“I’ve been thinking it over. The attack was too clean not to have been planned by professionals. Maybe the kid on the stage was one of them. Maybe the driver knew whoever stopped to offer help. Otherwise, why would there have been no shots?”
Nichole’s voice died suddenly as she looked toward the doorway.
Adam glanced over his shoulder, moving closer to her in protection. “Sister.” He relaxed. “Thank you for bringing the coffee.”
The nun moved to his side. She took one look at Nichole’s hands and wrapped a coffee cup with a thick towel so none of the heat would pass to Nichole as she drank.
“Nick, I’d like you to meet Sister. Sister, this is the shipment I’ve been expecting for days. She was on the stage that was attacked.”
Both women nodded a greeting, but the nun didn’t waste time with small talk. “You’re in great danger, child.”
“I know,” Nichole agreed.
Before Adam could ask any questions, the nun spoke again. “I’ll put a bed in the storage room upstairs with boxes all around. No one must know you’re here.”
“Including the deputy,” Adam added. “We must keep her safe and I don’t trust the man not to talk.”
“Thank you.” Nichole let the exhaustion reflect in her voice for the first time. “I knew I’d be all right if I could just find you.”
The nun smiled, turning her face into tiny ripples of skin. “When Dr. McLain gets you bandaged, move upstairs and I’ll bring food. Men mean enough to kill and burn the two stagecoach hands won’t hesitate to kill you.”
Adam gently wrapped Nichole’s fingers as he studied both women’s faces. “I don’t know how, but the two of you seem to share a secret. Want to let me in on it?”
She bit back the pain the thin cotton caused. “I’m not sure I understand, but Sister is right. If anyone finds out I’m here, we may all be in great danger. I can’t explain. I just sense it. I think she does, also.”
Curling his arm beneath her knees, he lifted her off the table. “Then we’d better get you upstairs. I promised your brother I’d guard you with my life, and that is exactly what I plan to do.”
An hour later, he helped Nichole eat both her supper and his. She’d told him every detail that she saw of the robbery. If there was a loaded strongbox traveling with her, the men who killed for it wouldn’t hesitate to kill again. Something didn’t make sense. If they were only after the money, they could have just robbed and taken it at gunpoint, not killed and burned the two men.
Adam took the tray of empty plates downstairs. A low lamp still burned in the kitchen, though it was long past time all were usually in bed. Mrs. Jamison liked a late dinner. She said it reminded her of her youth in Georgia when her family would have huge dinner parties served after nine. But most nights they ate at seven or Nance would fall asleep at the table.
Tonight, the nun sat alone by the window, her rosary circling her hands. When he entered, she looked at him with tear-wet cheeks.
“How is the girl?” she asked in a whisper.
“Better,” Adam answered. “I gave her something to help the pain so she can sleep. She was sent here because her brother thought she’d be safe.” He laughed, without humor.
“She’s in great danger. The men who took the stage would have her dead along with the others. I’ve heard of these men. They kill for fun and think to become legends.”
Adam watched the nun closely. She knew more than she was saying, but he’d learned it was a waste of time to inquire. “You’ve told Nance to be quiet about our guest?”
The nun nodded.
Adam waited a minute for her to add more. When she didn’t, he moved to the stairway. “I’ll check on Nichole, then call it a night.” He knew that once he turned on his study light, the night people would tap on his door if they needed him. Maybe one of them would have news of the robbers.
“I’ll help your friend all I can.” The nun went back to her prayers. “And another will watch over her, too.”
Adam wondered what more she could do as he climbed the stairs. When he opened Nichole’s door, he found her sitting on the edge of her bed still fully dressed.
“I thought you’d be asleep by now.” He stepped inside her room and closed the door.
“I couldn’t work the buttons with these bandages.” She looked up to him once more for help.
Adam knelt on one knee in front of her and began unbuttoning her shirt in what he hoped was a professional manner. “I’m sorry,” he said without looking at her face. If he looked in those green eyes, he’d have trouble remembering how buttons worked.
“I didn’t want to come,” Nichole whispered. “I wanted to stay with Wolf and fight for our land.”
“I understand.” He guessed she was trying to tell him that she hadn’t traveled all this way to see him.
“Wolf said to find any of the McLains. If you want, I could go to Daniel or Wes.”
He pulled her sleeves gently over her bandages as he removed her shirt. “Wes is somewhere on the range rounding up cattle. Daniel is in a settlement near Dallas. You’d probably be safest with him, if we could get you there in one piece.”
Standing, she held her arms away from her sides as he worked the buttons on her trousers. “You want me to go?”
Adam stopped with both hands on her waist ready to push her pants down. “No,” he answered, feeling her nearness as he always did. “I just want you safe.”
Nichole laughed. “I’ve never been safe.”
Pushing the trousers to the floor, he helped her out of them. She wore plain cotton leggings and a cotton chemise with lace at the shoulder. The undergarments were store-bought and plain but far more feminine than anything he’d seen on her.
As he stared, she smiled and touched her leg, pulling the material with a bandaged hand. “They’re called pantalettes. Funny name. Wolf bought them for me. I never had any woman clothes, but I like the feel of them next to me, even underneath my trousers.”
If he’d expected her to be embarrassed or modest, he was greatly disappointed. She turned around as if showing him a new outfit and not her undergarments. The line of her tall, lean body showed clearly. Her breasts were full, her waist small, her legs long and slender.
“I wasn’t sure I was wearing them right until one night at the stage station when I saw other women with them. We all took off our dresses and slept in these. It was almost like a party where everyone came in their underwear.”
Adam tried not to notice the way the cotton molded around her breasts or how the lace showed one shoulder almost bare through the fine material.
“You ever see such clothes?”
“No,” he lied. “They look quite serviceable to sleep in.”
Sweat dripped off his forehead, but he wasn’t about to tell her that he’d seen women dressed in chemises made of all lace and no cotton. They’d had big breasts and painted cheeks and offered their services by the hour… but they hadn’t been half as alluring as Nichole.
“You’d better get to bed. With the salve, your hands will feel much better in the morning.” He tried to sound like a stern father, or a worried doctor, anyone except a lover, which is exactly what he’d like to be.
“All right.” She climbed into the tiny cot of a bed and let him pull up the covers.
“Good night.” He leaned and planted a brotherly kiss on her forehead.
“Good night, Doc,” she answered, already half-asleep.
TWELVE
ADAM SPENT HALF the night thinking of reasons not to go up to Nichole’s room. She’d told him she hadn’t wanted to come to Texas. The burns on her hands must be hurting. She needed sleep. Wolf had sent her to him for protection.
