Dorothy Garlock (16 page)

“Pearl, wait!” Hallie exclaimed. As much as Mrs. Morgan’s harsh words, angry glares, and all-around disdain had grated on her nerves, Hallie knew that she could never turn her back on someone in need. “We can’t just leave her here!”

“You heard it straight from the horse’s mouth,” Pearl said with a frown. “No matter how bad she’s hurt, no matter how long she’d have to lay there, she don’t want our help.”

“Just because she doesn’t
want
it, doesn’t mean that she doesn’t
need
it.”

“Ain’t much difference.”

Hallie turned and looked over her shoulder to where Mrs. Morgan lay in pain. The older woman was struggling, trying to raise her body onto her side, but the agony was too great. She gasped air in thick gulps as a lone tear slid down one wrinkled cheek.

“We have to get help,” Hallie said simply.

For a brief moment, Hallie thought that Pearl wanted to argue the point but finally, she blurted, “Oh, what the hell! I suppose you’re right and we should help the old witch. But if she ain’t gonna let us so much as touch her, what in the hell do you think we can do?”

What could they do?

Even if they were to fly in the face of Mrs. Morgan’s shouts and curses and attempt to move the woman against her will, odds were that she would fight them.

For the first time since she and Pearl had burst from Mary’s room into the wreckage of the kitchen, Hallie realized that Abe had not followed them. Even after hearing the crash and his mother’s scream of pain, he had still chosen to remain by Mary’s side. While he would have had the strength to move his mother, Hallie knew with certainty that no amount of prying would get him to leave the woman he firmly believed was his wife. The answer to the problem was obvious.

Find Eli and send someone for the doctor!

“She won’t let us help her, but that doesn’t mean she won’t allow someone else,” Hallie explained. “I’ll find Eli and he can decide what to do.”

“And in the meantime I get to watch the mean old hen.”

“Can you handle it?”

Pearl chuckled. “Somehow I don’t think the old biddy is in any condition to give me any guff!”

Bursting out onto the long porch, Hallie was met by a thick wall of heat. The yellow summer sun hung high in the blue sky, relentlessly blazing down on the earth below. In the face of such heat, it was hard for Hallie to believe that there had been a powerful storm only a few days earlier.

With one hand shading her eyes, she looked out over the ranch grounds for any sign of Eli or Hank. She looked out across the busy cattle pens, the weathered barn in which she and Pearl slept, and the other outlying buildings that were dotted about, yet she could see no sign of either man. She thought of shouting out, of yelling Eli’s name, but she could barely hear herself think over the bawling cattle, barking dogs, and other sounds. No, if she were going to get Eli to help his mother, she would have to search for him.

Making her way down the steps, Hallie ran over the hard-packed ground, the heat already pressing down on her as if it were a blanket, smothering her and forcing her to breathe in gasps. She felt instantly wet with sweat, her blouse clinging tightly to her skin.

Rounding a bend between two cattle pens, Hallie came across a group of men struggling with a partially open gate. Two of the ranch hands were pushing with all of the strength they could muster on the loose end, while another pair leaned against the fence posts frantically waving their hats and whistling shrilly. Inside the pen, an enormous black bull reared its thick neck and horns skyward, bellowing a guttural sound and scratching the ground with one monstrous hoof. The sheer power and ferocity of the animal transfixed Hallie, freezing her in her tracks and forcing her to stare in wonder.

“Miss Hallie!” A man’s voice cut through her daze.

Turning, she immediately recognized the ranch hand who had shouted to her. Buck was a man Eli had introduced to her only the day before. Tall as a cornstalk with sandy blond hair and a gentle face, he’d been full of laughter and smiles when they had first met. Now his face was a mask of concern.

“You best get on out of here, Miss Hallie!” he warned.

“But, I—” Before she could say another word, the humongous bull roared and charged the fence, its thick horns crashing into the wood and shaking the entire frame. The two ranch hands who had been leaning against the boards scattered like ants shaken off a leaf by a gust of wind.

“Goddamn son of a bitch!”

“Hurry up and get that damn gate shut!”

“You can’t stay around here, Miss Hallie,” Buck persisted among the other men’s shouts.

“But I need to find Eli,” she finally managed to say. “It’s urgent.”

Briefly, she thought about telling Buck what had happened to Mrs. Morgan, to try to enlist his help in helping her, but she held her tongue. Even if Buck weren’t busy with the raging animal, she wondered if the older woman would be willing to even accept his help.
No, I need Eli.

“Do you know where I can find him?” she implored.

“He and Hank are in the barn. You best look there.”

“Thank you!” she shouted, running away before the last word was even out of her mouth.

With every step, the heat of the day seemed to become greater. The palms of her hands grew slick with sweat and she had to struggle to maintain a hold on her skirt as she ran. Breathing hard, she approached the barn. She couldn’t tell if it were a mirage caused by the heat, but by the way that the building shimmered, it seemed as if the barn were getting farther away.

Finally, Hallie arrived at the side of the barn, and ran around to the front and in through the large double doors. After the glaringly bright summer afternoon, it took her a moment for her eyes to adjust to the murky interior.

Once she could see clearly, she spotted Eli, Hank, and another man bent over a calf that lay on the ground. The two Morgan men held the animal still as the other man applied a glowing hot iron to cauterize a cut in the calf’s shoulder. The iron was held for only a few scant seconds but the barn was soon filled with the cow’s plaintive cries. When the hot metal was removed, the calf jumped to its feet.

“There you go, little lady,” Eli said as he patted the side of the calf’s head.

Hank added, “You’ll be right as rain in a few days.”

“Easy for you to say.” His nephew chuckled. “You weren’t the one got burned.”

“Let’s get you on back to your mama,” Eli said, preparing to lead the young animal out to the pens. He looked up and saw Hallie standing in the open barn doors, her face covered in sweat as she gasped for air. Letting go of the calf, Eli hurried over to her. He held her firmly in his grip for fear that she would collapse.

“Hallie!” he said urgently. “What on earth’s the matter?”

“At . . . at the house . . . ,” she gasped.

“Has something happened to Mary?” he asked.

“No . . . no! It’s . . . your mother!”

Even inside the gloomy barn, she could see Eli’s face blanch, his eyes narrow and his jaw growing firm. Even his grip on her shaking arms seemed to tighten. “My mother?”

“Somethin’ happened to Adele?” Hank hurried over to join them.

“She . . . she was up . . . on a . . . chair when . . . when she fell,” Hallie explained, the words catching drily in her throat. “We heard . . . her scream out . . . and came . . . came running.”

“Is she badly hurt?”

“I . . . I think so, but . . . I don’t know,” Hallie admitted to him. “We tried to get her . . . off the floor but . . . she wouldn’t let us touch her.”

“That woman is stubborn as a mule!” Hank declared.

“Is she still on the floor?” Eli asked, ignoring his uncle’s remark.

“Yes!”

Before the sound of her voice faded, Eli rushed out of the building and into the hot summer sun, his destination the ranch house, Hank only half a step behind. Drawing a deep breath, Hallie lifted her skirt and ran after them.

Eli and Hank bent low over Mrs. Morgan’s body, concern and consternation written on their faces. They had taken a door from its hinges and laid it beside her on the floor; they intended to use it as a makeshift stretcher to move her. Adele lay where she was when Hallie left her.

“I told you not to bother! I don’t need your help!” she protested.

“Now, sister,” Hank soothed, “this ain’t no time for stubbornness.”

“I said not to bother and I meant it!”

“I don’t give a good goddamn,” Eli barked, his patience worn thin by his mother’s objections. “I’m not having the doc out here to visit and find you lying on the kitchen floor! We need to get you to bed and that’s the end of it!”

“Don’t you dare fetch Doctor Holland! It’s not as bad as that!”

“Argue all you want,” Hank said with a wink, “but I don’t think the boy’s gonna listen.”

“Damn right, I’m not.”

As Hallie watched the scene unfold before her, she felt relieved. While she and Pearl would have relented in the face of Mrs. Morgan’s sharp words and arguments, her son refused to wilt and instead simply did what was needed.

Pearl looked on from where she leaned against the doorframe leading down the hall, trying to hide the smile that threatened to spread across her face.

“When we lift her up, Hallie, slide the door underneath her,” Eli directed as he and his uncle positioned themselves around the fallen woman. Every time they moved, broken glass crunched beneath their boots.

“Let’s go,” Hank said and nodded.

“Don’t you go jarring me,” Mrs. Morgan protested, but before she could utter another word, Eli lifted her shoulders and Hank her knees. The only sounds she now seemed capable of making were cries of pain.

“Easy now!” Eli said firmly over his mother’s screams.

Once the woman was up off the floor, Hallie slid the door quickly beneath her so that when they lowered her, she came to rest on it instead of the floor.

“Weren’t nothin’ to it,” Hank exclaimed.

Even as Mrs. Morgan resumed her complaining, the two men each grabbed an end, hoisted the door up, and proceeded out of the kitchen and down the hall to her room. Through it all, the sound of her complaints bounced from wall to wall.

“Thank goodness that’s over,” Hallie said to Pearl.

“Over? What in tarnation makes you think it’s over?”

“But they were able to get her up and off the floor,” Hallie explained, her voice full of confusion at Pearl’s questions. “Now the doctor will come. Surely, her life’s not in danger now!”

“I ain’t worried about the old bat dyin’,” her friend said with a chuckle. “But now that she’s gonna be on the mend, she ain’t gonna be up and about like she’s used to. Someone’s gonna have to help her along . . . gonna have to tend to her every need.”

The truth of Pearl’s words struck Hallie and made her mute.
Someone
would have to take care of her, much as Mary was being cared for.
Someone would have to listen to her complaints morning, noon, and night.

It would be
Hallie and Pearl
.

Chapter Fifteen

“I
CAN’T BELIEVE
you expect me to eat such slop!” Adele shouted, her voice echoing around the small room. “Why, I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if the cattle turned their noses up at it!”

Hallie sighed softly to herself. As she lifted the dinner tray from where it lay across the older woman’s lap, she put her tongue between her teeth and gently pressed down, fearful that she might use it to defend herself. As her grandmother had once told her,
silence is golden
.

Several long hours had passed since Adele’s accident, several fewer from the time of the doctor’s visit. Dr. Holland had declared her unfit to move and consigned her to plenty of rest in her bed in the ranch house. Her mouth had never once quit complaining. Now, well after the setting of the summer sun, her vigor and ire remained aloft and blazing.

“If you’d been the cook for a wagon train bringing folks across the plains,” she complained, “they’d have just as sooner shot you than to try to choke that down!”

When the doctor had left for Bison City, Hallie had approached Eli and volunteered to be the one to care for Adele. It was a difficult decision to make, but she made it unflinchingly. She had many reasons for making such an offer: to repay the Morgans for their generosity in welcoming them into their home to care for Mary; to prevent the job from falling to Pearl, whose patience with the woman wouldn’t have lasted even two minutes; and, she had to admit to herself, she had done it for Eli. He had begun to inspire feelings in her she couldn’t quite name. In the face of Adele’s rabid tongue-lashings, she had begun to doubt the wisdom of her decision.

“What was all that ruckus I heard before you brought me that slop?” the older woman asked as she tried to raise herself in the bed, failing miserably and noticeably wincing. Despite the doctor’s proclamations about her health, she’d continued to insist that she was fine. “It sounded as if a herd of buffalo was loose in there!”

“I’m not familiar with the kitchen and made more noise than necessary finding what I needed,” Hallie explained, unable to maintain the silence she preferred in dealing with Mrs. Morgan. “I was just looking in the cabinets. I’m sorry if I was too noisy. Were you trying to sleep?”

“Sleep.” She snorted. “Sleep when I’m hurting like hellfire. You were nosing around in my kitchen as if you belonged there. I don’t want you rooting around in my things!”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Women who travel around from town to town are up to no good. Most of them are no more than whores, cheats, and thieves.”

Hallie bit her tongue to keep from saying things that she would regret later. But even in the face of Hallie’s self-imposed silence, the injured woman was more than happy to keep right on ranting.

“You and that other’n will probably steal everything in this house that ain’t nailed to the floor! Are you after Eli and
her
after Hank? I wouldn’t be surprised if the two of you don’t poison me to get me out of the way.”

Now she is accusing us of trying to kill her!
What next? Hallie’s blood pressure rose.
The very idea!
Mrs. Morgan had accused her of a lot of things, but this was the first time she had gone as far as to accuse her of attempting murder. She was just about to loosen her tongue and show the woman she could give as well as she got when a knock sounded on the door.