Between Two Worlds (15 page)

He penetrated her with a steely gaze. “You needed me. I felt you.
Right here,” he said, patting his chest where his heart beat.

She cocked her head and questioned him with her eyes, but the
question remained unanswered.

He allowed a wistful smile to tug at the corners of his mouth. It
wouldn’t hurt to keep her guessing. “Walk on, girl.” He whistled and sent Lady
Godiva trotting down the street, hopefully leaving Delaney to wonder how she’d
ever be able to live without him.

~ * ~

“Aha! I’ve finally caught you,” Delaney said, rising from the
upside-down wooden crate she’d been sitting on for over an hour. She’d been
camped at the back door of Donovan’s Café and addressed the surprised little
man with a curt nod.

“Good afternoon, Miss Marshall.” He tipped his cap to her.

She smoothed down her skirt. “Do you have a moment to talk, Mr.
McKinney?”

“Not really. I need to be gettin’ inside. It’s lunchtime, ye
know.” He blinked several times, and she noticed his words were slurred. She sniffed
the air in front of him. Donovan’s breath stank of liquor. She peered closer
and saw the whites of his eyes were bloodshot. The man was drunk at two in the afternoon!
“The lunch crowd has come and gone, with no help from you,” she told him
brusquely. “You should give that nice waitress of yours a big, fat raise. She
practically runs this place on her own, from the looks of it.” Delaney rolled
her eyes and shook her head with disgust.

Donovan stroked his sideburns with thoughtfulness. “’Tis a good
idea. I think I’ll do that.” For all his stubbornness, he was an amiable man.
He excused himself and attempted to pass by her.

Delaney put her hand on his chest. “Not so fast, Donovan. I’ve got
some questions, and you’re the only one who can answer them. I’ve been waiting
an hour to get you alone. You’re not escaping me that easy.”

He clenched his jaw, and a muscle ticked alongside it. “I already
told ye all I know about me long-dead ancestor, Samuel McKinney. And I
don’t
know anything about time travel. Now please, I need to find a pill for me achin’
head. I’m hung over, in case ye hadn’t noticed.”

Delaney showed him no mercy. “Your head can wait.” She blocked the
back door by flinging herself across it with her arms stretched out wide.

Donovan rolled his red-rimmed eyes toward Heaven and gritted his
teeth. “I swear, Miss Marshall. You’d drive a naked man to climb a barbed wire
fence. I’ve not got time for games of this sort.”

That did it. “This isn’t a game!” she cried. “This is my life!”
Frustration seeped out of her bones as she lowered her arms to her sides. “I
just want to go home where I belong. I need to know where that bridge is and
how Sam McKinney is involved. You’re his relative. You must know more than you’re
saying. Why won’t you tell me what you know about Sam and the reason I’m here
in 1888?”

A sympathetic grin tilted one side of Donovan’s mouth. He patted
her arm as a father would. “Distant,” he answered, sidestepping her question.
“I’m Sam McKinney’s
distant
kin.” He chuckled softly. “I’m sorry fer the
confusion yer feelin’, Delaney. But I assure ye, it won’t be long before ye understand
everything. It’s fer the best this way. You’ll see.” Donovan hitched up his
pants and ended with the cryptic message, “’Tis yer destiny, lass.”

She quizzed him with a narrowing of her eyes. “Sam said something
very similar to me before I crossed the bridge. What on earth are you two
talking about?”

Donovan ignored the reference to his ancestor again. “Patience is
a virtue, dear. You’ll learn the secret soon enough.”

In agitation she demanded, “Secret? What secret?”

Before he could respond, they were both startled by a couple of
boys tossing a firecracker into the alley. It exploded several feet from where
they stood. Delaney screamed and then fired an angry look toward the juvenile delinquents.
The boys scampered down the alley and into the street, laughing like hyenas. When
she turned, Donovan had vanished. She grasped the door handle and shook it
hard, but it was locked tight.

“Crap!” She marched stiffly down the alley mumbling under her
breath. “Why did he tell me to be patient? What secret was he rambling about?
Why is he being so mysterious? I’ll learn
what
soon enough?” Her head
was bent, and she was lost in deep thought.

So lost that she practically smacked into a man who was blocking
the path. Shocked out of her reverie, she gasped, and her gaze flew up. A long
shadow played across the large man’s features. Nevertheless, she knew who he was.
She backed up a few steps.

“We meet again,” Warren Hooper said. He stepped out of the shadow,
and his mouth widened into a wicked, yellow-toothed grin. With the sunlight streaming
onto his face, she got a good look at the damage Gabriel had done to his nose
the day before.

“Don’t come near me,” she warned. “I’ll scream.”

“Go ahead. I like my women to scream.”

She spun to run the other way, but before she could escape, he
lumbered toward her and pressed a dirty, sweaty hand over her mouth. He roughly
pushed her against the building and leaned heavily onto her. She felt him
lifting her dress. Snorting like a pig, he jammed his hand underneath. His
fingernails dug into the fleshy meat of her thigh. Delaney kicked his ankle,
which caused him to yelp, but only provoked him to grind into her harder.
Feeling sick to her stomach by his erection pressing on her leg, she squirmed
to break free of him. His breathing was labored, and his mouth stank like sour
apples. As she struggled, he clawed at her cotton drawers.

“Don’t fight it,” he panted.

She had to do something before she was completely overpowered. She
was glad Meredith had convinced her to take that self-defense class with her
six months earlier, because the training—and her survival instincts—kicked in. She
opened her mouth and licked his palm with her tongue. That strange move caught
him off guard for a second—just long enough for her to clamp her teeth onto his
finger, bite down, and hold. Delaney wagged her head to and fro and growled
like a dog.

Hooper howled and threw his head back, and she felt the hand that
had been yanking at her underwear let go. Raising her right leg, she kneed him
in the groin. He wailed again and grabbed his crotch. She let go of his finger
and made a dash for it, but her legs got tangled in her long dress. Hooper
twirled and grabbed her wrist. Crushing pain shot up her arm. Despite the pain,
she hiked up her dress and stomped on his shin with the heel of her boot. Then
she pushed both her thumbs into his eyeballs.

The strangled groan that gurgled from his throat sounded like that
of a dying animal. He pitched forward onto his face in the dirt, moaning and
covering his eyes with his hands.

Delaney sprinted down the alley and didn’t stop running until
she’d turned the corner and flung open the door to Gabriel’s medical clinic.

Twelve

“I’m going after that filthy bastard.” Gabriel slammed his fist
against the parlor wall. The vein in his forehead bulged, and his eyes blazed.

“Shhh, Frank’s family will hear you,” Delaney whispered. She
glanced across the room to where Alma and the kids were preparing Frank for the
trip home. Alma politely kept her gaze glued to her husband. Delaney placed her
hand on Gabriel’s arm. “Please calm down. I don’t want you to get involved. I
won’t stop you if you insist on going to the sheriff, but I wish you wouldn’t.
I just want to forget it happened. I’m okay. Just shook up a bit.” She didn’t
plan on being there long enough to deal with Hooper again, but didn’t want to
mention that to Gabriel.

He took a couple of deep breaths. “If you’re sure. I hate for him
to get away with attacking you.”

“It’d be my word against his. Besides, I don’t think he’ll try
anything again. I may have blinded him.” She described how she’d been able to
escape.

“Serves him right,” Gabriel said, gritting his teeth. “I’d like to
kick his sorry hide from here to Sunday breakfast. Blind or not.”

Delaney smiled, despite the ordeal she’d just gone through. This
was the second time she’d seen Gabriel riled up. She liked this side of him. It
turned her on to know he was ready and willing to defend her honor by beating
the crap out of another guy. Still, she wanted him to know she was an
independent woman and didn’t need a man to fight her battles. “I told you I
could take care of myself,” she said.

He rubbed his knuckles like he was itching to punch someone. “Are
you sure you’re all right?”

“Yeah.” She leaned into his shoulder and then broke away when Alma
stepped forward.

“Pardon the interruption, Dr. Whitman. We’d better be on our way
if we’re to make it home before dark.”

Gabriel’s concoctions had appeared to work on the snakebite. Even though
he’d suggested a precautionary overnight stay, Frank was awake and demanding
they head back to their farm. His arms were draped over Frank, Jr. and the younger
boy’s shoulders. The three of them stumbled to the door. The two girls trailed
behind with the smallest one carrying her mama’s sunbonnet.

“Excuse me a minute, Delaney,” Gabriel said, walking toward the
family. “Let me help your pa out to the wagon, son,” he told the younger boy.
The child scooted out from under his father’s bulk and Gabriel took his place.
Delaney pushed open the front door and held it as the family passed through.

“Take care,” she told Alma. She watched from the doorframe as
Gabriel and Frankie, Jr. carefully deposited Frank, Sr. into the back of the
buckboard wagon. The kids all climbed in and said their goodbyes as Alma
reached into the wagon and lifted a jar from off the floor. She turned and offered
it to Gabriel.

“Thank you, doctor. I’m mighty grateful for what you done for
Frank.” She handed him the jar of fruit. He accepted it graciously and then
unhitched the horses and gave her a hand into the driver’s seat. Alma pulled
the bonnet onto her head and tied the strings securely under her chin. She accepted
the reins from him and hollered, “Yaw!”

As the wagon rumbled down the road, Frank, Sr. raised his hand in
a weary wave. Gabriel waved and returned to Delaney’s side.

“They paid you in fruit, not money?” she asked, incredulous.

“This isn’t just fruit,” he answered, tapping the Mason jar with
his finger. “These are Alma’s pickled peaches. She’s won the blue ribbon at the
fair for them the past three years, I’ve been told.”

Delaney smiled, unbelieving. “I guess it’s an even trade then. A
jar of peaches for saving a man’s life.”

He grinned back. “You haven’t tasted these peaches.” Switching the
topic casually, he said, “So, you didn’t get many answers out of Donovan, I
take it.”

Delaney squared her jaw. “No, I didn’t. I suppose there’s nothing
for me to do but wait it out a little longer. He said I’m going to find out
soon enough. Whatever
that
means. And he mentioned a secret.” She
frowned. “I don’t like secrets.”

“Interesting.” Gabriel tipped up her chin with his finger. It was
an intimate gesture, but one he apparently felt comfortable doing since this
was the second time. “Don’t be glum. I’m sure you’ll figure it all out when the
time is right. In the meantime, why not enjoy yourself while you’re here? We
have a lot to offer.”

“What’d you have in mind?”

He finally removed his finger from her chin. “I was thinking about
a picnic. Tomorrow. Do you like picnics?”

Her eyes flickered with excitement. “Of course! Who doesn’t love a
picnic? It’s been such a long time since I did something fun like that.”

“I had a feeling that was the case. It’ll do you good, especially
after what you just went through. Leave all the details to me. Would eleven
o’clock be all right for me to come by and get you?”

“That’ll be great. I’m already looking forward to it.”

“Me too.”

Their eyes fixed on each other. She liked the way he’d tipped her
chin up that way. She was starting to get used to his warm touch, though she
knew her time with him was fleeting.

“Delaney…” He reached for her hand.

She let him take it and stroke it before she thought better of it.
She’d promised herself she wouldn’t get attached to him. It was imperative to
keep her promise. As she gently slipped out of his grasp, a myriad of thoughts tumbled
around in her head.
I’ll be going home
soon—back to my real life. I
should not get involved. It
wouldn’t be fair to either of us. But he’s
so handsome and
charming, and brave and sexy. There’s no denying we’re
attracted to one another. But we live in two different worlds—literally.
Arrrgh!

She picked up her skirt. “I guess you should be returning to work,
so I’ll be on my way.”

“You don’t have to leave so soon. As you can see, I don’t have any
patients right now. Stay. We can talk some more.”

Her body quivered underneath her clothing. She didn’t want to
leave, but there was no point in hanging around. The more time she spent with
Gabriel, the more she enjoyed his company. The longer she gazed into those
hazel eyes and stared at that luscious mouth, the more she wanted to kiss him.
Getting close would only bring hurt and disappointment—for both of them—when
she left. She shook her head. “I’m sure you have some research or reading to
do. I’ve got places to go anyway.” She tried to sound convincing and prayed he
didn’t see through her façade. He knew she didn’t have anything to do except
chase down Donovan.