Chase the Wind (23 page)

After what seemed an eternity, class was dismissed for the day. Jenny flew out the door and arrived at the infirmary to find Jamie sitting up in bed. He had been bathed, his hair washed and the ragged, burned ends trimmed.

“We were waiting for you,” Sister Mary Frances said. “Your brother needs some help with his meal.” There was a tray holding a bowl of soup on the bedside table. Jenny sat down on the edge of the bed and placed the tray on her lap.

“I can’t even manage a spoon right now.” Jamie was clearly disappointed in himself.

“It’s because you’ve been flat on your back for a week. You’ll get your strength back soon enough, or at least you’d better.”

“Why is that?” Jamie asked as Jenny raised the spoon to his mouth. Jenny looked around and saw that they had been left alone.

“There’s someone here who needs to be taught a lesson, and you’re the only one big enough to do it.” She briefly told him about Logan, leaving out his remarks about Jamie.

“It will be a while before I’ll be able to whip anything bigger than a kitten.” Jenny set the spoon down at his remark.

“Oh, Jamie, I forgot about the kittens.”

“What’s happened to our home?”

“It’s going up for auction. There was still a mortgage on the property—I guess Dad borrowed against the land to build the house and barn. Gray Horse has the stock. He’s taking care of it until we can go back.”

“Storm?”

“I don’t know, he ran off. He went crazy when Dad was shot.” Jamie stopped her hand, which held another spoonful of soup.

“Jen, tell me how ... what happened to Dad and Momma.”

Jenny set the tray back on the bedside table. She wrapped her arms around herself as she began to speak. “There was a man. It was so dark, I never saw his face.”

“I remember seeing a man, too. He was laughing. I remember it gave me chills, it sounded so evil.”

“He shot Dad, but one of the shots must have gone wild and hit the lantern. I didn’t see Momma. Gray Horse wouldn’t let me. He said she had hit her head on the hearth and the blow must have killed her instantly. Dad saw her when he was dying.” Jenny wiped
away the tears that had started streaming down her face as she remembered the look of wonder on her father’s face as he took his
last breath. “He said she was an angel and she was waiting for him.”
Jamie looked away, trying to hide the tears that had started in his
own deep blue eyes.

“Why would anyone want to shoot Dad? I don’t understand.”

“I don’t either, I told the marshal everything I knew. He said
that all the tracks just disappeared into the traffic going into town. He was hoping someone had noticed a stranger around, but there
just wasn’t anything to go on.”

“Could it have been the man who once wanted to marry Momma?” Jamie asked.

“I thought that too, but I couldn’t remember his name. I told
the marshal about him, but he thought it was a long shot, with all
that happening so long ago.”

“That woman who made Momma lose the baby could have told
him where she was.”

“I know, but without knowing his name, we have nothing to go
on.”

Jamie thought about that for a while, but he couldn’t summon
the name to his memory. “So now what happens?”

“You get better. Then we get out of here.”

“And do what? Where would we go, how would we live?”

“Gray Horse could take care of us.”

“Jen, I really don’t think Momma would want us to go live like Indians. Besides, Gray Horse might not want us.”

“I know—I just don’t want to stay here, I hate it.”

“It will take time to get used to it, I’m sure. I know I didn’t want to wind up in a place like this, with burns all over my face.” Jamie
threw his hand up towards the bandages that still covered half of his face. Jenny grabbed the hand it and took into hers.

“The burns on your face don’t have a thing to do with who you
are, Jamie,” she assured him.

“I know, but they’ll have a lot to do with how people look at
me. I heard some kids outside the window today. They were looking in and laughing at me.” Jenny’s mind flashed back to the earlier
recess when Logan and Joe had taken off around a comer of the
building.

“They are idiots. Don’t worry about them.”

“I guess I’ll just have to get used to it. That’s how it’s going to
be from now on.”

“We don’t even know what your face looks like under your bandages. How can you say that?” Jenny protested.

“I know what it feels like. I just know.”

“Jamie—” Jenny began. He just pulled his hand from hers and
turned away. Jenny got up from the bed and began puttering
around the room, straightening the covers on the other bed, or
ganizing instruments on the table.

“Would you like me to see if I can find some books?” she finally
asked after an eternity of silence had passed.

“What I would really like is to get out of this bed for a while,
maybe go outside, if there’s nobody around.”

“I’ll have to ask Sister Mary Frances if that would be all right.
The rules are pretty rigid here.”

“They are? She’s really nice, though.”

“Yes, she’s different from the rest of them. Father Clarence is a
real tyrant. He’s the one who runs the place, and the rest of the
nuns are all scared to death of him. He doesn’t seem to like chil
dren, that’s for sure.”

“Then why is he running an orphanage?”

“Funny, I’ve been thinking the same thing all day.” Jenny sat back down on the bed and told Jamie about her day and all the things she had noticed. Jamie laughed when she told him about the morning devotions and how she hadn’t known when to sit,
kneel or stand. She was just telling him about her new friend Mar
cus when Sister Mary Frances came back into the room.

“I’m glad to see you’re feeling better,” she commented to Jamie. Jenny noticed Jamie’s self conscious turning of his face so that his
bandages were hidden from view. The sister noticed it also. “Do you think you feel well enough to get up, maybe take a walk?”

“No,” Jamie answered curtly.

Jenny wanted to remind him that he had just mentioned going
outside but stopped herself. “You need to eat some more. You hardly touched this soup.” She pulled the tray back into her lap
and began to stir the spoon around in the bowl. Jamie gave her a grateful look and obediently opened his mouth as she lifted the
spoon to it. “You can’t hide in here all your life. The sooner you
get out, the sooner you get it over with,” she whispered to him as
the sister busied herself on the other side of the room.

“I know,” he answered after he had swallowed. “I just need to
think about it.”

“Think about what?” The spoon went back into the bowl. “It’s just children, and they can’t hurt you,” Jenny said.

Jamie halted the progress of the spoon with his hand. “Jen, please, I just need more time. I don’t even think I can walk right
now.”

Jenny looked into his deep blue eyes and saw fear. He had always
been the cautious one, while she barreled into things without thinking twice about it. He had saved her on more than one oc
casion from certain disaster. Maybe he did need more time. “How
“bout we just take a walk around this room to get your strength
up?”

“I need to visit the chamber pot,” he answered. “Can we start
with that?”

Jenny looked at Sister Mary Frances, who pointed to a screen in
the corner of the room that hid the necessary. Jamie slid over to the side of the bed and stood, with the help of his sister. The nun came to give support on the other side and looked up at his face
in amusement.

“What?” he asked, a guarded look coming into his eyes.

“I didn’t realize you were so tall,” she answered.

“Our dad was tall...” Jamie’s voice trailed off as he hesitantly
took a step.

“Jamie is taller than our dad.” Jenny looked up at her brother as he struggled to make his legs respond. “He’s strong like him, too.”

“Not right now,” Jamie gritted out.

“Your strength will come back. You’re just weak from the mor
phine,” the nun assured him.

They reached the screen, and Jamie reached out a hand over the
nun’s head to steady himself on the wall.

“I can make it from here,” he assured them. The pair stepped
back and watched as he used the wall as a crutch and went around the screen. There was a moment of silence as he fumbled with the
tail of his night shirt.

“I said I can make it,” he declared. Jenny stepped away from the
screen with a giggle. Sister Mary Frances folded her hands up into the sleeve of her habit and looked up towards the heavens. They
heard his shuffling steps as he came back around. The nun went to lend assistance, but he held her off with an upraised hand. “I
can make it on my own,” he said proudly and made his way slowly
back towards the bed. He sat down on the side and looked at the
bowl of soup. “Do you think I can get something a little more solid
to eat?” he asked the nun.

“That’s a sure sign of recovery if I ever heard one.” She smiled
at him. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“What are you looking at?” Jamie asked his sister, who was lean
ing against the other bed with an amused expression on her face.

“Your legs,” Jenny laughed. Jamie looked down at the long white
legs sticking out from under his nightshirt.

“Do I have any clothes?”

“Yes, the marshal went back and packed our things for us.” Jenny
pulled a carpetbag out from under Jamie’s bed. Jamie opened it
and began to take inventory of the contents.

“It looks like he got everything,” he said. His hand struck some
thing hard at the bottom, and he pulled items of clothing out until
he could see what it was. Jenny looked over his shoulder, and they
both saw his revolver and holster lying next to the knife that had
belonged to Ian. Two sets of deep blues eyes met. They would keep
this a secret. Jenny helped him replace the clothes and set the bag
back under the bed.

“I’ve got Momma’s box,” Jenny said.

“I want to see it.”

“I’ll bring it tomorrow.”

“Where are they? I mean where did they—”

“In the cemetery at the church, next to our brothers that. . .”
Jenny’s voice trailed off, and Jamie nodded his head as if he could
see the four graves in the yard next to the small white church they
had attended. Jamie finally leaned wearily back against his pillow.
Jenny was facing him, her upper arms pillowing her head atop her
bent knees. They stayed that way for a while, lost in their memories
of the life they had lost. Jamie reached up and wrapped a long
finger around one of his sister’s.

“Tomorrow I’ll go outside.”

“Okay.”

They were silent again, their fingers still linked together when
Sister Mary Frances returned to the room with a plate of scrambled
eggs and a fresh-baked roll. Jamie flashed his grin as she set the tray down in his lap, and his hand automatically went to the bandages at the side of his face. Jenny handed him a fork, and he began
to work on the eggs.

“It’s time for you to go to dinner,” the nun said to Jenny. “Come
back tomorrow after school.”

“And find me some books,” Jamie said around a mouthful of
eggs.

Jenny entered to the dining room just as the blessing was being
said. She quietly went to her seat and bowed her head, saying a
prayer for Jamie’s recovery. After the Amen she raised her head to
find Marcus staring at her. He inclined his head towards Logan and
Joe, who had their heads together whispering. Jenny’s eyes narrowed as she looked at them. Where those two went, trouble was sure to follow. She would be on her guard to protect Jamie. He wasn’t ready for the terror they were sure to create, but when he
was stronger, she was sure he would give them the thrashing they
deserved.