some luck because he didn’t look like the kind of man who’d have skill with a knife.
“You were lucky, Barnaby,” the doc said as he tied off the bandage. “In a few weeks you’ ll be good as new if you keep that hand clean.”
The disheartened outlaw nodded. “It don’t matter none. The deputy is going to shoot me as soon as he realizes I’m in town. He told me to get out and never come back.” He raised his head enough to stare at Lewt. “You’re probably going to turn me in for attempted robbery.”
“No,” Lewt said simply. “I see it as just a misunderstanding between friends.”
“We’re not actually in town, Barnaby. Town line is at the road.”
Lewt nodded at Bonnie and moved closer to the bandit. “You’ll have to work off the doctor’s fee. The nurse says it’ll take you two weeks, but you can sleep in their barn and she’ll feed you two meals a day as long as you put in a good day’s work.”
The tall nurse stepped inside. “I agreed to this, Barnaby, on two conditions. You don’t step foot off the property or take a drink until the bill is paid.”
Em raised an eyebrow. She’d heard her aunt make several such deals to men who couldn’t pay. Usually if they stayed sober a few weeks they looked good enough to find a job in town or at one of the ranches around. This time she wondered if Bonnie or Lewt had thought of the plan.
Before the nurse could get chatty and give her away, Em stormed past Lewt and said, “We’d better be going. We’ve still got a day’s work to do.”
He raised an eyebrow but followed.
When they were at their horses, she twirled toward him so suddenly the man almost slammed into her. “Want to tell me what happened back there in the trees? Like for one, where did that knife come from?”
“Look, Em, can we just forget it happened? What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t very well kill a man for being down on his luck. I didn’t think he would have fired that old gun, but I wasn’t sure. From the looks of it, I’d say the weapon was as likely to go off in his hand as at us.”
“I was thinking of killing him for trying to steal a horse,” Em cut in, “but you? You wound him and then help him. I swear, the man could have shot us both and you worried about his cut.”
Lewt took a long breath. “Can we just act like it never happened? The guy was too thin and hungry and desperate to be able to kill us. Even if he’d got off a shot, the odds were he wouldn’t have hit us.”
She glared at him. Who was this man who worried about hurting a robber? A nut, she decided. A rich, from a good family, nut.
To her surprise, he pulled out his watch and checked the time. Now he was worried about the time. Not an hour ago when she was waiting for him, but now when they’d already wasted half the day.
“I know we’re on your time schedule, Em, but do you think we could stop in at one of those cafés in town and have a meal before you try to work me to death again? I’m starving.” He hesitated, and added, “I’ll buy.”
She opened her mouth to say no, then reconsidered. It was almost noon. They’d never make it back to the ranch in time for lunch, and the two eggs she’d had at dawn seemed a far memory. “All right. You’ve already wasted an hour knifing and doctoring a bandit, we might as well take time to eat.”
They turned around and rode back into town. Lewt stopped at the first café and waited for her to swing down.
She walked in ahead of him and took the table in the corner, placing her back to the door. He circled around and took the chair facing her. When the waitress passed, he ordered two of the specials with coffee.
Emily kept her head low and her hat on.
“You eat here often?” Lewt asked.
“Never,” she answered. “How’d you know what to order?”
“If there’s no board and no menu, they always have a special. If you never eat here, no one is likely to recognize you. This kind of place tends to have the same folks every day.”
“If I keep my hat and coat on, they’ll think I’m a man.”