So he paced his study, then went across to the two rooms he used as his doctor’s office. After cleaning and restocking everything he could think of, he wandered into the little room by the kitchen that he’d made his bedroom.
His room was stark, plain, and colorless, but it had two advantages. The one curtainless window faced the east and caught the morning sun and the room was always warm from the kitchen fire. But tonight the very walls were closing in around him.
He’d spent six months having conversations with an absent Nichole and now she was only a floor away. They had nothing in common, she wasn’t the kind of woman he should be attracted to, yet the need to see her was an ache in his gut the size of a cannonball.
He wanted to tell her what he’d done and how he helped people, all kinds of people. He wanted to remind her of that morning when he’d almost given up being a doctor. She’d verbally slapped him hard with her cutting words and lack of sympathy. She’d woken him up to the fact that he had to be satisfied with the best he could do sometimes. The effort counted, not just the outcome.
Adam finally convinced himself he would only check on her, and stepped into the darkened foyer in the center of the house. In the corner of his vision, where the last touch of moonlight lit the back of the stairs, he saw something move.
A chill slid down his spine like a crawling glacier. His first thought was that somehow Nichole had been followed and someone was trying to kill her.
But the figure moved past the stairs and into the kitchen at a slow, almost painful pace.
Adam pulled down his rifle he kept hidden over the foyer cabinet and followed. The people of the night knew he would help them without asking questions. They always came to the side door off his office. This was no patient creeping through his house. Even in shadow, this unknown guest was crippled and twisted with age, or pain.
The kitchen was dark with only a low glow from the banked fire to dust any light across the room. Before Adam’s eyes could adjust to the blackness, the back door opened slightly with a low creek, then closed just as quietly.
In long strides, Adam reached the door and stepped onto the porch. Nothing. The porch and the alley beyond was silent, deserted except for old Terry who raised his head in greeting.
Adam knelt and patted the dog. Terry was a good watchdog. He always barked when strangers stepped on the porch. Whoever passed through the house tonight was no stranger to the animal. Somehow the knowledge disturbed Adam far more than the possibility that someone might have tried to break in.
Silently, he moved inside and up the back stairs. When he opened the door to a storage room where they’d hidden Nichole, he was surprised to see the nun sitting by her bed. The room was cluttered with boxes and old furniture, but he noticed she had covered the boxes beside Nichole with a cotton tablecloth.
Adam straightened to his most professional manner. “How is she?”
“She’s restless.” The nun closed her prayer book. “I’m afraid she’ll wake herself by hitting her hands against something. She keeps moving, fighting in her sleep.”
He leaned over the bed. Nichole was sleeping, her hair tossed wildly, her face slightly sunburned. She’d never looked more beautiful. What was it about this woman that made him feel like a thunderstorm was going on inside him? She was as far from a lady as she could get with her short hair and men’s clothing. Yet she touched him in a way no one ever had, and he found the idea disturbing. Seeing her was like coming down with the croup and waking up to Christmas morning at the same time.
“The young woman is almost starved.” Sister broke into his thoughts. “I plan on making it my calling to get at least three meals a day into her.”
He looked more closely. She did seem thinner and her hair was a few inches longer than he remembered. The months since they’d seen one another must have been hard on her. She was a free spirit who would have to learn to settle down now that the war was over.
“Do you think we can protect her here?” he wondered aloud to himself.
“We can try. I’ll do what I can. You give her the medicine that helps her sleep without the pain and I’ll keep watch.”
“Her brother sent her here to safety. Now that she’s witnessed a murder and robbery she could be in great danger if anyone found out she was on the stage. I wouldn’t want to depend on the deputy for help.”
“She’s safer here with us.” The nun nodded in agreement. “The only one we have to be careful about is Mrs. Jamison, and she only comes out of her room in the afternoon. The rest of the time she likes to sit by the window and pretend she’s in better times.”
Nichole moved in her sleep, reaching across the covers for something that wasn’t there. The movement made her cry out softly in pain.
Kneeling to her coat Adam pulled out the handgun she’d wrapped so carefully out of sight. Gently, he emptied the shells and placed the weapon at her side. A bandaged hand passed over the metal, and she relaxed in sleep.
He looked up expecting the nun to be frowning, but she showed no judgment in her face.
The nun finally whispered a statement that awaited no answer as she pulled the covers over Nichole. “Our poor Nichole, she lives by the gun, doesn’t she? I’ll keep watch on her tonight, Doctor.”
Adam nodded, realizing the foolish notion he’d had of kissing Nichole good night was just that, foolish. He’d better get a handle on this unreasonable attraction for Wolf’s sister before he made an idiot of himself. They had nothing in common.
Walking slowly back to his room, he thought that just as Nichole needed the comfort of her weapon, Adam knew he needed her at his side. It didn’t matter that they’d only slept in one another’s arms twice. His need to hold her was basic, primal. He needed to feel her heart beat next to his once in a while. But she respected only strength and would think him weak for ever saying such a thing.
His job was to guard her until Wolf came, nothing more. All he had to do was keep her out of harm’s way. Then they both could get on with their lives and never cross paths again. Nichole loved adventure, excitement. She needed to be free. All he wanted was to settle down and live a quiet life as a doctor. Bergette had taught him that to dream for more was only that, a dream.
But by midmorning the next day, it seemed dreams turned quickly into nightmares. Trouble arrived wrapped in lace and any hope of a quiet life seemed shattered.
Troops from Fort Griffin rode in with the stage. Half the town turned out to see them and Adam joined the crowd, watching from across the street. Adam was relieved there had been no trouble and turned to go back home when a tiny woman stepped from the stage.
She was dressed in a wine red traveling suit and wore a hat to match with long enough feathers to have bothered everyone who rode the stagecoach. Her blond curls were tied with ribbons and decorated one side of the front of her jacket from shoulder to waist. She was stunning.
Everyone in the street stopped to watch her. But only Adam’s face turned pale.
Bergette looked slowly around until her gaze met his.
From across the street he could see she’d lost none of her beauty.
She walked directly toward him, smiling as if she hadn’t threatened to have him sliced to bits the last time she’d spoken to him.
“You must be Dr. McLain,” a cavalry officer voiced from just behind Adam as Bergette crossed the street toward them.
“Yes,” Adam answered without smiling. He wouldn’t have been surprised if the officer pulled his gun and arrested him. There was no telling what Bergette had said about him. Maybe she hadn’t been happy ruining his name in Indiana, maybe she planned to spread his mistreatment of her through the West.
“You’re a lucky man. The little lady hasn’t stopped talking about you since Dallas.” The lieutenant slapped Adam on the shoulder as Bergette grew closer. “ ’Morning, Miss Dupont. I was just telling your fiance how lucky he is to have you willing to come all this way to be his little wife.”
Bergette’s smile could have melted a Gatling gun from a hundred yards. “Thank you, Lieutenant.” She placed a gloved hand on the officer’s sleeve. “But I’m afraid I have given my dear Adam quite a shock. You see, he wasn’t expecting me.”
Adam knew the small crowd around him was listening. Harry was bobbing up and down to see over the heads
