Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold by Ellen O'Connell Read Free Book Online Page B

very wrong, and the only way he was going to find out was to get Anne calmed down and telling her story. “All right, show me what you need.”
    Noah lifted the mattress back on the bed, and waited while Anne remade the bed, then followed her back to where Cord lay. She slid her arms under Cord’s shoulders, and looked up at Noah. “Please?”
    With a sigh, Noah started to lift the long body.
    “Try not to let him sag. Don’t bend him.” There was so much concern in her voice, Noah gentled his touch and tried to follow her instructions, and together they carried the unconscious man to the bedroom. Noah started when she pulled the blanket off Cord, embarrassed until he took in the injuries and all other thoughts fled.
    “Good Lord, is he really alive like that?”
    “He was, if he didn’t kill himself this morning.”
    She made Noah hold Cord while she washed his reopened wounds then carefully straightened his senseless body, fussing over tilting his head just so over a towel and replacing clean cloths under his hips and upper thighs.
    At this Noah’s embarrassment returned. “See here, Anne, this isn’t right. You can’t be doing this sort of thing.”
    She didn’t even glance up. “This is the fourth day I’ve been doing this sort of thing. I stopped worrying about my sensibilities in the first five minutes.”
    Noah watched her tuck the sheet and blankets around the battered body with tender care, and then followed her to the kitchen, where she turned and said, “I’m sorry for the hysterics. It’s been a terrible few days, and just when I thought everything was all right, it went all wrong again, and it was too much for a while. Sit down. I’ll make us some coffee, and you can tell me why you’re here.”
    The sheriff watched her bustling around the kitchen, obviously familiar with everything, and told her how he had come to be there.
    With the pot heating on the stove, Anne sat down across from him and said, “Noah, my father lied to you. He’s probably realized there were guns in the house and if he came after me himself I might shoot him. The only way I’ll ever go home is if you drag me back in handcuffs, and if you do that, I’ll run away again the first chance I get. Now, am I under arrest?”
    “Of course not, but you can’t stay here with that man. You know that.”
    “I’m staying here until someone else comes to take care of him. I’d appreciate it if you’d tell the doctor to come as soon as he can. I’ve never nursed anybody before, and for all I know, I’m making everything worse. And his brothers, would you tell his brothers?”
    “I’ll tell Frank and Ephraim, and I’ll send the doctor out, but you’ve got to come with me.”
    “No.”
    Their eyes met, and Noah was the first to look away. He sighed again. “I think you’d better tell me the whole story.”
    She did. She told him every bit of it, starting with why she was there.
     
    * * *
     

Chapter 6
     
    NOAH DID NOT HAVE TIME to stop at Frank Bennett’s on the way back to town, or to see Ephraim Bennett when he got back, but he did, as promised, stop at Dr. Craig’s. The doctor was out, but Mrs. Craig said she would have her husband go look at Cord first thing in the morning, and also agreed to get word to Ephraim. Satisfied, Noah headed for the courtroom. The defendant in this trial had more money than sense and had hired a Denver lawyer to represent him, so Noah didn’t count on seeing Ephraim at the courthouse.
    As it happened, Mrs. Craig kept her promise to tell Ephraim by having the doctor stop at the Bennett house on the way out to the ranch in the morning. Ephraim had already left to meet a client, so the doctor gave the message to Ephraim’s wife, Martha. But by the time Martha caught up with her husband, he had been cornered by Mrs. Carson, who was good friends with Mrs. Peabody, who had been talking to Reverend Pratt’s wife, and Ephraim was heading home almost at a dead run anyway. The story Mrs.