“I wanted to make the deadline for the Army contract.
And we will.
Joe will have to finish with this horse.
I don’t think I’m going to be able to.
Ha ha
Owww
.”
“Hush now.
No laughing or teasing or anything else.”
She sniffled and Sam looked over at her.
“Ah, Cassie, honey.
I didn’t mean to worry you.
I’m going to be just fine.”
“You don’t know that.
You’ve got bruised, maybe broken ribs and who knows what kind of damage inside.
Davy” she hollered at the stable boy standing nearest.
“Go to town and get the doctor.”
“Yes ma’am.”
The young man took off running for the barn and the fastest horse she had available, Lightning.
He was a paint and one of the first mustangs they’d captured.
His wide patches of black and white with a white head were unique and so Cassie and Michael had kept him rather than sell him to the army.
Davy took off out of the barn at a full gallop.
Lightning could easily make it the ten miles to town in about an hour.
He should be back with Doc Wright in about three hours.
That’s a long time when you’re in pain.
“You boys see if you can get him up and walk him back to the house.
I’ll meet you there.”
Cassie ran to the house.
She grabbed the laudanum put several drops into a glass of water.
Sam was going to need some help until the doctor got here but she wasn’t giving him enough to do more than take the edge off.
She threw the tea kettle on the stove to boil.
The next dose of laudanum would be bigger and the stuff was nasty tasting and bitter.
She’d make him a cup of tea with sugar to cut the bitterness and make it more palatable.
Hopefully he’d get the whole thing in him before he passed out.
Otherwise he wasn’t going to be
asleep and out of pain for very long.
Bridget heard what happened and was already ripping a sheet into long strips to bind Sam’s chest with.
He’d need to have those ribs immobilized as much as possible.
She was going up the stairs when the men came in with Sam.
She carried a tray with the glass of water and the bandages on it.
“Come on, bring him up here,” Bridget said from halfway up the stairs.
“What you think you’re doing Sam?
You’re not a kid.
You shouldn’t have been on those horses.
You probably gave Cassie a heart attack.
That’s how she lost Michael you know.
He thought he had to break that horse himself.
Big black devil, he was.
A monster, like you tried to ride today or so I’m told.
He couldn’t let the professionals that Cassie made him hire do it.
Broke his damn neck getting thrown from him.”
“I didn’t know.
I was just trying to help out so the contract would be filled on time.”
“No.
You thought you’d have some fun just like Michael did.
That’s what all you men think about.
How much
fun
you can have.
You don’t think about the consequences of the
fun
.”
Cassie listened to the exchange between Bridget and Sam from the top of the stairs.
One thing about Bridget…she told it like she saw it.
No beating around the bush.
As soon as she saw Bridget’s head she moved back to Sam’s room.
She’d turned down the bed and gotten the pillows out of the kids rooms and stacked them so Sam would be sitting up in bed.
The men, one on either side, helped him to the bed.
“Don’t sit down yet.
I’m going to wrap your ribs.
Drink this.
It’ll help.”
“What is it?”
“Laudanum.
Just enough to take the edge off your pain.
I don’t want you going to sleep until after the doctor has seen you.
If he was in his office he should be here in a couple of hours.
“Let’s get your ribs wrapped.
It’ll help stabilize them and should help with the pain.
Doc will probably unwrap them but for now it’s going to do the most good in helping with the pain.”
“Fine.
Just do it.”
Cassie unbuttoned Sam’s shirt and slid it down his shoulders and off.
She checked for abrasions and bruising on his chest and back lightly running her fingers over him.
“Now’s not a good time for foreplay, Darlin’,” whispered Sam.
He tried to smile but it came out a grimace.
Cassie sighed.
That was Sam.
Making jokes at a time like this!
“Okay.
Can you lift your arms?”
“Oww.
Hell.” He’d tried to lift his left arm.
“Damn.
This is going to hurt.”
Cassie started the bandage in the center of his chest.
“Bring your right hand up and hold this end tight,” she instructed Sam.
She walked around him binding him as she went with the sheets Bridget had torn into long strips.
“There.”
She tied off the bandage with the first end that Sam had been holding.
“Feel any better?”
“Yeah.
I think so.”
He sat on the bed and then leaned back against the pillows.
She thought his breathing was easier.
He didn’t seem to be in so much pain.
“I’m going to get you some tea with sugar and give you some more laudanum. It will taste better with the tea.
Then I’ll sit with you until Doc Wright gets here.”
She started to walk out then turned back.
“When I get back I’m going to give you what for, but now,” she went to the bed leaned down and kissed him.
“I’m just glad you’re alive.”
When she got to the kitchen she had to sit.
The adrenaline was wearing off and the reality of what had just happened was setting in.
She took several deep breaths and then put her head between her knees.
It was too close.
Too close.
Bridget set a cup of tea on the table in front of her.
Cassie’s hands shook so violently, the tea splashed into the saucer when she picked it up.
She quickly set it back down.
“Damn. Damn. Damn.
What was he thinking?”
Bridget rubbed Cassie’s shoulders.
Soothing her.
“He wasn’t thinking, honey, about anything but getting that contract filled.
He didn’t think about getting hurt or how you would feel if something happened to him.”
Cassie looked up at the little woman who now seemed to tower over her.
“How…?”
“Do you think I’m blind?
I’ve watched you two since the day he came.
There was an attraction between you even then.
I’ve watched it grow.
You’re falling in love with him…if you haven’t already.
That’s why you’re sitting here shaking like a leaf.
You didn’t react this way when Pete got thrown and broke his leg.
So you tell me, Cassie girl, what’s the difference?”
“It’s Sam.
He…I…oh, Bridget.
What am I going to do?
He wants to court me.”
“So, what’s the problem, Lass?”
“Michael hasn’t even been gone three years.
I don’t want to be disloyal to his memory.”
“No one is asking you to forget.
Cassie,” Bridget paused and sat down next to Cassie.
“No one misses my Michael more than I do.
I raised him from a baby.
He was more a son to me than to the woman who gave him life.
But he would not want you to be alone forever.
If you can find love again it would be the most wonderful blessing.”
“Then why do I feel like I’m doing something wrong?”
“Look, Cassie,” Bridget took her hand.
“You will always love Michael.
He’s the father of your children.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t find a new love now that he’s gone.
You can love Michael, just not in the same way you did.
You’re allowed to fall in love with a new man.”
“You make it sound so easy.
And it’s not.
It’s not easy at all.”
Suddenly Cassie found herself crying and Bridget holding her like she was a child.
Patting her back and saying “It’s all right.
You cry.”
After a few minutes her sobs subsided and she felt better.
Lighter.
Maybe Bridget was right.
Maybe all she had to do was figure out a way to let go.
She closed her eyes again.
She was getting a headache and just wanted to lie down in the dark and rest.
She took a deep breath.
“I guess I better take Sam his laudanum and tea.
He’s probably in a lot of pain.”
Then she smiled and looked at Bridget.
“Nothing like the kind of pain I’m going to give him after he’s feeling better.
Then I think, I’ll kill him.”
Bridget smiled.
“That’s my girl.”
By the time Cassie got to Sam’s room she’d calmed down a bit.
She knew he was just trying to help but didn’t he remember that Michael had gotten killed doing the same thing?
Did she tell him about Michael?
She did didn’t she?
Sam was sitting up in bed taking fast shallow breaths.
“You need to take slow deep breaths or you’re going to hyperventilate and pass out.”
“I want to pass out.
I won’t feel anything then.”
Pain made him grouchy.
Cassie knew that and didn’t take offense.
“Cassie.
I’m sorry.
I never meant to hurt you or scare you.
Bridget told me what happened to Michael.”
“I know you didn’t mean it but it did scare me.
Guess I wouldn’t have to worry about Harry Borden if you killed yourself, would I?
Of course, I could just kill you myself,” she put a few drops of laudanum in the tea she carried.
“No one would be the wiser now would they?”
He took the tea from her and took a sip.
“Should I be worried?”
She shook her head.
“I figure the pain you’re in is punishment enough for now.
Why Sam?
We have pros who know what they’re doing.
Why’d you feel the need to go risk your life?”
“It really wasn’t very smart.
I guess a part of me wanted to prove I can do any job on the ranch.
I wanted to impress the wranglers and you.”
She took his hand.
“I don’t need impressing.
I need a foreman and you promised me six months.
I’m holding you to it.”