The Outlaws: Jess by Connie Mason Read Free Book Online

yet. I'd feel
a heap better if I knew a doc was nearby to tend to her."
    Jess was stunned. He'd gotten the impression
that Zach didn't want him around Meg. That he was jealous of
another man's attention to his Meggie . For some unexplained
reason it irked Jess to see the older man's devotion to his young
lover. They shared the kind of closeness he hoped to have one day
with a special woman, should he ever be free to love and marry.
    Jess had had his share of women, and upon
occasion had visited whores, but none of them meant anything to him
except for the release they brought him. That's why he felt such
overwhelming guilt for not accepting responsibility for Delia
Wingate's pregnancy. He was a doctor. He should have protected
Delia against pregnancy, but she'd seemed so knowledgeable he
assumed she had taken precautions. Besides, he knew there had been
others before him; he would never know whether the child was truly
his.
    The guilt of making outlaws out of his
brothers, however, still plagued him. He should have assumed
responsibility even if the child wasn't his and taken the loan
Wingate had offered. Had he done so, his brothers would be home on
the farm where they belonged instead of fugitives.
    "What do you say, Jess?" Zach prodded. "Will
you stay on until Meg is well?"
    "You sure I won't be intruding?" Jess
couldn't help asking.
    Zach slanted him a baffled look. "Meggie
needs you, that's all that matters. She'll be out of that bed and
overdoing before she's ready if someone doesn't lay the law down.
She won't listen to me, and I don't have the gumption to deny her
anything. Stay, Doc, for Meggie's sake."
    "Very well, I'll stick around for the time
being," Jess agreed somewhat reluctantly. "Meg is an exceptionally
strong woman. I don't know how much longer she'll follow my advice,
but you have to promise me something first."
    "What's that?"
    "You have to keep Meg home after she
recovers. Don't let her continue to endanger her life. She's a
woman, for godsake!"
    Zach bristled angrily. "Meg is more than a
woman. She's a damn good bounty hunter, one who's made a name for
herself in these parts. But I reckon you're right," he said more
reasonably. "I worry about her constantly when she's out. I tried
to earn money to support us but no one would hire me. And decent
jobs are scarce for women like Meggie. She preferred bounty hunting
to the jobs she'd been offered in town."
    "You'll just have to try harder to support
Meg," Jess scolded. "For starters, you should marry her."
    "Marry Meggie?" Zach said, as if the idea was
abhorrent to him. "I wouldn't...I couldn't..."
    "I could think of a lot of reasons why you
should," Jess said, turning away in disgust. If Zach didn't want to
make an honorable woman of Meg it was none of his concern.
    "Truth is," Zach confided gruffly, "I have a
wife back East. We never suited one another and she refused to
accompany out West. Since neither of us had any desire to marry
anyone else, we never bothered to divorce. Had a daughter once,
too."
    "Does Meg know about your wife?"
    "Meg knows everything there is to know about
me."
    "If Meg is satisfied with this arrangement,
then who am I to interfere? Where can I bed down? I noticed a barn
outside. I've slept in worse places during the war."
    "I never fought in the war," Zach reminisced.
"I was too busy hunting down fugitives from the law. It was a hard
life, but I earned enough money to buy land and build a decent
house."
    He paused, suddenly lost in memories. Then he
cleared his throat and said, "No need to sleep in the barn. There's
a room in the attic. Nothing fancy, just a cot and washstand. You
should be comfortable enough."
    Jess nodded. "Sounds fine. I'll bring in my
saddlebags."
    "Good. You do that while I bring Meggie her
dinner. You'll find the stairs to the attic right through that
door," he said, indicating a door located at the rear of the
kitchen.
    Jess found his horse in the barn where Zach
had taken him earlier. Jess fed the tired