Elfrida managed to get the sheets off them relatively intact, then went to work on Cody. “I’m glad your healing skills are better than mine,” Rosa said, ruefully, as she divested herself of some of her layers of clothing. Unlike Giselle, she hadn’t needed to borrow any. Evidently she used men’s clothing quite often when she was hunting.
“That’s all right, dearie. I wouldn’t be of much use hunting down werewolves,” Elfrida said, quite as if she dealt with battles like the one they had just been through every day. “Now, if you could just lend me a nice bit of magic, I think we can have this young fellow all right in very little time.”
Giselle stripped off most of what she was wearing—it had been borrowed from Kellermann, who gathered it up and took it back to his quarters. That left her in one of her flannel shirts and the suede trousers she wore under her buckskin skirt She didn’t feel at all right about leaving Cody alone, and evidently neither did Fox, so they both stayed while Elfrida and Rosa worked on him, magically and physically. When he was stripped to the waist, it was evident he had taken a wicked beating; he was black and blue from his neck to his stomach.
“I take back everything uncomplimentary I ever said about you, Captain,” Rosa said, on seeing that. “I don’t know too many men who could have taken the punishment you just did and still finished the fight.”
“Pshaw!” Cody said, but behind his bruises, he looked pleased. “Point is, we each did what we was supposed to. An’ it all ended all right.”
When Elfrida pronounced him “as fit as he was going to be without plenty of rest,” she released him to go “straight to bed, and no stopping on the way,” and handed Fox a bottle of brandy with instructions to “Put him into bed, put his hat on the bedpost, and have him drink until he sees two hats.”
On hearing that, Cody turned, took the old woman’s face in both his hands, and gave her a hearty kiss right on the lips. “Frida, you are my kind of woman! Iffen I thought you’d migrate back to Texas with me, I’d marry ya here an’ now!”
Elfrida went scarlet, and laughed, sounding pleased. “You wicked boy! You could never keep up with me! I’ve buried two husbands, and I’ve no patience for training up a third! Now get along to bed with you, and I’ll be up with food. If the brandy doesn’t put you to sleep, my good pancakes will!”
Cody was able to travel more or less under his own power now, though he limped heavily and kept one hand pressed to his bandaged side. Kellermann met them at the door to his rooms—once Mother’s—and he and Fox put him to bed, then allowed the two women in.
Giselle sighed, as she settled down in “her” old chair at Mother’s hearth—much improved with one of those stoves. “I just realized how incredibly stupid this all was.”
“How so?” Rosa asked, as Elfrida appeared with a tray of beautiful potato pancakes and applesauce. She set the tray down on Cody’s lap, and he put his tumbler of brandy down beside the food, looking well pleased with himself.
“This all began because Johann and his brother heard some rumor about Mother’s treasure, back when I was younger.” Giselle shook her head. “If they hadn’t believed such a stupid story, they’d never have come here in the first place, and none of this ever would have happened.”
“Since we rid the world of four very nasty characters, I can’t say I’m terribly displeased with the outcome,” Rosa pointed out, dryly. “Not to mention getting the pleasure of your company. And you would not have been there to help Captain Cody with the Wild West Show! But what do you mean, she didn’t have any treasure? She had enough money to purchase and abandon that house where she lured your father. And she had enough money to support the two of you quite comfortably while she was alive. She was an Earth Master with extensive contacts with dwarves. Most of them have ways of winkling gold or gems out of the little fellows.”
“Well, I never found any, and neither did Joachim, and we both looked,” Giselle protested. “Not a copper coin or a—”
She stopped short at the odd expression on Rosa’s face. “What?”
“That chest next to the chair you’re sitting on,” Rosa said. “What