MINDY'S MAIL ORDER HUSBAND by Cia Leah Read Free Book Online Page B

the room.   When Web turned to look, she ran into the kitchen and out the back door.   She heard him yell, but she ran to the
bunkhouse just as a shot rang out.   She
felt a searing pain in her shoulder just as Scuffy opened the door to see what
was going on.   She ran headlong into him
and they both almost toppled to the floor.   “Shut the door and bolt it!”   She
stumbled to a chair at the table and flopped down on it, tears rolling down her
cheeks at the pain in her shoulder.
               “What’s
going on?”  
               She
saw Scuffy get his rifle and peer out of a crack in the wall.   “That’s Web.”
               “Shoot
him!   He shot me in the shoulder.”   Scuffy raised his rifle just as Web called
for them to come out or he would set fire to the bunkhouse.   Scuffy cursed and stuck the barrel of the
gun in the hole and pulled the trigger.   Web fell face down in the dirt.
               Scuffy
ran to Mindy.   “Let me take a look at
that.”  
               Mindy
swiped her hand across her eyes trying to dry the tears that fell as Scuffy
ripped open her dress.   “Dang bullet’s
still in there, gal.   Come on; let me
help you to the bunk.   I got hot water
on the stove and I’ll get some clean rags and get it out of there.”
               She
nodded, but the room kept spinning and when she glanced at her shoulder, her
torn dress was soaked in blood.   She
groaned and fainted dead away.
    ***
               Mindy
moaned and tried to pull herself awake.   Her shoulder throbbed and her mouth was cotton dry.   She heard hushed voices and wondered what
had happened.   When she finally willed
her eyes to open, she saw Scuffy and Brett standing over her their expressions
grim.   She tried to speak, but her voice
was too raspy.
               “I’ll
get her some water,” Scuffy said.
               “Thanks,”
Brett said, kneeling down beside the bed and taking hold of Mindy’s hand.   Scuffy handed Brett a tin cup of water and
he slipped his arm under Mindy neck and lifted her as gently as he could and
held the cup to her lips.   When she
nodded, he handed the cup back to Scuffy.
               “What
happened?”   Mindy asked.
               “Web
shot you and Scuffy took the bullet out.   It almost went all the way through, but not quite.   We had the doc out and he said in a few days
you should start feeling better, barring infection.   He left some laudanum for pain.   You need it now?”
               “Yes,
please.”   She watched Brett get up and
get the medicine for her.   “That’s
bitter.”
               “Yes
it is.   Here, take some more water to
wash it down.”
               Mindy
drank half the cup.   “Did Scuffy kill
Web?”
               “If
he hadn’t, I would have.   You don’t have
to worry about him anymore.   I had one
of the men take his body into the Marshall.”
               “Good,”
she said, feeling the room sway.   Her
shoulder wasn’t throbbing as much now.   “Where am I?”
               “Still
in the bunkhouse.   Doc said not to move
you for a couple days.   The men are
bunking down in the barn.”
               Mindy
blinked and tried to remember something she was going to tell Brett, but for
the life of her, she couldn’t remember what it was.   She struggled to stay awake, but the world disappeared and the
pain receded with it.

Chapter Six
     
             Brett
sat by the bed and bathed Mindy’s face, arms, and chest with a cool damp
cloth.   She’d come down with a fever two
days ago.   He’d been busy cleaning her
pa’s room and moving their things into it while Scuffy looked after her, not
knowing for sure how she would react when she woke up and found out what he
did.   He stowed all her pa’s things in
her room so she could go through them