The Officer and the Southerner (Historical Western Romance) (Fort Gibson Officers Series, Book 2) (9 page)

Smiling, Colonel Lewis shook his head. “Do you have a good reason to need them?”

“Yes.”

Colonel Lewis lifted his eyebrows.

“She’s not feeling well. She’s sick and I thought it would be best if I tended her until she was better.” He forced a shrug. “This is a new place for her, after all.”

Colonel Lewis nodded once. “I can understand that, I suppose. Do you think she’ll be well enough tomorrow?”

“No,” Jack said quickly.

The colonel’s eyes narrowed on him. “Just how sick is she, boy?”

“She has a high fever.” He silently prayed that Colonel Lewis wouldn’t insist he take her to the medic to be bled, but it seemed safer than to tell him about the infection in her leg.

“
Perhaps Mrs. Lewis should look after her, then.”

“
Allison has been helping me,” Jack informed him.

“
I see.” Colonel Lewis crossed his arms. “All right. You may have two more days of reprieve. Then, you will report back to your post or take up residence in the stockade.”

“
Yes, sir.”

Jack watched his superior walk away. To some, Colonel Lewis’ order might seem heartless, but Jack knew better. Colonel Lewis always tried to be fair even if it meant bending the rules when nobody was looking or suspecting. Jack really had four days to spend with Ella because two days from then would be the routinely scheduled two-day reprieve that all men, save the cooks, who were on a rotating schedule, received.

A little more hopeful that the time granted him would be adequate, he went inside to tend to Ella.

~Chapter Thirteen~

Pain. Dull pain. Sharp pain. Burning pain. Crippling pain. It consumed her.

Fire was racing up Ella’s leg and getting worse by the second. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out, for she hadn’t the energy to scream.

This was not the first time she’d been jarred awake this way, though she desperately hoped it’d be the last.

She didn’t know exactly how many times she’d had fire—real or imagined—consume her leg, but there had always been someone in the room with her when it happened. And unfortunately, he never seemed interested in extinguishing the flames.

The man was with her this time, too.

Tall and handsome and undeniably strong...oh, and heavy, she thought, as he laid his lean body over her legs, blocking her view of the flames that were engulfing her leg.

He spoke to her then, but for as much as it hurt, she just couldn’t care. She hadn’t even an ounce of energy remaining to combat the torture he was exposing her to.

She just wished the fire would consume her completely...

***

Jack sighed, fell into a chair and dropped his face into his hands. It had been a sleepless three days and Ella was only getting worse.

The frequency and length of her time awake to drink or get more comfortable had diminished. So had her fight when he’d cleaned her wound. A wound that was getting larger with each passing day. It had been hard to tell at first, but it couldn’t be ignored now. It was growing deeper and spreading out. Each night he’d cut back the large black band of skin around the edge until it bled only to have to do it all over again the next night. What had started out the size of a silver dollar was now the size of a grapefruit and the putrid smell, which could only be detected at close proximity before now, filled the air.

It was time to clean her wound again, but he feared he lacked the strength. Not because she was so aggressive in fighting him, just the opposite. Why this morning, she barely seemed awake when he’d been pouring the alcohol on it. Then, she’d only woken up twice today for water. About two hours ago, he’d been so worried about her getting dehydrated that he’d held her mouth open a bit and dripped water inside.

He’d only gone out for more water when he knew nobody could catch him and ask about her, lest the Colonel find out how bad she was and demand Jack take her to the medic.

What would it matter now
, he thought as he squeezed his face with his hands. He’d been taking care of her for three days and nights now, and she was only worsening.

Through the gaps in his fingers, he stared at the grooves in the wooden floor.

“Jack?”

Jack sat up. “Come on in, Wes.”

Wes came inside holding another meal that Jack had no intention of eating. “How is she?”

“
Worse.” He took a deep breath and showed Wes her leg. “Can you help me clean it again?” Jack asked, handing Wes his last ounce of pride with those words.

Wes set Jack’s dinner down on the table and examined Ella’s leg. “Have you been using the alcohol?”

“Yes.” He picked up the bottle so Wes could see which kind and how much he’d used. “I’ve been cleaning it only twice a day. I didn’t want to do it too often and stop the healing.”

“
I don’t think I can do anything for her that you haven’t already done.” Wes’ tone was strange for it held no emotion. “She needs medicine. Medicine that we don’t have.”

But I know where to get it
. The thought startled him. He might know where to get it, but it didn’t mean that it was safe.

“
Jack?”

Jack started, then cleared his throat. “All right. I’ll keep cleaning it.”

“She’s had this fever a long time,” Wes commented, walking up by her face. He placed two of his fingers on her neck. “Her pulse is weak.”

“
I know,” Jack croaked. He knew all too well. At first, he thought he was imagining it, but this afternoon he could no longer deny how slow her pulse had become.

“
Have you—” Wes swallowed hard— “the medic might have something to help her...”

All the blood in Jack’s body rushed to his head until all he could do was stare straight at his friend, a red haze of fury clouding his sight. “How dare you even suggest such a thing?” he hissed.

“Jack, be reasonable,” he argued, his voice full of ragged emotion. “She’s very sick and she’s only getting worse. You can’t keep—” His voice broke off, but his meaning was certainly there.

“
There’s a way to save her,” Jack fired back, barely believing the words himself. “I just have to go see the Indians.”

Wes put his strong hands on Jack’s shoulders. “Jack, listen to me. You’re very tired. You haven’t slept in days and now you’re spouting some nonsense about going over to see the Indians.”

“It’s not nonsense.” Jack pushed Wes’ hands off of his shoulders. “Brian McGraw told me it was something he got from Dark Moon that cured him last spring.”

Wes sighed. “We can’t go over there.”

“No.
You
can’t go over there. I will go wherever I damn well please.”

Wes caught his arm. “I don’t know if McGraw is telling you the truth or not, but do you realize that you could be killed by one of your own men if you get spotted making your way there or back?”

“Not with Gray in the watchtower.”

“
You’ve been giving this a lot of thought, haven’t you?” Wes said, sobering.

No, he hadn’t, but now that he’d started talking about it, it all fit into place. He could do this. He could try this final thing to save her life. Then... No, he wouldn’t even think of it not working. It would. “Gray has watchtower duty tonight,” Jack started. “If I tell him that I’m going, he can be in the northwest tower.”

“So that ensures that you can travel away from our fort and back to it, but what about the land they can’t see, or worse, the Cherokee’s land?”

Jack shrugged. “It’s a chance I must take.”

“What’s a chance you must take?”

Jack whirled around to see the bluish-green eyes of Gray.

That was all right. He’d have to know part of their plan anyway, but the owner of the voice who’d asked the question didn’t: Colonel Lewis.

Wes and Jack exchanged looks and Gray and the colonel let themselves into Jack’s room, their eyes falling on a lifeless Ella.

Jack stiffened as they assessed her, nobody speaking.

Colonel Lewis was the first to speak, his voice raspy. “Is she?”

“No.” Jack winced at the roughness of his voice.

“
I didn’t realize her fever was so bad,” the older man said.

“
She has an infection,” Jack admitted. “It’s bad.”

Gray let out a low whistle when Jack gently lifted Ella’s leg to show the others the infection that had now eaten such a large area of the side of her calf.

“How did she get that?” Gray asked, not a hint of condemnation or humor in his voice.

“
Spider bite.”

Colonel Lewis grimaced. “I’ve seen that kind only once before. Nothing heals it.”

“She hasn’t succumbed yet,” Jack pointed out.

“
And do you have some sort of plan?” Gray asked.

“
Yes.” Jack said, the same time Wes shook his head and said, “No.”

“
Well, which is it?” the colonel asked. His eyes went back and forth from Jack to Wes. “You say yes, and you say no.”

Jack cleared his throat. “I do have a plan, but...”

“But?”

“
I need to do my plan alone.”

“
I see,” Colonel Lewis said slowly. “And just what is this plan?”

The room went silent. Deathly so. Did Colonel Lewis know that he’d been talking about sneaking off when the sun set to go get a serum from Dark Moon?

“Is it something foolish?” Colonel Lewis asked.

“
This is Jack we’re talking about,” Gray said. “Of course it’s foolish. If he’d thought half a step ahead—”

Jack lunged forward, grabbed Gray’s lapels and slammed him against the far wall with enough force to rattle the room. “Shut the hell up, or I’ll shut you up!”

Something flickered in Gray’s eyes and he shoved Jack off with enough force that Jack nearly lost his balance. “You shouldn’t have brought her here.”

Jack’s blood pounded in his veins. “Get out!”

“No.” Gray widened his stance and Jack lunged at him again; but Gray was ready this time and threw a punch.

Jack deflected the blow and took a swing at Gray, narrowly missing.

Gray’s face went red and his eyes narrowed on Jack from where he looked at him through a window of two raised fists. Jack was in the same position, ready to make his move.

The colonel said something, but Jack couldn’t hear him over the blood roaring in his ears. He took a step to the side, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

Then it happened. Gray took a swing meant for Jack’s jaw, and Jack ducked and punched Gray square in the gut. Gray grunted in pain and, gritting his teeth, launched for Jack, taking them both crashing to the floor. Jack fought to hold Gray off of him so he could better his position, but Gray’s strength matched his own. He struggled to roll them over to give him the top advantage as the scuffle continued when suddenly two strong hands came down on him and yanked him up.

“
Stop it,” Wes barked. “This is not helping Ella.”

The blood drained from Jack’s face along with any fight he had left in him. Wes was right, this wasn’t helping Ella. He shook off Wes’ hold and crossed his arms.

“What’s your plan, Jack?” Colonel Lewis asked.

Obviously the colonel had no plans to leave until Jack revealed his plan. “I need to go see Dark Moon. Private McGraw said that’s who he went to get the serum to heal his infection.”

The room that was already silent grew eerily more so. Memories of a naked man named Dark Moon yelling and thrashing about at dances and trying to sell them foul smelling serums filled Jack’s mind, and presumably those of the others in the room.

“
You think this will cure her?” the colonel asked a few moments later.

“
I don’t know,” Jack admitted. “But if I don’t try, I’ll never forgive myself.” He watched Gray get off the floor and then turned to look at Wes, who wore a stoic expression. To each of them, he’d failed. Neither of them thought he could be a good husband. Young and ambitious, he’d longed for a wife. They both seemed intent to dissuade him, calling it foolish for him to bring a woman here to be his wife. He’d wanted so badly to prove them wrong. But now that didn’t matter. All that did was curing Ella. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves. “She’s my wife. I’ve made my vows to her. I need to do everything I know to do to keep her safe.”

“
And if you get killed tonight going over there?” Colonel Lewis challenged.

Jack swallowed. “Then at least I died trying.”

“Do you plan to go alone, then?” the colonel asked.

Jack’s palms grew clammy and he opened his mouth to answer when suddenly someone else spoke, “No, I’m going with him.”

~Chapter Fourteen~

“No,” Jack said with conviction, trying to hide his sneer.

“
No?” Gray and Wes echoed.

“
Why on earth would you want to go alone when Gray has offered to go with you?” Wes asked.

Jack forced a stiff shrug but knew he failed miserably to look indifferent. “I’d rather go alone.”

“Why?” Wes asked without ceremony.

“
Because she’s his wife,” Colonel Lewis concluded.

Jack nodded. That was the majority of it. Ella was his wife. Her safety and wellbeing were his responsibility. He also didn’t wish to be berated the whole trip there and back over his foolishness in advertising for a bride. He knew now that his part in all of this was not as innocent as he once thought. But that didn’t mean he wished to be reminded of what an awful husband he was. He had more important things to fill his mind with at the moment.

As if reading his mind, Colonel Lewis spoke, his voice soft and devoid of any condemnation. “Nobody is blaming you for her infection, Jack.”

“
He is,” Jack snapped with a pointed look in Gray’s direction.

Gray threw his hands into the air. “I never said that,
but
as long as you want to throw accusations around, I will admit I think you are a fool to have placed an ad for a bride.”

“
I’ll go alone,” Jack cut in, too irritated to be triumphant in his assertion of Gray’s feelings toward him.

“
And get yourself killed?” Gray scoffed.

Jack bristled at Gray’s overwhelming doubt. Until recently, they’d never quarreled over anything of any consequence, but for some reason, Ella’s presence here had changed their friendship somehow. “I don’t intend to get myself killed.”

“Yes, because venturing unannounced into an Indian camp at night is the safest thing one can do besides riding a pony.” Gray’s tone dripped with annoying sarcasm.

“
The truth is,” Colonel Lewis started before Jack could retort, “it’s not safe to go alone, and if this fool is willing to go with you, you’d be best served to accept his offer.”

Jack glared at Gray. “Fine.”

Colonel Lewis nodded approvingly. “Very good. Now that we have that settled, Wes you stay in here with the ladies and I’ll take a night in the watchtower.”

All eyes turned to the colonel. Never, not even once, had the colonel taken a night in the watchtower.

“Gray, you go secure you boys some horses along the northwest boundary. Wes, go collect our wives and bring them here. Lucile was showing Allison some new stitch on the quilt she’s making or some such nonsense. They should be ready by now. I’ll go tell Lieutenant Francis that I’ll take his position tonight.” He turned for the door, then turned back. “Oh, and Jack, change your clothes. You smell like a dead skunk.”

Despite himself, Jack cracked a faint smile.

Two hours later, the sun was setting and Ella’s pulse was still there. Weak, but present.

As decided earlier, Gray and Jack crept out the south passage. It would be easier to leave undetected that way since all of the men would be in one of the lounges they had set up for cards and dice.

Once outside the barracks, they made for the spot where Gray had tied two horses earlier.

Wordlessly, they each untied a stallion and mounted.

Jack had only been at Fort Gibson for two years, and in that time, he’d never heard of anyone going to the Cherokee’s camp without having an official reason. Well, except apparently Brian McGraw. But if he could go there on his own and come back alive, there was hope for Jack.

Jack urged his horse to pick up speed. Their fort was a good ten miles from the Cherokee camp.

Time was lost out in the open air, just as it always was when he rode. Prairie stretched out all around. Neither flat nor too terribly steep, there was a slight roll to the grassy landscape. The further north they rode, the more trees they encountered. Not that he’d never seen trees here before, he had, but they just didn’t grow near the fort with the same thickness as they did this far out. Perhaps it was because trees were cleared to build the fort. He shook his head. He was starting to think about unimportant nonsense to help the time move quicker.

That was a good thing though, he supposed.

“
Do you know what you’re going to say to Dark Moon when we get there?”

“
No.”

“
Jack, I don’t think ‘give me your medicine will work’.”

“
I know that.”

“
Do you want me to talk for you?”

Jack fingered the edge of his reins and glanced over at his friend. All he could see of him in the last glow of sunlight was his shadowed face. “Thank you for offering, but no. I don’t know what I’ll say, Gray, but I’ll think of something.”

“Well, just remember to be nice in your request. I’m rather partial to my hair.”

Any other time and Jack might have chuckled.

Instead, they plodded on in silence, broken only by the steady tattoo of their horses’ hooves hitting the ground and their heavy, rhythmic breathing.

“
Why did you come?” Jack asked.

“
You mean other than to satisfy my curiosity about what happens after I die?”

“
Yes, other than that.”

Gray grunted. “Would you believe me if I said I wanted to make sure your wife got the care she needed.”

Jack eyed him askance. “In a way, yes, because I believe you don’t think I’m capable.”

“
Do you blame me?” Gray burst out. “Last year, after Allison arrived, you spoke so casually about her, saying you could ‘use’ a wife.” He made a sound of disgust. “How else were we all supposed to take those words? You could ‘use’ a wife? Women—no matter who they are—are not meant to be
used,
Jack. After an announcement such as that, what was I supposed to think of your ability as a husband?”

Jack gritted his teeth and clenched his reins a fraction tighter. “I’m not using Ella.”

“Good. Make sure that you don’t.”

Jack snorted. What a change that was. Gray was the one who had no problem sampling the wares of every trollop who passed through yet thought to lecture Jack on using women. He was about to point that out when something bright flickered through the trees ahead: fire.

Both men slowed their horses. They were still too far out to have reached the main camp. This had to be one of their hunting parties, full of savage men waiting for a chance to kill. It wouldn’t do to charge into their camp and startle them; then they’d attack for sure.

Whirrrrr—pffft
.

Jack and Gray came to an abrupt stop, both eyeing the arrow that had just flown past their faces, narrowly missing their noses and sticking straight into the tree to their left. Then slowly, they turned their gazes to the right where a man who wore an array of necklaces with beads and claws and had a piece of leather tied around his waist stood. His bow was poised to shoot again, making it perfectly clear that this time, he wouldn’t miss. Not that Jack thought he’d missed by accident last time. It was probably a warning shot.

Panic filled Jack’s chest and his skin crawled. He lifted his hands into the air to show the man that he had brought no weapons with him and meant him no harm.

Gray did the same.

Keeping his stance, the man motioned for them to get down.

They did.

Keeping their hands lifted above their heads, they were ushered forward to his camp, which consisted of a sizable fire and a small group of half a dozen men who sat around it.

Given a large parcel of land, the Cherokees had more room than most to move their camp when they needed to follow the food. Often during summer months, small hunting parties like this would form.

Around them, words swirled that sounded more like caws and crows, sounds mostly. But it was their language. One he didn’t understand.

Nor did they seem to understand him.

“Dark Moon,” he said to the man who was now pacing around them. “Dark Moon.”

The man paid him no mind, shouting words that they couldn’t understand at them.

Jack’s only response was to call for Dark Moon.

The man yelled another string of words foreign to Jack.

Jack and Gray exchanged hopeless expressions.

“
Dark Moon,” Jack shouted again. Through the years of trade, there were several of them who understood English, albeit not a lot, but apparently none of them were in this group. Surely they’d recognize the name he was calling.

Suddenly, four men ran up behind him and Gray, bound their hands together with a coarse rope, and dragged them backwards toward two large trees.

They hoisted him and Gray up into the air and tied them to the tree with ropes around their middles, leaving their feet to dangle a good three feet above the earth.

The impending doom finally set over them. This was it. Whatever torture they might pick to inflict on Jack and Gray was about to ensue. Or perhaps not yet. Maybe part of the torture was to tie them to the tree and make them wait for the physical torture to begin.

Either way, this was not how he wanted to die.

The vile string of curses escaping Gray’s lips only confirmed he felt the same.

In one last attempt to be heard, Jack opened his mouth and bellowed, “Daaaaark Mooooooo—”

He was quickly silenced with a hard jab in his side.

He gasped for breath and let his eyes wander the crowd where a young man not much younger than he came forward. “Stop shouting Dark Moon,” he said in soft, broken English. “He crazy. They think you crazy, too.”

“
Well done, Jack,” Gray muttered sarcastically.

Jack ignored Gray and regarded the man. “We need to see him.”

The young man nodded and started speaking in his native tongue. He turned back to Jack and Gray. “You want to kill him?”

“
Kill him? No. We need medicine.”

The boy was expressionless as he turned back to the others and began to communicate with them again, gesturing to Jack and Gray occasionally as he spoke.

A split-second after he stopped speaking, Jack had a sense of falling. Then he hit the hard, root-covered ground with a painful thud.

Gray joined him with a grunt a split-second later.

Jack pushed to his feet and made eye contact with their savior. “Thank you,” he said softly.

The man pushed his matted hair from his face, then made a “come here” movement with his hand.

Jack and Gray obeyed.

“
We need to see Dark Moon,” Jack explained again. “We mean him no harm.” He lifted his hands and gestured to his waist where his gun belt generally hung but was visibly absent today. “We just need medicine.”

“
Come.”

Jack followed him, and Gray was right behind Jack.

“Why you need medicine?”

“
My wife is very sick. She has a bad infection and a high fever.”

“
Dark Moon help.”

“
I hope so,” Jack said, following the man to where they’d had to desert their horses.

“
We ride.”

Gray’s gaze shot to Jack’s. There were only two horses and three men... Someone would have to walk, or share a horse.

The uncomfortable tension between the men grew when ‘Saving Grace’, as Jack would forever think of this man for his saving interference, hopped onto Gray’s horse.

“
Come,” Saving Grace commanded, then nearly lost his balance and toppled off the horse.

Grimacing, Gray mounted his horse behind the other man. “If you breathe a single word of this to anyone at the fort, I’ll marry your widow.”

Jack took his meaning and grinned at him as he mounted his own horse and followed.

Twenty minutes later, a large teepee came into view and they slowed.

Saving Grace clumsily dismounted and walked over to talk through the leather.

A minute later, a man wearing nary a feather, save the ones on the ends of the braids that stopped just above his naked waist, emerged.

Jack immediately jerked his gaze to the man’s face. “Medicine,” he blurted.

“
Aaaaah,” Dark Moon said. He lifted his hand and gave a jerky gesture for them to enter.

Without hesitation, Jack went in. It took a minute for a slow-moving Gray to join them.

Dark Moon didn’t seem to understand English very well other than the word medicine.

Jack turned to Saving Grace and tried to explain what he needed.

When Jack mentioned the spider bite, the man’s eyes tripled in size. He immediately turned to Dark Moon, and Jack wasn’t sure if it was real or imagined, but it seemed the man started speaking faster.