ELEVEN
THE NEXT FEW DAYS PASSED WITHOUT SLEEP FOR Karlee. She took care of the twins, doctored Daniel as best she could during the day and cleaned at night. Long after midnight, when all the work was done, she curled into the chair beside Daniel's bed and tried to rest a few hours before starting over.
On the second evening, Valerie passed by on her way home from her last delivery of bread. The girl stopped to talk and noticed Karlee was doing laundry by the firelight. Without a word, she began to help, cutting the chore in half.
After that Valerie was a constant and greatly appreciated guest. She'd drop off fresh baked goods each morning. Then she'd usually stop by to play with the girls for an hour while Karlee changed Daniel's bandages in the afternoon. Since Valerie said her grandfather had been Apache, Karlee trusted her with the secret of the man being held in the barn loft.
From that moment on, the young girl gave Wolf no peace. She wanted to see the savage. He finally conceded to allow her to take the boy water at noon, nothing more. She might hate the idea that he was tied up; but Wolf convinced her that if he were free, the boy would be dead within the hour. There were people in town who would shoot him on sight.
“I promise.” She jumped around the kitchen in delight. “Nothing more. But, I have to know you're not hurting him. I'll never sleep another second until I know.”
Wolf growled at Karlee. “The only reason I'm agreeing to this is because Adam and Wes are bound to be here tomorrow. If her mother knew I was letting Valerie near the savage, she'd slice me up and serve me between two pieces of fresh bread. But Adam and Wes will take him off my hands for good when they ride in. I've only had the kid a few days and I've already done a month's worth of worrying.”
“What harm can come?” Karlee reasoned. “He's tied up, and you're usually within shouting distance.”
While Wolf issued a final warning to Valerie, Karlee slipped into the parlor to check on Daniel.
It bothered her that he lay so still. She'd expected to have to fight to keep him resting quietly. But since the doctor bandaged his eyes, he didn't even respond most of the time when she checked on him. He swallowed a little water from time to time, but he wouldn't allow her to feed him and he made no effort to feed himself. She felt as if all his senses had been wrapped with the blind-fold.
Each time the doctor came by to rebandage his leg, Karlee watched silently from the shadows. The cut would leave a long scar across a leg that already bore the marks from a bullet he'd taken in the war. Wolf said Daniel had worked for over a year after the shooting until he could walk without a limp.
She knew Daniel had asked the doctor to do the bandaging because he didn't want her to see his scars. Though he was a full-grown man now, she suspected he must have been in his teens when he was injured and not far out of them when May left him with two daughters to raise.
No wonder the darkness seemed so complete around him. It wasn't as if he'd given up, but more like he'd made a stand in his midnight world. He was a proud man who resented his helplessness.
As she watched him from the parlor door the next dawn, she made up her mind to somehow break through the wall he'd built around his private hell.
“I brought you some coffee.” She knelt by the bed so that she could be closer to his level. “I didn't even burn it this time. Wolf says it's near drinkable.”
Daniel didn't respond.
“Would you like me to hold your head up and give you some?” She touched his shoulder. He turned his head away. It was going to be another day without communicating.
“Fine.” She sat the cup down beside him and began unwrapping his hand. Each day there was less blood on the bandages. The salve was working. Even the swelling had gone down.
“You don't have to talk to me,” she said as she worked. “You don't ever have to talk to me again for as long as you live, but you do have to see the twins. They've been asking about you every few minutes. I'll not go another day keeping them away from the parlor.”
She wasn't sure he was listening. It seemed he'd hidden deep into the caves of his mind and never planned to come out.
“I don't need your conversation. I'm used to being all by myself. I've gotten where I like it that way, so don't feel the need to be chatty with me around. Most folks just rattle on with nothing to say, anyway.”
Karlee bit her tongue realizing she was doing the same thing. But talking kept her from thinking about the feel of his hand beneath hers and wondering what it would be like to touch him when there were no wounds to treat. She couldn't help but wonder whether his caress would be gentle if he ever chose to touch her.
When she finished with the bandages, she hurried back to the kitchen to make the girls' breakfast, calling herself a fool for even thinking about something that would never happen.
The twins loved Valerie's warm fresh bread with butter and cinnamon piled on top. When they were both around her, there seemed a pleasant chaos that drew her full attention.
“After we eat.” Karlee laughed as they tried to help prepare the bread. “We'll go in and have a quiet-asa-mouse visit with your father.”
One twin looked interested in seeing her father while the other sprinkled more cinnamon in her hair than on the bread.
“We'll be quiet,” the first one promised. “We'll use our go-to-church voices.”
“If you do, I'll work on your dolls.”
Ten minutes later, the girls sat beside Daniel's bed playing with the scraps of material Karlee had cut for rag dolls. They asked about their father's bandaged eyes but didn't seem overly concerned. All they needed to know was that he was near.
One stood by his bed and kissed his blind-fold to make all the hurt better. When she moved away, he whispered, “Cinnamon.”
Karlee braided rag strips together in a bracelet of red and blue and tied it around the girl's wrist. Then she made another of yellow and green for her sister. Both loved their bracelets.
Karlee knew she now had a way of telling them apart.
They chattered and talked as she worked on the dolls. When they talked to one another, Karlee couldn't understand them clearly. It was as though they had their own language, secret from the world. Every few minutes, one would stand and pat her father, reassuring herself he was there.
Daniel didn't speak, but turned his head toward them, listening to their voices. His strong features never moved a fraction to smile, but she knew they brought him peace.
Near noon, Karlee collected the scraps and the half-completed dolls. “Say good-bye to your father. It's time for lunch. He needs to sleep a while.”
The twin with the red and blue bracelet stood and kissed Daniel while the other said good-bye.
To Karlee's surprise, he leaned into the golden curls of his daughter. “Good-bye, my little cinnamon angel,” he said.
All day, Karlee watched the two girls. Now that she knew them apart, she noticed how very different they were. The one with the smell of cinnamon in her hair was quieter, letting her sister take the lead every time. She was also the most loving in her manner.
The other twin, with the yellow and green bracelet, was far more questioning. Her words came faster and more clearly. As night fell and they ate their supper on the back porch with Valerie and Wolf, this twin asked one question after another about the stars. She said that when she grew up she wanted to be a star.
By the time she dressed them for bed, Karlee had began calling one Starlett and the other Cinnamon. Though they were asleep, she knew she'd never think of them as twin again. Even without the bracelets, she'd know which one was which. They were so different, she found it surprising she hadn't noticed.
When she tucked them in and went back downstairs, Wolf was sitting beside Daniel's bed. The huge, hairy man twisted his hat in his beefy hands as if determined to strangle the covering before it could get away.
“We've got to do something,” Wolf's gravel voice filled the hallway. “Gerilyn heard about the fire and wired the sheriff as to your and the twins' condition. Old Hank didn't know no better than to wire back the truth. Like a snake smelling spring, she's on her way.”
When Daniel didn't answer, Wolf added, “If Gerilyn sees you like this, she'll insist on taking the twins back to
