smiled. "Travis knows the law. He'll help you if he can. You can trust him."

Will nodded, thanked her for her advice, and stood. "I need to show him something before we go any farther. He might decide we're too much trouble to take along”

"I doubt that”

The thin little boy walked over to her big brother. Travis knelt to Will's level just as he always did when he talked to his son, Duck.

Sage watched them walk over by a pile of rocks while she began to break camp. She couldn't hear what they said, but Travis was obviously giving the boy his full attention.

When they came back to the wagons, neither made any comment about what they'd discussed, but Will had the hint of a smile and looked like he'd had a weight removed from his little shoulders.

Just before she climbed in the wagon, she kissed Travis on the cheek.

"What was that for?" he grumbled.

"For being my big brother," she said.

"I'm the best one," he teased, reminding her of years ago when her brothers always tried to get her to name the best among them. They hadn't been much older than Will and Andy when they'd taken on the job of raising her.

Travis lifted his arm, and the little caravan began to move.

It was late October when they reached Austin. Travis came home to a world of trouble. The capital seemed to be boiling over, with tempers flaring over the issue of slavery.

Like most Texans, Sage and her family didn't own slaves, but there was talk of Texas pulling out of the Union if the states split over the issue. Since Texas had entered as a sovereign country and not a territory, it had the right, at least to the minds of most Texans, to pull out. Texas had flown its own flag before, and it could again. But most people had come from other states, southern mostly. If the South fought, their loyalties would be there.

Travis was called away to the state capitol before he'd had time to change clothes.

Sage felt the turmoil moving in like a great storm and could hardly wait to leave, but Travis was torn. He wanted to go to Whispering Mountain with his family, but he knew his duty was at the capital. Travis stood with Sam Houston in wanting to keep the country together.

After three days trying to decide, he sent Sage and Bonnie and the Smith boys on alone with guards for safety. His wife, Rainey, refused to leave if he stayed, even though she cried when she said good-bye to Sage.

"We'll try to be there for Thanksgiving. If not, tell Jessie well make Christmas. Tobin and Liberty have promised then also." Rainey said.

Sage didn't feel like it would be home without two of her brothers there. In her heart she always thought they'd all live on Whispering Mountain and raise families. But they'd moved on to form families of their own, something she'd never have.

"Ready?" Bonnie whispered.

"Ready” Sage tried to smile. It was time to move on, she thought, in more ways than one.

The road between their home and Austin had been safe for years, but Sage still remembered the time she'd been on a stage and they'd been attacked. She left Austin well-armed and silently wishing Drummond were by her side.

•••

The third morning out of Austin, Bonnie Faye Pierce sat in the buggy alone. Over the miles she'd learned to drive the small, one-horse contraption that carried her, the luggage, and sometimes little Andy when he decided he needed a nap mid afternoon.

Sage usually sat beside Will in the front wagon. The seven year-old was good with the reins and could have handled the team alone, but Sage thought it safer to ride beside him. They were the lead wagon, setting the pace on the trail. Then came Bonnie in what everyone called "her" buggy. Next, a tough old man drove the four-horse team that pulled a wagonload of supplies for the clinic. Bringing up the rear were two wagons Travis's wife Rainey had packed with household supplies she thought they'd need to set up the apartment where they'd live in back of the clinic.

Bonnie couldn't believe this crazy dream of the doctor's was happening. Months ago in Boston right after they'd buried Dr. Barret Lander, Sage had told Bonnie of her plan. She'd even shown her a letter to her brothers back in Texas describing exactly what she needed to set up an office in a little town that didn't seem to have a name.

Apparently the McMurray family had been working on the clinic while Sage and Bonnie traveled.

The McMurray family was the opposite of her family, she thought. She'd stopped by to see her brother before leaving Boston. He'd told her not to wire for money if she hated Texas, because it wouldn't be coming. Then he'd asked her to sign the house over to him. When she'd refused, he'd told her to leave, because as far as he was concerned, he had no living relatives.

Bonnie smiled to herself. She'd left his house and walked to the bank. There, she asked the banker to handle the sale of her parents' old home, should a buyer come along. He'd promised to check into selling the place but didn't give her much hope.

It didn't matter, she told herself. In a few days the traveling would be over, and she would step into her new life as the nurse in charge of probably the world's smallest clinic. They'd planned it all and talked about every detail so often, she could see every square foot of it in her mind. She'd have her own apartment, a new place with walls that held out the wind and a roof that didn't leak.