“You bring her, Doctor, while I carry the cot down. We have to move fast before they come back.”
Adam lifted a sleeping Nichole. He knew the medicine he’d given her and the days she’d probably gone without sleep had caught up to her, but when he put his arm around her she snuggled into his chest making his heart jump a beat. They moved her downstairs as silently as they could even though there was no one else in the house.
“Do you really believe, Doctor, that you can keep your fiancee from finding out about this one you call Nick?” The nun frowned as she made space for the cot in Adam’s book-lined study.
“I don’t know,” he answered in frustration. Bergette introduced herself to everyone as his fiancee, and he would have looked like a fool following behind calling her a liar. “All I know is I have to protect Nichole.”
Nichole stirred in his arms and mumbled, “You don’t have to protect me. I can take care of myself.”
He could see anger banking in her sleepy eyes. Anger and hurt mixed as she came awake.
“And I agree with Sister Celestine, this study is no place for me,” she argued. “I’d be safer outside, hiding on the land. Just get me out of town. There’s a grove of trees not an hour from here that would suit me fine. I can fend for myself.”
Adam’s head snapped up so hard he felt it pop. “Sister Celestine?” He looked from the woman in his arms to the nun. “She told you her name?”
“No,” Nichole said. “I read it in her prayer book. There wasn’t much to do upstairs.”
“Is Nick right?” He lowered Nichole’s feet gently to the floor as he stared at the nun.
No emotion marked the old woman’s face. “The other sisters called me Sister Cel. I wish no one else in the house to know my name. Having them call me Sister suits me fine but you and Nick can call me Sister Cel.”
“Thanks.” Adam knew she’d given him a gift by allowing him to call her by name. “Sister Cel, will you help me hide Nichole here even if it’s not the best place?”
“I will,” she answered proudly. “When I saw others moving in, I thought I should be leaving. Now I see I’m needed. The very wind whispers trouble.”
“You’re not superstitious, too?” Adam raised an eyebrow.
“No,” she answered. “It’s not superstitious to listen for trouble’s footsteps.”
“Well, however you know, I think you’re right and you are also greatly needed,” he added, guessing that he’d touched on her one reason for living.
The nun nodded as she went about making the small bed they had moved from upstairs.
“Stop acting like I’m invisible and defenseless!” Nichole snapped.
She was only a few inches shorter than he and now faced him squarely. “I do what I want to do and answer to no one, no matter what you believe or Sister hears in the wind. It that clear, Doc?”
He couldn’t help but wonder if she always woke up with such fire. Then he made the mistake of smiling. She attacked.
“If I decide to stay here in your study, we might as well clear the air. First, don’t take the bullets out of my Colt again, ever. Second, you’re not the only one in this house who is engaged. Tyler will come with my brother to get me as soon as the smoke clears at home.”
Adam was so busy trying to hide his surprise that he didn’t bother explaining to her that the engagement to Bergette was a farce. “Tyler?” he questioned. “Tyler? The man who was in command that night you were dying?”
“He took me to the train,” she answered with a lift of her eyebrows that seemed to say more.
“Wonderful.” Adam felt as if it had been raining on him all day. Why should he be surprised now when lightning struck him? “I’m happy for you both. Now you can marry and run around the country raising little Shadows.”
“Fine,” Nichole answered. “I feel the same way about you and little Miss Silk.”
“Fine!” Adam snapped as he faced Nichole.
Sister Cel stepped between them as she passed. “Now that everyone is fine here, can we get back to work? There are people waiting to see a doctor.”
“Where?” Adam hadn’t seen anyone all day.
“She said she’d wait till dark, but if you got time now, she needs care. You can have her doctored long before the others return.” The nun nodded toward the house on the left where several women from the saloons stayed. “Her name is Dancing, and I’m not sure she can walk over here. Her friend came over to check if you were seeing anyone and if you’d let them bring her over before dark.”
“I’ll go get her myself before the others get back.” Adam had never asked her opinion, but he imagined Mrs. Jamison would not be pleased by the people who sought his help during the nights. Her husband might have died an outlaw, but she considered herself a respectable widow.
The nun on the other hand made no judgment. People were people. Several times, when he’d needed another set of hands, she’d appeared in the hallway and helped.
He glanced at Nichole. “Stay here, and stay quiet.”
She didn’t argue.
Ten minutes later, she watched through a crack in the paneling as he carried a woman into his office. She was badly bruised and bleeding.
“Sister!” Adam yelled. “Sister!”
He laid the woman down on the table and began pulling bandages from the cabinet.
“She said she had to leave for a while.” Nichole rolled her sleeves up with clumsy bandaged fingers. “What can I do?”
Adam hesitated. “You shouldn’t be here. I told you-”
“Stop giving orders. This woman looks too near death to say anything. I may not be able to help much, but I appear to be all you have. When we hear the others, I’ll disappear. You seem to forget I can melt into nothing and vanish like smoke.”
“But your hands?”
“They’re better. I can stand a little discomfort if help’s needed.” Nichole looked down at the woman. “What happened to her?”
“The owner of the saloon accused her of stealing whiskey and slapped her around last night. When he found out she was planning to come to me, I guess he thought it would look bad for his reputation. So he beat her into silence.” Adam moved a scarf away from her face. “You wouldn’t know it now, but she’s a pretty girl, probably not out of her teens.”
Nichole touched the woman’s bleeding hand with her bandaged one. “Tell me what to do.”
Adam pulled off his coat. “Talk to her, keep her calm. If you have to, hold her down. Her left leg’s broken in two places, maybe more, and there are several cuts that need stitching. I don’t know if there are any injuries inside her or not. Her name’s Dancing.”
As Adam began examining the cuts and mentally ranking them in order of need, Nichole leaned beside Dancing and, in a soft, Southern voice, began to speak. “You’re going to be fine, Dancing. This here is the best doc in Texas. He’ll have that leg set and you back twirling across the dance floor in two shakes of a possum’s tail.”
Adam listened as Nichole whispered. He felt Dancing jerk when he set the leg, but she held on to Nichole’s arm without crying out. The nun returned and took up the job of keeping anyone, mainly Bergette, from bothering the doctor while he was working.
By the time they finished, it was long past dinner and the new arrivals to their household had turned in for the night. Adam and Nichole ate dinner in the examining room while watching Dancing sleep.
“Thanks for your help,” he finally broke the silence. “I seem to be saying that every time I see you.”
“I did it for her. No one should be beaten like that. She’s like a wounded animal, too frightened to let out a cry.”
He didn’t miss the fire in her eyes as she added, “Someone should do something about that man.”
“Agreed. But with men getting shot in gunfights and the stage being attacked, I doubt the deputy will take time for a barmaid. Some folks consider beatings as an occupational hazard of such women.”
“You mean no one will do anything?”
“He could have killed Dancing and no one would do anything, Nick.” He moved his chair closer and shoved his plate away. “You’ve put me off twice this afternoon. It’s time to take a look at those hands now.”
Nichole started to pull away, but decided to give in. In truth, her hands were throbbing.
Adam doctored them with the same care he always showed. “You’ve opened a few of the blisters, but you’re healing nicely.” He wrapped each finger slowly. “Tomorrow I don’t want you doing anything. We’ll unwrap them and
