“How soon do you think the ambulance will come?” Zoe asked one of the men.
“Ten, fifteen minutes,” they answered, and she looked pained. Gordon wasn't looking good, and there wasn't much she could do here. He needed blood, oxygen, and an operating room as fast as he could get there. But just as she began to give up hope, a siren screamed through the night, and the wranglers directed it right down to where Gordon lay. He had just lost consciousness and his pulse was thready. He had lost a lot of blood, and Tanya was sobbing as she kept pressure on the wound while Zoe kept trying to reassure her. Other than the tourniquet, there was nothing she could do now, except keep track of his vital signs, and pray he made it.
She told the paramedics as much as she knew immediately and they had him on a stretcher in seconds. Zoe got in with them and someone handed her a long slicker to cover her nightgown with. It was all they had, and Tanya asked if she could go with them. The paramedics were holding his wound now, and Gordon was as white as paper.
“How about if I drive you?” a voice asked, and Tanya saw that it was Charlotte Collins. There was no disapproval in her face, only gratitude, and Tanya nodded. She let the ambulance go ahead, there hadn't been room for her anyway, and Zoe didn't want her there if he died, which she thought was likely. It was easier for Tanya to ride right behind with Charlotte Collins. Tanya told her about seeing the man earlier that day, carrying a rifle, and Gordon thinking he was harmless.
“Most of them are, some are disturbed. There was a terrible story a few years ago, some guy recently out of prison in another state murdered a whole family in their sleeping bags, but that kind of thing doesn't happen here often. Most of us don't even lock our doors at night,” she said, glancing at Tanya's obvious terror for Gordon. She wished she were in the ambulance. She couldn't believe what had happened to him. It was incredible, and it had all happened so quickly.
It felt like a thousand years getting to the hospital, and neither of them spoke again on the way. Tanya was clearly too jangled to make conversation. And Charlotte was deeply sympathetic. She knew more than Tanya thought. There was very little that happened on the ranch that escaped her notice. It wasn't what she recommended to her staff, on the contrary there were severe penalties for fraternizing with the guests, but now and then odd things happened, Life was life, and rules were something else sometimes. She just hoped that he didn't die now. The rest could be sorted out later.
When they reached the hospital, a code blue had been sent out, and they were met by a dozen staff, a gurney from the operating room, and two surgeons were already scrubbing. They asked Zoe if she wanted to come in, and she said she didn't think that she was needed. She thought she'd be more useful in the waiting room with Tanya. She had kept him alive for the ride, that was about all she could do for him. The rest was up to the emergency room staff and the surgeons.
“How is he?” Tanya asked hoarsely.
“Alive” was all Zoe could say for him at that point, but she knew she had to be honest with her. “But barely.” Charlotte shook her head in dismay at her answer, and they both held Tanya's hands as she cried and they waited. Tanya wasn't even embarrassed to have Charlotte see her cry. She didn't care what she knew now. All Tanya knew was that she loved him.
The police came after a while and questioned her. She told them what she knew and where she'd been, and Zoe worried about her. When that got out, she'd be in the tabloids again, and it wouldn't be pretty. Tanya Thomas “screwing around” at a dude ranch with the wranglers. Charlotte thought of it too and went to have a word with the officers. They nodded and left. There wasn't much they could do to suppress evidence or testimony and no one wanted them to, but nobody needed to call the papers. They were very sympathetic, and they knew Charlotte. They also promised to send the sheriff into the mountains to look for Gordon's attacker, and recover the horse he'd stolen.
John Kroner even turned up after a while. Someone had called him at home, since he was the physician for the ranch, and he sat and talked softly with Zoe. He went up to the O.R. to see what he could find out, but Gordon was still hanging in the balance. The artery had been sewn, but there had apparently been a lot of damage and blood loss. Tanya just sat there with her eyes closed after a while, and Zoe and John took a little walk down the hall together.
“She doesn't look great,” John said to Zoe once they'd walked away. “Did the guy go after her too? What was she doing at the corral at midnight?” Zoe looked at him and smiled, he was naive, but he was young, and she had come to trust him since she'd been there.
“She's in love with him.” That explained all of it, and John nodded.
It was another hour before the head surgeon came to them, and he looked so grim Tanya almost fainted when she saw him. Zoe was holding tightly to her hand, and Tanya was already crying before he said a word. He looked right at her, as though he understood the situation perfectly. He had no idea who she was and he didn't care. He could see what was happening to her and who he needed to speak to. “He's going to be all right,” he said in a single breath, and Tanya burst into sobs and clung to Zoe.
“It's okay, Tan… it's okay… he's going to make it… shhh… baby.”
“Oh, God, I thought he was dead,” she said as the others turned away discreetly and let her vent her terror. The surgeon explained to Charlotte that there had been ligaments and nerves involved, but he thought Gordon would be fine. He didn't even think he'd need additional surgery, just therapy, and a week or two of convalescence. He had lost a lot of blood, but Tanya and Zoe had both acted quickly and saved him. The doctor had decided not to give him a transfusion, and he thought that if he did well, and wasn't in too much pain, and didn't run a fever, he might even go back to the ranch the next morning. Charlotte nodded, and thanked him, and then the surgeon turned back to Tanya.
“Would you like to see him?” He smiled at her. “You and the doctor here did a fine job hanging on to him for us. Without you holding that artery, he'd never have made it. He'd have been gone in minutes.” Tanya nodded, unable to speak for a minute.
“Is he awake?” she asked, as she followed him down the hall. The others had decided to wait in the waiting room, and were talking animatedly about what had happened.
“More or less,” the doctor smiled at her, thinking what a pretty woman she was. He figured her for about thirty, and had no idea that she was Tanya Thomas. “He's a little groggy and a little drunk, but he asked for you as soon as he woke up. You're Tanny, right?” She nodded.
She followed the doctor into the recovery room and put on a gown, there were half a dozen nurses standing around, and twice as many machines from what Tanya could see, but he lifted his head and smiled at her when he saw her.
“Hi, baby,” he said, and she leaned down and kissed him.
“You scared me to death,” she said.
“Sorry… I was trying to keep him away from the horses, and he got me.”
“You're lucky he didn't kill you,” she said, still shaken by the entire evening.
“The doctor says you saved me.” A long look passed between them that no one could mistake and she kissed him again.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you too,” he said, and then turned his head toward her and closed his eyes for a minute. She asked the doctor if she could stay, and he said she could, if she wanted. And she went out and told Zoe.
“Are you sure?” Charlotte Collins asked. “I can bring you back tomorrow.”
“I'd like to stay,” Tanya said quietly, and then she looked at Gordon's employer apologetically. “I'm sorry about what's been happening… about him… I don't mean to create trouble for him.” But there was no way to hide it now, and Charlotte nodded, smiling.
“I know. Don't worry about it. Everything's all right. Just be careful.” Like Zoe, she was concerned about Tanya. Zoe said something to her before she left, about being mobbed by the press. And Tanya told her not to worry. No one had the least idea who she was at the hospital.
The two women left, and John Kroner went home, and she went back to Gordon. He was sleeping. And they set up a small cot in the recovery room for her, and at six in the morning, they moved him to his own room and she went with him. He was awake by then, and claimed that he was fine, but he looked pretty rocky.
“I feel fine, let's go home,” he said, but he was too dizzy from the loss of blood to sit up, and Tanya shook a finger at him.
“Yeah, you look great. Lie down and be quiet.” She scolded him and he laughed. This was a golden opportunity
