Texas Rose TH2 (18 page)

"My word, it moved in fast." Evie watched the thick clouds scudding across the sky. Rain plastered the windows and sent gullies down the dirt streets, falling faster than the ruts could carry it off.

"We're going to get wet if we go to the cafe to eat," Daniel said gloomily.

"I don't suppose you've heard any word about a place to live, have you?" Unable to bear the gray gloom, Evie turned from the window to pick up a book. She'd had all the trunks carried up, and they now filled an entire corner of the room, spilling books and paints and all the accoutrements of fine living.

"Mr. Averill says I can make a bed in the back of the shop if I want. That will give us enough money for you to stay here for a couple more weeks. Maybe the lawyer will be back by then."

"If you stay there, then I'll stay with my students. That will give us enough to scrape by on for a month, if we can stand a month of soup and crackers. I wish there were some discreet way of selling some of my clothes but there isn't even a dressmaker in town." Actually Evie did have an idea about how to sell some of her evening gowns, but she wasn't about to mention it to Daniel.

"Maybe you can persuade the school board to pay your salary monthly instead of quarterly. With free rooms, we could eat a little better, and you wouldn't have to sell anything."

Evie had contemplated that idea, but she suspected it would lead to talking to Jace Harding and then word would get to Tyler that they were short of cash, and she wasn't about to have that happen. She would sell all her clothes first.

"We'll see," she replied evasively.

They read until the rain let up enough to venture out. By that time it was almost dark. Evie offered to bring soup back for Daniel, but he insisted on accompanying her. He couldn't offer much protection, but Nanny had brought him up to behave like a gentleman, even if he never could be a whole one. And gentlemen didn't allow ladies to walk the streets at night unescorted.

The boardwalk was wet and slippery as they started out for the cafe. Oil lamps flickered in several windows along the way, but the hotel was in the town's business district, and most everyone had gone home. The saloon in the other direction was conducting a noisy business, but the rain had kept even their customers home to a great extent. The music was loud but the laughter was not.

The early gloom depressed their spirits as much as the bowls of potato soup that constituted their supper. Evie tried to keep their spirits up by commenting it was good that they didn't have beans again, but Daniel growled that it could at least have been beef, and the conversation died after that.

Rain had begun to fall again when they left the cafe. Daniel's cane slipped on the slick surface of bare wood, but he caught himself and remained upright. Evie could have gone to the hotel twice as fast on her own, but Daniel's mood was so bad that she couldn't do that to him. She expressed fear of the shadows and clutched his arm when a drunk down the road staggered out of the saloon cursing someone still inside. Daniel straightened and walked a little faster.

Perhaps it was her fault then, that he slipped on the steps down to the cross street. He was hurrying to impress her, and this time when the cane slipped and his foot went out from under him, he couldn't make the adjustment. He staggered, grabbed for support, and went stumbling sideways down the stairs into the mud.

Evie screamed as he pitched forward, but she screamed even louder a moment later at a snapping sound. Daniel's moan of pain brought her down on her knees in the mud without any regard to petticoats or skirt.

Her first scream was sufficient to alert John in the cafe and the drunk in the street, and before long people came tumbling out of both buildings to investigate. Someone pulled Evie out of the mud and away from Daniel. There was a scuffle as some of the more sober men pushed the drunk and his friends away. Daniel stoically tried to stifle any further groans, but when the men lifted him, he gave a cry and passed out.

Evie didn't even know she was crying until someone handed her a handkerchief as they entered the hotel. She had been wondering how anything could get worse, and now she knew. White-faced, she watched as the men carried an unconscious Daniel up to his room. If anything happened to Daniel, she would never forgive herself. She should never have griped about his recent contrariness. He had a right to be contrary once in a while. He was the best thing that had ever happened to her, better than having her own brother. She couldn't let him suffer for her sins.

She knew she was being hysterical, but she couldn't stop crying. Someone sent for a doctor, but Evie refused to change into dry clothes while they waited for him to appear. She sat beside Daniel's bed, sponging off his muddy face, tears streaming down her cheeks as she wished he would wake and grin at her again.

Men shuffled around her. The town was full of men. Men operated the hotel and cafe. Men frequented the saloon. Only men would be out on a night like this. Only men stayed in a hotel. The women were safely behind closed doors on the outskirts of town, in lighted rooms serving supper to their children. Evie wished Nanny were here.

A slight figure in faded black skirts rustled in, scolding the men in Spanish and English. Evie recognized Carmen's mother. They had never been introduced, but she had seen the woman with her children shopping in the general store. Dully, Evie realized this was the one woman who might hear of the accident. Her late husband had owned the livery by the hotel, and the family lived in a small house somewhere nearby, according to Carmen.

"You will go and change your clothes before you catch cold," she scolded Evie, literally pulling her from the chair although she was no taller than Evie. "I will clean him up, and the doctor will be here soon. Vamoose." She pushed Evie toward the door.

Having another woman to give orders seemed to work wonders. Evie stumbled to her room and stripped off all her clothes. Mud had seeped through the cotton of her gown to the petticoat beneath and from there, to her ruffled pantalets. She was a sodden mess from skin out, but she didn't feel any better after she toweled off and found dry clothes. She felt worse knowing Daniel wasn't feeling better.

The crowd had thinned out by the time she returned. Someone had helped Carmen's mother to undress Daniel and put him in a dry nightshirt. He was still unconscious, and his lame leg lay at an awkward angle. Evie felt the pain just looking at it.

The doctor arrived, and Evie retreated to a corner while he examined Daniel. Carmen's mother took Evie's hand and patted it.

"He will be fine," she whispered as Daniel uttered a whimper when the physician twisted his leg.

"Thank you, Mrs. Rodriguez." Evie managed to remember enough manners to speak.

"You must call me Angelina. No one calls me Mrs. Rodriguez." She winced as Evie's hand crushed hers when the physician tugged Daniel's leg into place, and Daniel's screams echoed to the rafters.

It would be very strange to call a woman almost old enough to be her mother by her given name. Evie merely nodded her agreement and kept her gaze focused on Daniel.

At last, the doctor had the leg straightened and wrapped, and Daniel was mercifully unconscious once more. Evie hurried to the bed, and the doctor moved aside so she could sit in the chair.

"I imagine he'll be out for a while. You can give him laudanum when he complains of the pain. Sleep will be good for him. His leg was malformed at birth, wasn't it?"

Evie didn't look up but nodded as she held Daniel's warm hand. His breathing was even. That had to be a good sign.

"Thought so." Satisfied, the doctor began to repack his bag. "I daresay it was broken then and some misinformed idiot didn't set it. It probably always gave him pain, and he learned to compensate by limping. The muscles on that side are sorely atrophied. When he fell, he broke it along the old fracture. I'd say, unless he wants to be permanently disabled, he'd better learn to exercise that leg while it heals."

Something in the doctor's voice jerked Evie from her reverie, and she turned to look at the man. "You mean if they'd set his leg at birth, he would be whole today?"

The doctor nodded. "Probably. Now the bone's grown crooked, and there isn't a lot I can do to straighten it. I've set it the best I can, and he's young; that's in his favor. But his muscles in that leg aren't strong enough to support a growing young man. In a week or so, I'd say he needs to start lifting that leg up and down. That will build the muscle. He can start slowly, but he'll have to keep increasing the exercise. He won't be able to get out of bed for some time. I don't want him walking on that leg until it's completely healed. But he can do various exercises while he's in bed. I'll be back to show him when the time comes."

The doctor scribbled out his bill, left it with Evie, and bustled out. The men who had carried Daniel had been slowly departing. The last one tugged his hat and left now. Angelina Rodriguez offered to sit with Daniel for a while, but Evie thanked her and sent her home to her children. Daniel would expect to see her here when he woke.

Not until the room cleared did Evie glance at the piece of paper in her hand. The bill was for almost exactly the same amount of coins remaining in her purse.

Chapter 14

She had to pay the hotel bill. There wasn't any way Daniel could be moved to the back of the newspaper office now.

Evie's stomach churned as she stared out at the leaden sky the next evening. She had given Daniel some laudanum, and he slept peacefully for the moment. She put her hand to her abdomen and stared at the rain-drenched streets. She knew what she had to do, but she was so scared that she couldn't think straight.

Crying hadn't helped. She had cried herself to sleep last night, but all she'd had to show for it this morning was reddened eyes. She had sent word that she wouldn't be able to teach today. It was Friday. That gave her two more days to come up with a few solutions. If she was going to do it, she had to start tonight. She had to be back in class on Monday or risk losing what little income they had. If Daniel couldn't work, their wages were practically cut in half.

She felt the pain in her insides, and she closed her eyes. She had sworn this would never happen to her. How could she have let Tyler do what he had done? She knew what it was to be a bastard. She had never meant to bear one. She couldn't. It was simply unthinkable, so she wouldn't think about it.

But as darkness settled over the scene below and lamplights twinkled up and down the street, Evie had visions of showing up in the classroom with rounded stomach, of whispers of horror as she walked through town, of people crossing the street to avoid her. She'd had enough of whispers and speculations in her lifetime. She couldn't endure it again. She wanted people to like her. She needed people to like her. To be an outcast was anathema to her soul.

She would be out of a job as soon as the school board discovered she was pregnant. There would be only one way left for her to support herself and Daniel if she lost that job. The horror of that squalid occupation almost brought up the lump of lead situated in her throat. She had hated it when Tyler had done that to her. How would it be to have countless men a night touching her like that?

Glancing over her shoulder at Daniel's sleeping form, Evie straightened her shoulders with renewed resolve. She would do what she had to do. There simply wasn't any choice.

She had already ordered the hotel management to carry her things to Daniel's room and set up a cot for her there. They could cut expenses immediately by sharing a room. So far, no one had moved the trunks, and Evie slipped out of one room to go to the next. She knew the perfect gown to sell. It seemed only fair that she should sell such extravagance for the purpose she had in mind right now. Maybe a fair exchange could be made.

She folded the gown carefully, wrapped it in a newspaper, and tied it securely with a string. She wouldn't let anyone know that she was resorting to selling her clothing.

Hiding her destination was another matter entirely. Everybody knew everybody's business in this town. It hadn't been easy meeting Starr and the other two saloon girls. Evie had had to wait until she had seen Starr going into the general store late one evening. She had hurried from the hotel in time to "accidentally" bump into the other woman as she left the store. The accident had started up a conversation, and before long Evie had wrested the information from Starr that the saloon girl had never learned to read or write.