A Headstrong Woman (7 page)

“You,” the man waved his gun in Jonathon’s direction, “loose them horses and be quick about it.”

Jonathon moved to obey and searched the surrounding area for cover; he had a real bad feeling about this. The men had chosen a good place for their ambush and a good day too. There was no nearby cover and almost no traffic thanks to the weather.

“What’s takin’ so long?” the man demanded.

Jonathon loosened the last trace and led both horses toward the man. The middle rider took the horses leads and circled back to his friends.

“Please take the horses or whatever you want; just don’t hurt me or my friend here. I have a wife and a child to care for…” Elijah’s sentence was cut short, the gun sounded only moments before he jerked and crumpled to the ground.

Jonathon started at the sound; a second shot came almost immediately and he felt pain rip through his arm. Knowing he wasn’t mortally wounded, he made a show of landing face down on the ground anyway.

“Should we make sure they’re dead?” one of the men asked.

Jonathon held his breath and prayed they would leave.

“Naw, they’re dead; I never miss. Let’s get outta here before those shots bring someone lookin’,” the leader instructed.

Jonathon heard the riders moving away but waited to move until he could no longer hear them. He scrambled to his friend’s side and rolled him over to find a pool of blood already staining the ground and blood running from the corner of Elijah’s mouth. Jonathon glanced down at Elijah’s shirt to find a growing bloodstain in the general area of the man’s heart. Elijah was breathing hard and his eyes were slightly glazed.

“We need to get you to the doctor,” Jonathon prepared to lift his friend.

Elijah grabbed Jonathon’s coat with a bloody hand.

“Listen, Jonathon, I’m not going to make it. Promise me…” Elijah gasped for a breath, “Promise me that you’ll look out for Alexandria. She’s so young and… tell her I’m sorry I hurt her that I did come to love her. Tell her I heard her crying that first night…that…”

“Save your energy, you’re going to make it!” Jonathon insisted.

“Promise me?” Elijah demanded with surprising force.

“I promise,” Jonathon agreed, “come on, we’re wasting time,” Jonathon lifted the man onto his shoulder. The action sent pain through his injured arm; he gritted his teeth and started walking toward town.

He had only made a few feet when a wagon approached. He waved his free arm frantically. The wagon came to a stop beside him. He immediately recognized the man and his son from church.

“What happened?” the man demanded.

“We were robbed,” Jonathon explained as he gently laid Elijah onto the wagon bed. It was too late; Elijah was gone.

***

Alexandria glanced out into the deepening shadows of evening and wondered where her husband was. He should have been home hours ago. When the two team horses had shown up with no wagon she had sent two of the men looking but they hadn’t returned yet either. She heard a wagon coming down the lane and hurried onto the porch. She watched as first one wagon and then another topped the ridge. She couldn’t identify her husband as the driver of either.

A lone rider was coming down the lane fast. She walked out the door and to the edge of the porch and wrapped her arms around herself to fend off the cold. She recognized Jonathon as he drew closer and felt her stomach further knot; where was her husband?

“Where’s Eli?” Alexandria demanded as Jonathon dismounted and climbed the porch steps. Her eyes fell to his blood stained coat and she felt certain she would vomit.

Jonathon grimaced as he watched Alexandria pale and knew he could nothing to dispel her fear. After a moment’s hesitation he decided to be direct and to dispense with formality.

“He was shot, Alexandria, by robbers; I’m afraid he was gone before we ever made it to town. He’s at the undertaker’s now.”

“No!” Alexandria jerked as though she was the one who had been shot. “No! We were just starting…no,” Alexandria argued; a million thoughts were buzzing through her head at once. Her head was swimming, her ears roaring. She couldn’t breathe.

Jonathon watched as Alexandria began to crumple and stepped forward to swing her into his arms. He entered the house and watched Millie come to the door of the kitchen. Her eyes widened as they passed before she quickly followed.

“What’s happened?” the woman demanded.

“She fainted. Elijah’s dead, Millie,” Jonathon laid Alexandria on the settee and turned to see the house keeper easing into a chair. He was glad; his arm was already hurting and he wasn’t sure he could handle her ample frame.

“Poor, Alexandria, she’s so young to be a widow and after all they had gone through,” the woman pulled a handkerchief from her pocket to wipe away her tears.

Alexandria woke to find Jonathon and Millie leaning over her with identical grim expressions. Her eyes fell to Jonathon’s bloody shirt and she shuddered. She was a widow, a widow before she had ever truly become a wife. She sat up and pushed aside any thoughts of pity for herself. The most immediate feeling was one of guilt. Guilt for having turned her husband away and knowing she could never right it now. Alexandria got to her feet and turned to Millie.

“Would you take Lilly to her room and keep an eye on her please? I need to make some arrangements and see to some things. I’ll speak with her later,” Alexandria requested, there was nothing to be done but move forward.

“Of course,” Millie nodded.

“Thank you. Mr. Stewart, would you follow me to the office please?” she requested. Elijah’s parents would need to be notified, Rusty could do that; he had come to know them well in his years with Elijah. She would have him sent to town to make the call. Her parents needed to know and the pastor…Alexandria penned several notes and gave Jonathon directions on who was to deliver which and to where.

A few minutes later, Jonathon returned to the house to find Alexandria standing in the hallway looking lost.

“Mrs. Morris; is there anything I can do?” Jonathon offered. Alexandria looked at him, blinked, and then seemed to shake her head to clear it.

“I’m not sure,” she admitted. Her gaze fell to his arm and she frowned. “Mr. Stewart, were you hurt?” Alexandria stepped closer; her hand came up to stop just short of touching the fresh blood that had seeped through his coat.

“I’m fine,” he assured her.

“Fine? You’re bleeding! Come on,” this time Alexandria grabbed his uninjured arm and tugged him toward the kitchen.

“Take off your coat and have a seat,” she indicated a chair.

Jonathon obeyed her orders and was seated by the time she lifted a basket off the shelf.

Alexandria surveyed his arm. His shirt was ripped and his arm was definitely bleeding; lifting her when she had gone and fainted like a ninny had likely started it again. Figuring it was ruined anyway; she ripped his shirt sleeve and surveyed his arm.

“If you call this fine I hate to think what you consider a serious injury to be. Brace yourself; this will burn,” she warned as she began cleaning the rather serious flesh wound.

Jonathon sucked in a sharp breath when she doused the wound with lurid yellow liquid and braced himself. He watched her closely as she worked on his arm. She never flinched, not even when her ministrations brought fresh blood pouring down his arm.

“You were shot too?” she asked, though the answer was rather obvious.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“You went to town with the body?” she paused to meet his gaze.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“So why didn’t you see the doctor when he came to pronounce…” she stopped and swallowed hard.

“I was so numb at that point and I was already covered in blood…sorry I shouldn’t…”

“Don’t apologize, Mr. Stewart, I assume you tried aiding my husband, which is why you were such a mess too.”

“Yes, Ma’am, and I honestly wasn’t thinking about my arm at the time. I was half way back here before the pain returned.”

“Thank you; for helping my husband and for catching me when I fainted. I have never fainted in my life.”

“Didn’t figure you had.”

Alexandria blinked at him in surprise.

“You don’t strike me as the weak type.”

“Thank you. I’ve managed to bandage you up but I would still like for the doctor look at this.”

“I’ll have him do that. Thank you, Ma’am. I think I’m going to go get a fresh shirt. If I can help any, you let me know,” Jonathon stood and claimed his coat.

“Leave that; I’ll see what I can do with it,” Alexandria reached for his coat.

Jonathon nodded and handed it to her.

Jonathon left the house and Alexandria started his coat soaking a tub before moving to her room to change. She looked down at her pretty blue skirt and crisp white shirt regretfully. By the time she had finished changing, tears were coursing down her cheeks. As she studied herself in the mirror she only felt worse. She had wronged her husband and could never right and even worse, now she was feeling sorry for herself because she had to wear black; she was a bad person. A tap sounded on her door a moment before her mother entered.

“Sweetheart, I’m so sorry,” her mom said as she hugged her.

“I’m a bad person,” Alexandria declared.

“No, you’re not,” her mother argued.

“Yes, I am. Just before you came in I was feeling sorry for myself because I have to wear black and I look dead and I turned my husband from my room and…”

“Slow down. Why don’t you start from the beginning?” her mother suggested.

Alexandria backed up and started from the beginning of her miserable marriage right up to the news of her husband’s death.

“You’re not a bad person at all,” her mother assured her. “Why didn’t you tell us things were so bad?”

“What could you have done? I was so determined to marry him.” Alexandria trained her gaze on the handkerchief in her hand.

“We could have been there for you.”

“Thanks, Mom, but it was between us.”

“I’m sorry, Sweetheart.”

“I need to tell Lilly; I haven’t yet,” Alexandria abruptly stood and moved toward the door.

By the time they had told Lilly and consoled the child, Alexandria felt like a shell. The child had finally cried herself to sleep and Alexandria felt it was best to leave her there.

“I need to take Elijah’s best suit of clothes to town…”

“Millie gathered them and Russ took them; you don’t need to worry about that.”

“Thank you, Mama. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll join you in a moment,” Alexandria indicated with a gesture in that direction that she was going to make use of the bathroom.

“Of course, Sweetheart.”

Carolyn made her way down the stairs and Alexandria entered the bathroom and locked the door behind her. She leaned against the door and let her tears fall. Her emotions were all jumbled. It hurt to lose Elijah even if they hadn’t been deeply in love. She also dreaded the horrible mourning period ahead of her. Guilt swirled around with a heavy dose of panic. What would she do now? Several minutes later Alexandria pushed off the door and wet a cloth to press it to her eyes. After splashing her face and patting it dry, she looked herself in the mirror and squared her shoulders.

“You will get through this and you will hold it together while you do it,” she ordered herself.

She let herself out of the bathroom and moved down the stairs and toward the parlor where her family had gathered. She stopped in the doorway and surveyed the room.

Her mother and Millie were seated side by side on the settee; they were likely making plans. Her father, brother, and Mr. Stewart stood in a small knot and were seemingly deep in discussion. Anna seemed to hover between the group of men and the women, uncertain whether to cast herself into the group with her latest crush or join the women where she belonged.

Alexandria hesitated; she dreaded entering the room. She preferred to stand here on the edge of things rather than being thrust into the middle of them. Mr. Stewart glanced up and spotted her. His gaze held so much understanding that it nearly undid her hard won resolve. She dropped her gaze and blinked rapidly. Unlike Mr. Stewart and his wife, she and Elijah had not shared a loving marriage. The thought only made her feel worse.

“There you are, come have a seat, dear,” her mother invited as she stood and prepared to fuss over her.

Alexandria seated herself obediently. Anna came to sit beside her and hugged her tight for a moment.

“I’m so sorry, Lexie,” Anna offered. A light knock at the door saved Alexandria from answering. Carolyn quickly stood and emitted Russ, who had just returned from town.

“Mr. Reid, from the undertaker’s, said they would bring the body just as soon as they finished. He had already completed a lot by the time I arrived; it shouldn’t be long,” the man’s voice carried on the heavy, quiet air.

“Thank you, Mr. Morgan. There is coffee on the stove if you would like to help yourself to some,” Carolyn offered.

“Thank you, Ma’am.”

Carolyn returned to the room and addressed them all at once. “It won’t be long now.”