Marry Me by Jo Goodman Read Free Book Online

there.”
    That no-account Beatty boy didn’t have to be told twice. He gave himself a lot of clearance when he passed and spared only the narrowest of glances at Runt. “How’s he doin’?”
    There was no point in correcting Will’s pronoun. “Just balancing on the brink of consciousness,” Cole said. “The bleeding’s slowed.”
    “Then he ain’t been drained.”
    “No, Deputy,” Cole said dryly. “He ain’t been drained.”
    Will came close enough to grab a sheet and returned to where he’d dropped the poles. “Hell, you know what I meant, Doc. I didn’t know a body had so much blood. I guess it’s a good thing and all, but I never saw the like before. There’ve been gunfights in town with less blood.”
    “I assume the victims died quickly.”
    “Mostly, yeah.”
    “The heart’s just a pump, Will. Once it stops, blood flow’s only a matter of gravity.”
    “Oh.” He thought about that. “Then Runt’s got a strong heart.”
    “She does.” Cole decided not to mention her wounds were probably more grievous than a bullet. He looked over his shoulder to see how Will was coming with the litter. “Why isn’t Judah here?”
    Will kept working. “You’ll have to ask him.”
    “I will, but I want to hear what you think.”
    “Not that it makes any kind of difference to the truth, but I suspect he’s not here because he’s mightily peeved. He and Runt don’t get along all that well. It’s my recollection that they never did, leastways it was different than how Judah could tolerate Rusty and Randy. He didn’t exactly warm to them, but he didn’t cuff them every chance he got.” Will paused, struck by a thought that could never have occurred to him before today. “Do you suppose he knew Runt was a girl?”
    It was the deputy’s grave tone that kept Cole from ridiculing the question. He had to remind himself that Will was still struggling to accept a new truth. What Will had believed to be fact was, in fact, only perception. That noaccount Beatty boy wasn’t the first to mistake one for the other. The power of perception, now misperception, was evident in Will’s discomfort and the downright idiocy of his last question.
    “I think it’s safe to assume that Judah knew the truth about his own child,” Cole said.
    Will flushed. “Yeah. ‘Course he did.”
    “It might account for his dislike.”
    “Because Runt’s a girl? What kind of sense is that? Girls are …” He searched for a word that would be the sum of all his scattered thoughts. “Nice,” he said finally. “They’re nice.”
    “I agree, but there are entire cultures that believe daughters are inferior to sons and have no value. The Chinese, for example.”
    Will wondered what explained Judah Abbot’s thinking. The man was eccentric, but Will had never taken him for a fool, and he’d been married once upon a time. Had Judah held that same prejudice against his own wife? “I reckon there’s no accounting for peculiar notions.”
    “Probably not.”
    Cole exchanged another bloody rag for a clean one. He saw Runt’s lips part around a soft moan, but her eyes remained closed. He called to Will, “Are you about ready with that thing?”
    “Just about.”
    Cole folded the last clean strip of sheet and placed it over the one between Runt’s legs. He finished washing her, examining her flesh for more wheals. It struck him as odd that there were no welts on her hips. He would have expected her to twist violently to avoid the blows, thus raising welts on at least one side, depending on where the assailant stood. Realizing that her legs had probably been restrained as well, Cole rolled down one of the socks. Abrasions circled her skin at the ankle.
    “Could Judah be the father of her baby?” asked Cole.
    Will’s stomach heaved. He waited for it to settle. “That’s a hell of thing to ask me, Doc. I’m just gettin’ used to the idea that he’s a she. I can’t think about how a baby got in him … her.”
    Cole