Under a Falling Star (3 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

O
n his third trip carrying injured passengers from the train to the wagons, Albert spotted a man running atop the cars toward the engine. He narrowed his eyes, wondering why the tall fellow was up there at a time like this.

“Albert! Over here!” Chase waved, distracting him. Chase, and Gregory Hutton still dressed in his groom’s attire, stood beside a large man who lay unconscious on the grass. Women hustled here and there, toting cups of water and clean rags. How the men had removed the fellow, who looked the size of a small horse, from the wreckage was a mystery. “We need your help.”

Joining Chase and Greg, Albert hunkered down and grasped an enormous arm and shoulder. Chase took the other and Greg grappled with the man’s huge feet. They exchanged a doubtful look between them.

Chase glanced to the clearing where the wagons waited. “It’s not too far. One, two,
three
!”

A groan escaped Albert’s lips. Greg waited while he and Chase swung the giant’s upper body around so they all could walk forward at the same time, enabling the trio to navigate the uneven ground.

“Stop before I drop him!” Greg said, fumbling with the man’s legs, one worn-out boot in each hand. “I need a better grasp under his knees.”

“Hold up, I can help!” someone shouted.

The stranger from the roof of the train ran over, his shirt splattered with blood. When he bent down to take hold, Albert noticed a gash on the back of his head still oozing. The stranger took one of the man’s legs, and the foursome proceeded over the rough footing.

At the top of the rise, Thom Donovan pulled up in his wagon. “I see I’m just in time. Bring him this way.” Thom climbed over the back of his seat into the bed of the wagon and hunkered down at the tailgate, lending a hand. Albert and the new fellow climbed inside to drag him forward to make room for a few others.

Albert nodded his thanks. “We appreciate the help.”

“No problem,” the stranger said. “Do you know what caused the accident?”

Albert glanced around at the confusion, wondering how they’d take care of all these people. “Boulders on the track.”

He spotted Susanna from the corner of his eye. She extracted a crying baby from the arms of a badly shaken young woman and then they proceeded up the gradual rise to the wagons.

For a brief second, their eyes met, and held. A warm glow seeped through Albert seeing her strength. How he loved her, and wanted to make her his wife. The accident today proved every day was precious. He needed to tell Susanna the truth, and soon, if he didn’t want to lose her.

“Albert, Chase, we need some help,” Jessie—Chase’s wife—called, waving her arms.

Albert slapped Greg on the back. “Come on, men, there’s work to be done.”

Two hours later, Susanna walked between her two rows of patients in the reception hall turned infirmary, checking to see if anyone needed more water. Twelve in all. She caught Brenna’s gaze from across the room where her friend had twelve patients of her own. A tremor quickened Susanna’s step. Everything had changed in the blink of an eye. The decorations that had appeared so pretty an hour ago looked out of place amid all the suffering. The cake had been pushed into a corner of the room, untouched and forgotten. Death was just a heartbeat away.

Susanna shuddered. With so many injured, the medication was stretched short. Dr. Thorn had yet to make it to the hall, having his hands full with the severely injured at his office. Susanna, along with Brenna and Mrs. Hollyhock were doing all they could to make these patients as comfortable as possible until the doctor arrived.

Julia Taylor, a young woman from the train, let out a low moan. Her arm, broken between the wrist and elbow, still needed to be set. That was bad enough, but she was still unaware her middle-aged aunt had been killed. Susanna knelt and placed her hand on the woman’s clammy forehead.

Julia whimpered and opened her eyes.

“How’re you feeling?” Susanna asked softly.

“Like I’m going to throw up.”

The girl’s badly bruised face contorted in pain. Scrapes and lacerations covered a good portion of her body. They’d stabilized her arm the best they could with a ripped sheet and two short planks, but Susanna knew the pain must be unbearable. The girl had been outside on the portico, watching for their arrival into Logan Meadows, when the engine had hit the rockslide. She’d sailed through the air and landed in an outcropping of granite.

Tears pooled in the corner of each eye, then ran down Miss Taylor’s cheeks. “How’re the rest?”

Susanna wished she could sugarcoat the truth, but Dr. Thorn had warned them all against that. They would learn everyone’s fate soon enough. “The worst off, two men and one woman, are at Dr. Thorn’s where he’s performing surgery.”

“Was anyone killed?”

“Yes, eighteen that I know of so far. Some passengers are still unaccounted for. The men are out searching as we speak.”

At the train site, the row of dead bodies lined up on a grassy bank, their sightless eyes staring up at the clouds, had given Susanna a start. When she was nine years old, her stepfather, thinking it funny, had locked her in the parlor with his brother’s corpse, prepared for a viewing the next day. She’d crept into the room in search of a misplaced book. Bare alder branches, moved by a violent storm raging outside, tapped eerily against the windowpane. When a ghostlike moaning emanated from the far side of the room, she’d dashed to the door only to find it locked. The harder she’d tried, the more terrified she’d become. The fifteen minutes it took for her mother to find her and let her out had felt like an eternity. Since then, bodies and storms always made her shiver.

Julia moaned, snapping Susanna out of her worst memory. The girl’s eyes slid to the window. “It’ll be dark soon.”

“Just rest,” Susanna said. “Everything will be all right.”

“Do you know if Aunt Biddy has been here to check on me?” Her voice, a shaky whisper, was barely audible over the moans and whimpering cries in the room.

Susanna couldn’t fathom the pain she must be in. Gabe Garrison, Chase and Jess
ie’s adopted son, was due back any moment with some willow bark Mrs. Hollyhock had sent him to fetch from the Red Rooster Inn. Dr. Thorn’s medications were stretched thin. The laudanum and morphine were allocated for the worst cases. Julia was in pain but wasn’t critically injured.

“I’m sorry, I don’t.” She couldn’t do it. She wouldn’t be the one to tell her about her aunt. This young woman needed every ounce of will to stay strong.

“Where are the others? The ones who weren’t hurt?”

“They’ve been taken to the hotel and the Red Rooster Inn. Every room is filled, and the rest have been housed with the townsfolk.”

That brought a tiny smile to Julia’s pinched face.

“Would you like a sip of water?”

Her lashes swept down to rest on her cheeks, colored slightly from the trauma. “No, thank you.”

“You should try, to stave off a fever.”

Gabe stepped through the door with a cloth bag clutched in his hands. Blotches of blood marred his once-white shirt, and his stern expression made him appear older than his nineteen years.

Susanna leaned closer. “The willow bark is here. Try to rest while I make the tea.”

In the kitchen, Brenna already had several pots of water boiling on the stove. Mrs. Hollyhock straightened from the bucket she was rinsing in, a bloody rag grasped in her hands. She washed and dried her hands and reached for the willow bark.

Brenna’s forehead glistened and her beautiful rose chiffon wedding gown, stained with blood and grime, was frayed at the hem from the trips she’d made back and forth between the train and wagons. “There’s enough hot water for everyone to have a cup.”

Mrs. Hollyhock began dicing the willow strips into small pieces. They’d need to steep for a good ten minutes.

“Your poor dress, Brenna,” Susanna said, to break the heavy shroud of grief that hung in the air. Any topic was more welcome
than the grim reality of what they were living through.

Brenna looked over her shoulder and smiled. “It doesn’t matter—
not really.”

Susanna tried to smile back. “I know. You just looked so pretty today when you and Gregory were dancing.”

“How’s Missy Taylor?” Mrs. Hollyhock asked, stirring the water with a wooden spoon and pushing down the floaters. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen an arm as misshapen as that poor girl’s. Makes my toes curl jist thinkin’ about it. And I’ve seen a lot in my many ol’ years.”

“She’s in a lot of pain,” Susanna said. “I wish we had some laudanum. At least then, she might be able to fall asleep.”

Gabe glanced over, a boyish vulnerability in his eyes. “Albert’s sent a telegram to Rock Springs to round up whatever supplies and medications they can spare. A courier will bring them as fast as possible, but still, that’ll take a couple of days.”

Brenna nodded. “That’s the closest large town. What if they don’t have any laudanum or morphine? What about New Meringue? It’s closer.”

“Thom’s on his way there now on a fast horse.”

Brenna touched Gabe’s arm. “Did you happen to see my children when you were out? Penny is supposed to be keeping an eye on the little ones. I’m worried because there’s so much confusion. I haven’t seen them since Win made the announcement and everyone rushed out.”

“They’ll be fine, sweetie,” Mrs. Hollyhock said, laying a shaky hand on Brenna’s arm. “Penny won’t let nothin’ happen to ’em.”

Gabe looked at Brenna over Mrs. Hollyhock’s stooped form. “Sorry, Mrs. Hutton, I didn’t.”

Susanna smiled at Brenna. “I think that’s the first time I’ve heard anyone address you as Mrs. Hutton since you said your vows. It sounds nice.” She wanted to lift everyone’s mood.

A dark blush crept up Brenna’s face. “It did sound nice. I wonder where Gregory is, and what he’s doing.”

“I saw him goin’ into the doctor’s office,” Gabe said. “On my way back from the Red Rooster.”

Footsteps sounded, then Jake, the other cowhand who worked with Gabe at the Logans’ ranch, poked his head in the kitchen door. He looked around until he spotted Gabe. “We need to round up the cattle that were released from the train. I have your horse outside.”

“Go on, Gabe,” Susanna said. “Thank you for your help.”

She felt the weight of the world on her shoulders as the youth nodded and followed Jake out the door. Life could take unexpected turns in a heartbeat. She shouldn’t keep putting Albert off. “I’ll go make a quick round of the room,” she said. “Make sure everyone is . . .”
What? All right?
What a stupid statement. No one in that room was all right. She wiped her hands on a cloth and headed out the door.

CHAPTER FIVE

D
a
lton and a few of the railroad employees made one final sweep of the train to make sure no one was left behind. He hitched a ride into town and went straight to the telegraph office, still open past closing time due to the circumstances, and alerted the bank about the crash. From there, he planned to elicit help from the sheriff’s office but decided to take five minutes first to make sure the child he’d found on the train had been reunited with his parents. Something about that frightened little face pulled at his heart.

He pushed through the doors of the community center. Removing his hat, he glanced around. Streamers hung from the beams, and a cake sat in the corner. Musical instruments were laid out on a small stage, abandoned. The train wreck had interrupted a party.

Most of the patients, white-faced people in four long rows, were quiet, probably in shock, while others moaned, and begged him with their eyes as he walked by. He didn’t see a doctor.

He proceeded halfway through the first row of cots and makeshift beds. The
clip, clip, clip
of boot heels drew his attention, and he dragged his gaze from the injured.

“May I help you? Are you looking for a loved one?”

He turned. It took a moment for recognition to register.
Susanna? Susanna Robinson?
Her deep-green irises constricted the moment she recognized him.

She looked down at his guns, then back up into his face. “Dalton Babcock,” she said, taking a small step back.

She hadn’t changed a bit, and yet she seemed different. Self-assured. A surge of pleasure bounced around his chest and up into his surprise-clogged throat. He hadn’t gotten a chance to tell her goodbye before leaving Breckenridge, and had felt bad about it ever since. “Well, I’ll be! I’m glad you haven’t forgotten me, Suzie. It’s been some time since we’ve seen each other.” She blinked, perhaps startled by the use of her nickname. Seeing him after all these years must have been a shock to her system because her face became as white as the sheets under the patients, even though the sight of her warmed him through and through. She was the first ray of sunshine he’d seen today.

“Of course I remember you.” Her tone held caution but he couldn’t imagine why. “A thorn in my side every time we met.”

Her expression softened her words and he realized she was joking. He chuckled. “Now, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that.”

She nodded, and crossed her arms. “Well, your sister was.”

That was a fact. He’d been ashamed how his younger sister had treated Miss Robinson, always pointing out her threadbare clothes, and the fact her mother had a none-too-good reputation in their small town. He’d put Eloisa in her place for it more times than he could remember.

“I’m real sorry about that. I never could abide a bully—even when she’s my own sister. I should have done more to protect you.”

Susanna’s gaze flickered away before coming back to rest on his face. “Well, that was a long time ago—and forgotten.”

“That’s generous of you. What’re you doing this far from home?” He glanced at her hand but didn’t see a wedding ring. “I didn’t even know you’d left town.”

“That’s because you left town first, if I recall. You’re not the only one who wanted to see more of the world than Breckenridge.”

He chuckled again. “You have a point.”

“You must’ve been on the train. Are you looking for someone?”

“Yes. A little boy. He has a cut on his scalp.”

Her eyes widened. “Your son?”

He shook his head. “No. Just someone I found right after the accident happened. I wanted to make sure he’d found his parents.”

She turned and started for the other side of the room. “There’s a little boy over here, but I don’t think he has a cut on his head, just an egg-sized lump.”

She led him to a red-haired child asleep on a pile of blankets.

“No, that’s not him. Would he be anywhere else?”

“He probably has been reunited with his mother and father and housed elsewhere. If it’ll ease your mind, tell me what he looks like and I’ll keep watch for him. If I learn anything, I’ll leave you a note pinned to the bulletin board in the kitchen.” She pointed behind her. “In case I’m not around when you check back.”

“I appreciate that very much.” He held out his hand waist high. “He stands about this tall. Has sandy blond hair and a good, long cut on this side of his scalp.” He traced an imaginary line on his head. “I put a bandage on it best I could.”

That seemed to soften her. The funny little crinkle he remembered so well formed between her brows. He gestured to the cake. “Special occasion?”

“Yes. A wedding. The bride is in the back room.”

“What an anniversary date to have.” He shook his head.

Now that the injured passengers were taken care of, his only responsibility was to the money, and keeping it secure until he could figure out how to get it safely to its destination. “I appreciate your help, Suzie,” he said, feeling the need to keep moving. “I’ll check back when I can.”

He turned to go but she stopped him with a touch to his arm. “Dalton, your head! You’ve been hurt.”

In the rush to help the others, he’d forgotten all about the cut on the back of his scalp. He wondered if he had blood matted in his hair. “It’s not much.”

“It most certainly
is
much.” He pulled back when she leaned forward for a better look. “You won’t be saying that if infection sets in. Let me douse it with iodine.”

He shook his head. “I don’t have the time right now. I have to get back to the train.”

A woman carrying a tray filled with white porcelain cups came out of the side room, an older woman following behind her. He couldn’t help but notice how fast Suzie stepped back from him, but before he could question it, a fella dressed in coveralls came through the front door. “Doc’s on his way, says he’ll be here in a few minutes.”

“It’s about time,” the craggy old woman mumbled under her breath. She looked exhausted, her eyes dimmed with fatigue. Her messy hair could be mistaken for a beehive.

The young woman stepped toward the newcomer. “Win, have you seen Penny and Jane? I’m worried about them.”

“Sure have, Brenna. Jessie Logan has them, along with your boys, her children, and a passel of others corralled in the lobby at the El Dorado. She’s looking after the children so their mamas can help. Did you want me to give them a message?”

Relief washed over the woman’s face. “No, thank you. Now that I know where they are, and that they’re safe, I can relax.”

Dalton glanced back at Susanna. “Just as soon as I have my business squared away, I’ll come let you have a look.” He gestured to the back of his head. “But like I said before, I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about. I’ve been hurt worse.”

“You’re a doctor as well as a gunman?”

He couldn’t stop a chuckle at her displeased countenance, as well as her sassiness. “No, not a doctor, just an old friend who has pressing business right now. In truth, I wouldn’t mind a few minutes with you fussing over me.” Her chin tipped up in surprise as he added, “Can’t think of anything I’d like better.”