Jodi Thomas - The Lone Texan

She'd left, a girl wanting to change the world, and returned, a widow knowing she could change nothing. The heavy veil of sorrow she'd been surrounded in for months seemed to lift only a fraction now and then.

The trousers and plaid cotton shirts she'd stored away for her return didn't seem right somehow. That young, adventurous crusader was gone. She bought tailored split riding skirts and fine, lace-trimmed blouses, careful to pick blues and browns, no black. She also bought boots and jackets made for warmth not fashion. Her life was twisting again, and all she felt she could do was circle with the current.

Bonnie, who had trouble finding anything to fit, walked with her. She bought little, but she ordered a few dresses that looked more like uniforms than proper dresses. She said that she might be going into the wilderness, but that was no excuse for not being a professional. She also ordered a dozen heavy cotton aprons for herself. In one store she let Sage buy her another traveling suit. The first one she'd worn since they left Boston was of such fine material it still looked new. The second suit was of hardier material still, made for their fall journey to Sage's family ranch.

By late afternoon, they stopped to eat supper on the wide porch of the hotel. Bonnie disappeared to check on her cat, while Sage relaxed into the sounds of an evening in Galveston: people rushing home, music pouring out of saloons, children laughing.

When Bonnie returned, Sage asked, "Are our stowaways all right?"

Bonnie nodded. "That mutt seems happy to just stay in the corner of your room and sleep. Bullet, however, is used to the run of the place. She's not too happy about having to stay in my room."

They ordered, and as they had almost every night. Bonnie questioned her about what it would be like when they got to Whispering Mountain. The plans to change a house the family owned in town into a doctor's office made the nurse's eyes sparkle. She'd told Sage of the huge old home her parents left her. Everything was rotting from neglect. Bonnie had only been able to earn enough to feed and clothe herself. She'd admitted to Sage once that if the house had been worth anything, her older brother would have tried harder to take it from her when their parents died.

Halfway through her meat pie, Bonnie interrupted her thoughts. "You still haven't done anything about that dog”

Sage sighed. "I smuggled him out for a walk early this morning, and he did his business."

"That's not what I mean. You were going to find him a place to stay."

Sage hadn't even tried. "I'll work on it tomorrow.”

Bonnie didn't look like she believed the promise. "Speaking of dogs, I haven't seen that brother of your departed husband."

As if her words conjured up the man, Shelley Darnell Lander stepped onto the porch. He'd shaved and brushed his clothes today, but there was still something about him that made Sage uncomfortable. He wanted something more than to help; that was plain.

"Evening, ladies." He bowed low. "I was hoping to have the pleasure of buying you two dinner, but I see you've already ordered."

He pulled up a chair and ordered a whiskey from the passing waiter. "I guess you heard the Rangers just brought in a band of raiders who may have been the gang giving the homesteads to the south a hell of a time. They ride in fast and hard, taking as much of the ranchers' herd as they can stampede out."

"No." Bonnie's eyes widened. "Raiders?"

The nurse had an I-don't-know-if-I-can-deal-with-this look on her face.

Shelley moved in closer. "Word is this last raid was personal. They weren't just after the cattle; they wanted the man and his family dead."

"They came to kill?" Bonnie's breath squeaked in and out. "Not just rob and kill him but wipe him and his off the land."

Sage leaned back in her chair. Stories like this reminded her of the time she and her brothers had found trouble. Every time, the fear of losing one of her brothers was far greater than losing her own life.

Bonnie stared at Shelley. "How close was the ranch these raiders hit?"

"A day's ride, maybe less.” He patted the nurse's hand. "But don't you ladies worry none. I'll stay close and protect you. In fact, if you have any valuables or money, you might want me to put them away in my safe while you're here. I have a place down by the docks. My office is as guarded as a bank. I've got a safe shipped all the way from Chicago that no one will ever break into.”

"We have little” Sage lied, "but we thank you for the offer."

Shelley cut her a glance then smiled, and she swore she could hear him thinking that he knew it wouldn't be that easy to separate the little widow from her inheritance. "Of course," he said out loud. "You are safe at the hotel. However, if you venture out, please send for me. The streets are safe enough, but the docks are not. I can't tell you the number of times I've been robbed, and I run a respectable house."

Sage was about to ask exactly where and what his place of business was, when a broad-shouldered cowboy stepped up to her table. He was dusty and didn't look like he belonged on the gingerbread-trimmed porch of the Grand, but the circle star on his chest demanded respect.

"Miss” he said as he removed his hat. "I beg your pardon, but do you know where I can find a doctor staying here? The man at the desk said he saw you carrying in a medical bag, so you might know. It's real important that I find the doc."

Sage stood. "I'm a doctor."

To his credit, the Ranger took the information in stride. "Do you know a man named Drummond Roak?"

"Is he hurt?" She fought down the vision of him hurt and dying. She'd spent more than one night worrying about the wild kid killing himself. The fact that she still cared about him surprised her.

"No, miss, but he's coming in with a wagon carrying a woman who has been beat up bad by the raiders. He said if there was anybody who could help the lady it would be the doc at the Grand Hotel. I figured I'd help a little by letting you know they're coming."

Bonnie stood, ready for action.

Shelley pushed his way between them. "There's a misunderstanding. I'm afraid, sir," he said to the cowboy. "This little lady was married to my brother. He was a well-known-"

No one, including Sage, had time to listen to Shelley's rambling.

"Well have everything ready." Sage moved toward the hotel doors and noticed that both Bonnie and the Ranger fell into step beside her. "Will you let us know when he pulls up?"

"Yes, miss.”

She glanced back over her shoulder as she stepped inside. "It's Doctor. Ranger. Dr. McMurray.” Without much thought, she'd dropped Barret's name and returned to her own.

"It's Daniel, Doc. Daniel Torry."

"Now look here” Shelley's voice came from somewhere behind them. "You can't ask a lady to see to-"

Sage barely noticed Shelley running to catch up as she stormed the front desk. "I'll need a room on the first floor to care for an injured woman and water put on to boil”

The clerk, who'd been listening, nodded. "You can use the office."

She turned to Bonnie. "I'll need-"

The nurse was already halfway up the stairs. "I'm on it. Bag, aprons, and bandages. If you get the room, I can have it ready within ten minutes.”

Sage stood for a moment as everyone rushed to follow orders. Barret used to call her the little general in skirts when emergencies came into the hospital. She'd thought she'd left that all behind, but it seemed to have followed her to Texas.

An hour later, half the hotel staff and all the guests were in the lobby as Drum carried in the patient wrapped in so many blankets no one could see her. Daniel Torry directed him to the first room on the right and then stood guard so no one else could enter.

Drum nodded toward Sage as he moved in. "She's been quiet for a long while. I don't know if that's good or bad. I pushed the team as much as I dared. Some of the blood on her belongs to the guy who did this to her.”

Sage helped lower the woman onto a table and began to slowly fold back the quilts. "How bad off is the guy who beat her? I can see him next."

"Pretty bad," Roak said as he moved out of the way. "I shot him through the head from five feet away. If you want to see him, you'll have to wait until I scoop up his brains”

Bonnie's squeak was the only sound in the room. Roak looked totally serious, but Sage had a feeling his last words were his idea of a joke.

Sage folded back the last quilt and felt bile rise as she stared down at her new patient covered in blood.

Roak lowered his hat and backed a few feet toward the door. He'd done all he could.

"We'll take over from here” Sage squared her shoulders and stepped closer to the table. She gently checked the woman's pulse, then moved her fingers over the head wounds to make sure the skull wasn't fractured.

Bonnie cut away the clothes now stiff with dried blood as Sage searched along the woman's body, analyzing what had to be cared for first. The doctor that Barret had made her into by all those years working beside him served her well now.

She glanced back at Drum leaning next to the door. "Thanks for getting her here alive. She's in bad shape, really bad, but she'd have had no chance without you."

Drum didn't move. He might have stood longer watching, but Daniel pulled him backward through the door.

"Come on Roak," Sage heard the Ranger say. "I'll buy you a drink.”

"I don't need a drink." Drum answered.

"Then I'll drink them both." The Ranger closed the door.

SAGE AND BONNIE BEGAN THEIR WORK. THE WOMAN must have passed out with the pain, but she kept fighting, kept breathing. She had broken ribs along her left side, three broken fingers, and deep cuts on both her arms as if someone had carved on her for fun. She had what looked like burns on both her palms and a long, thin gash across the top of one breast deep enough to still be bleeding and get infected. Bruises were too many to count, but the worst were on her face. Both her eyes had swollen shut, and there was a good chance her broken nose would never heal straight.

Bonnie washed away the blood as Sage moved from wound to wound. "I'm not a violent person” the nurse whispered, "but I wish Roak hadn't killed whoever did this so I could kill him myself.”

"Her chances don't look good, but we'll do the best we can," Sage added. "We'll have our hands full keeping fever and infection down, even after we set the bones. I fear one of her ribs has punctured a lung. Out on a farm, with no skilled care, she wouldn't have had much of a chance. He did the right thing."

"Maybe this Drummond Roak isn't as worthless as you take him for?" Bonnie mumbled as if to herself.

"I know he's probably a good man. More than once he helped my family when we were in a fight, but that doesn't make him less of a pest. He used to do things, say things, just to drive me crazy." She didn't add that once he'd won a kiss from her in a bet. He'd been nervous and untrained, but that kiss had haunted her dreams more than once over the years.

Before the conversation could continue, Sage asked, "Hand me that splint for her finger, then thread up another needle. I want every wound cleaned and closed”

Bonnie followed orders but whispered, "Her breathing is so shallow. The odds aren't with us."

"We have to try." Barret's words drifted through her thoughts. He used to say, "Even if the odds are a hundred to one, we'll save the one”

Sage worked fast, trusting in her skill. Bonnie had been by her side long enough to almost read her mind. The woman on the table whimpered a few times. Once she cried out for her husband then, crying softly, begged him not to come.

An hour passed, then two. Drum leaned his head in when the hotel housekeeper brought fresh water.

"How is she?" His gray eyes were filled with concern.

"We're working on her face now. Using cold compresses to take a little of the swelling down” Sage stepped to the door and stood close to him as she whispered, "All the flesh wounds will heal if there is no infection. I'm not so sure about the broken ribs. The dark bruising bothers me. I fear one break may have done some damage to her lung."

He leaned so close she could feel his breath when he asked, "Can her boys see her? They both think she's dead and were not telling them. I can't get them to eat or sleep."

"I don't know, she looks pretty bad."

Drum frowned. "She couldn't look worse than she did all day, and they took turns washing away oozing blood."

He had a point. "All right." Sage nodded. "Tell them they can come in for a minute."