Over the Edge (13 page)

The fever had made her hair hot. He left off touching her, though it wasn’t easy, and reached for the basin of cool water Audra had on the bedside table. Wringing the cloth out thoroughly, he folded it and rested it on her forehead.

A sigh of relief escaped her lips and her eyes drifted closed. Seth wished she’d sleep some more. The healing power of sleep.

He thought of his nightmare. Sleep had been a torment for him most of his life.

“Here’s Connor.” Audra came in, and Callie’s eyes snapped open and went to the chunky little guy.

Callie reached out her arms toward him, and a tiny gasp of pain, quickly suppressed, escaped her lips. “Let me have him.”

Seth doubted very much Callie could hold the husky boy, but with all her Texas gumption she’d never admit anything was too much for her. He went to Audra, whisked Connor out of her hands, and carried him around the bed to sit beside Callie, keeping Connor’s weight yet within reaching distance.

With a trembling hand Callie reached for Connor.

“Papapapa!” Connor dove at Callie. Seth almost lost him, but managed to keep the boy from pouncing on his wounded ma.

Seth moved so Connor was sitting right beside Callie. Her arm went around the baby’s waist. “Hi, little guy. I’m sorry I’m not taking care of you today.”

Connor laughed and slapped Callie on the belly a few times before Seth could stop him.

“You can see he’s fine, Callie. Let him go back to playing with Maggie.” Audra came around the bed to fetch him. “She threw a fit when I took him away.”

With a few more touches as if to be sure he was there, touches too feeble to go with his fiery little wife, Callie nodded and Audra scooped Connor up.

“I’m going to get some broth for you.” Audra settled Connor on her hip like an old hand at mothering, which she was.

“And some water, please.”

“We’ve got some here beside the basin.” Seth wanted to kick himself for not thinking of it before Callie had to ask. “I’ll help you get a drink.”

“You need to rest.” Audra headed for the door. She looked back just as she stepped into the hall. “We’re going to take very good care of you, Callie. You’ll be up and about in no time.”

Audra was gone, and Callie looked after her son as if it might be the last time she saw him. Considering Callie’s fearlessness, it about scared Seth into an early grave.

“We need to make sure you drink plenty of water.” He slid an arm behind Callie’s shoulders and raised her with aching slowness just enough for her to drink.

She took several sips and then stopped. “Enough. I’m afraid I’ll be sick.”

Seth lowered her back to the bed. Her eyes seemed to lose focus; her lids fell closed as if they weighed ten pounds apiece and her body went limp.

It was the most frightening thing Seth had ever seen, and that included watching his own flesh burn.

“Audra!”

Seth wasn’t sure how he sounded, but it must’ve been bad because footsteps pounded up the stairs. Audra was running by the time she got in the room. She looked at Callie, then at Seth.

“She passed out. I think she’s hotter than she was, too.”

That might just seem so because Seth had gone stone-cold with terror. He thought of his cave and wanted it desperately. Things made sense down there. The empty part of himself wasn’t so noticeable in the pitch-dark.

He didn’t have to face hard things. When life got to bothering him, Seth had always run to ground in that cave. He knew that place better than anyone. That gave him power.

Then he saw himself knowing all the holes he could sneak into and never be found. For the first time ever, that struck him as being cowardly. It was like a rabbit hole. A mighty big rabbit hole. And he was mighty small thinking like a scared rabbit and hiding from trouble when he had a wife and child to care for.

“We have to get her fever down.” Audra came to Seth’s side of the bed. “You have to go, Seth. I’m going to give her a cool bath, and it’s not fitting that you should be here.”

“I’m her husband! I can be here.” Seth knew even as he said it that Callie wouldn’t like it one bit if he helped undress her. Only being so feverish that she couldn’t tell what was going on had kept her from objecting when he’d checked her arm.

“Go, Seth. Please. You don’t even remember her. It’s not fitting that you should help me bathe her.” A crash came from downstairs, followed by childish laughter and a dismayed shout from Ethan that echoed up the stairs.

“Go save Ethan. I promise I’ll call if I need help.”

Hesitating, Seth looked at his deathly still wife.

“Close the door on your way out, Seth.”

Seth felt like he was tearing flesh when he turned away from Callie. Worried sick, he went to the door. Looking back he saw Audra wringing out the cloth Seth had used on Callie’s forehead. His wife was in good hands. But he couldn’t help but feel like he was turning his back on her for the second time. And that felt unforgivable.

Chapter
12

Seth walked down the stairs feeling as if he was leaving his wife on the battlefield. He stepped into the kitchen, and it was full of people Seth hadn’t even known existed a few months ago. That included everyone but Ethan. Connor, Ethan’s girls, and Heath.

Seth looked at Ethan and thought maybe Ethan was reading his mind. Life was changing too fast.

“How is she?” Ethan had his baby Lily in his arms. Maggie was toddling around the kitchen. Ethan sat at the head of the table, close to the back door. There was a lean-to over it so they could open the door without letting the wind howl in. Seth heard the blizzard, still raging. He thought of how sick Callie was, and he was tempted to answer the voices he heard howling.

He and Ethan had gone out and checked the cattle before the sun rose and did what chores they could, along with Steele and the other hands. But today was a day to stay inside as much as possible.

Heath sat on the floor in front of the big iron stove. He held out his arms to block Maggie when the little girl staggered toward the burning heat, which explained what Heath was doing down there.

Connor was standing up, clinging to a chair leg, bouncing his fat little legs as if he was just wild to chase after Maggie. He turned when Seth came in, squealed and smiled. Took a step toward Seth and sat down hard. His little bottom lip came out and his eyes got wide.

Seth scooped up his son and sat down on the floor. The lively little boy in his arms distracted him at least a little bit from how sick Callie was.

“She’s got a fever. High fever.” Seth looked at Connor. Connor grinned a wild grin and Seth felt his heart breaking. It wasn’t a bad feeling. More like maybe Seth’s heart was hard and this was cracking the shell around it and letting him bleed feelings that weren’t rooted in nightmares and dark caverns and fire.

“Ma had a high fever when she died,” Heath said.

Seth decided he’d concentrate on his new family to keep himself from charging up those stairs and demanding Audra let him help take care of Callie.

“I’m sorry things aren’t like you hoped they’d be, Heath,” Seth said. “We don’t have much money, and if we did sell the ranch, it wouldn’t bring you enough to live on for very long. All we can do is have you make your home with us, and let us take care of you.”

Connor stood up between Seth’s legs and reached for Heath so suddenly that Seth almost let him fall. The boy was plumb slippery.

“I can take care of myself.” Heath leaned back, his arms folded defiantly.

“I can see you’re a knowing boy. But you can’t really want to be cast out of this house, even with cash money in your pockets. Not during a blizzard. You’ve got to stay for a while. We may get a few more nice days and even a thaw or two, but winter is coming fast and this is no time to be riding around the countryside.”

Connor reached for Heath as if he’d known him all his life. Seth eased the baby down onto his hands and knees and let him crawl away.

Heath’s eyes shifted to the door, rattled now and then by a gust of wind—even with the lean-to. As tight as Rafe had built it, snow still got in under the door, and the floor was cold away from the stove.

“Do you have any other family?” Ethan asked. “Grandparents? When the weather clears, we could help you go to them if you wanted. Did your ma have any brothers or sisters?”

“Never heard of none. Ma talked about a little brother who died young. He was buried in a little graveyard near our house along with her parents. We lived in the house she grew up in.” Heath rested his head back against the cabin wall in a way that looked defeated. “And she was afeared she was dying. She’d have told me if there was anywhere to go. Matter of fact, she did tell me. That’s what the letter was for, to let me know what needed to be done.”

Heath pulled Connor onto his lap and let the boy bounce. “From what she said, I don’t think Pa told her about you, but she figured it out somehow.”

“Maybe he talked in his sleep or left some kind of papers lying around.”

“Don’t reckon Pa knew how to read or write. Leastways not overly.”

Seth tried to get Connor to look at him and realized he was a little bit jealous of the boy wanting Heath. But why not? Connor had known Seth only a few hours longer. “Ma taught Rafe a little reading, and Rafe taught me and Ethan. Ma’d lost interest in it by the time we were old enough. It was handy in the war and I got a mite better at it.”

“Ma taught me to read and cipher,” Heath said, paying attention only to Connor. “She didn’t really say much, just that she’d left a letter.”

Seth didn’t blame the boy for being hostile, considering all the surprises his life had handed him lately. “How did your ma die?”

“She had a fever and it got so high she had to take to her bed.” Suddenly Heath looked as if he might break down and cry.

Knowing tears would embarrass him, Seth spoke to head that off. “It might’ve been an infected wound.”

Connor picked that moment to squeal and jump toward the hot stove. Heath caught the boy in time. Seth was glad to see Heath wasn’t going to let his dislike of the Kincaid brothers stop him from being kind to a child.

“I didn’t see any wound.” Heath turned Connor to face the room. “She never complained of anything like that. But she had a bellyache. She was holding her belly low on the left side. Hurtin’ bad.”

“I’ve heard of stomach ailments that can kill a person.” Seth tried to remember all the reasons men had died during the war. Usually it was all too obvious what had killed them, but sometimes they died for no reason he could ever figure out.

“She told me there was a letter in a box in her room, and to go get it. It was written in her own hand that Pa had grown sons. Just a note saying you lived around Rawhide. No names, nuthin’ else. She said Pa had some land over this way and a share of it oughta be mine.”

Seth looked at Ethan. This house and this property was most clearly their father’s. If anyone had to give up a big chunk of what they owned, it would be Ethan.

“We’ll figure out how to divide things up.” The little baby in Ethan’s arms let out a yelp and he rose from the table to bounce Lily, but the tyke wasn’t interested in being cheered up. As he walked and bounced, Ethan added, “We’ve got all winter to sort it out.”

Lily’s fussing grew into full-out crying.

“Seth?” Audra’s voice came from upstairs.

Seth was running for the stairs so fast he couldn’t remember standing up, scared to death, considering she’d just barred him from the room. “What is it?”

“Can you sit with Callie and keep cool cloths pressed to her forehead while I tend Lily?”

A whoosh of air escaped Seth’s chest. “Yep, sure I can. You scared me to death.”

Audra rested a hand on Seth’s shoulder. “I don’t see any infected wounds, at least nothing like what Wendell had. We just need to keep her fever down. If she wakes up for even a moment, try and get her to take a drink of water.”

“Connor!” Callie twisted in her sleep.

Seth surged from his chair by her bedside. All day she remained in either unnaturally still sleep or she’d cry out, shout Connor’s name, then toss and turn.

“Get Connor out. Go!” She was refighting the battle with outlaws at the stagecoach. “Where’s my rifle!”