The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,128

Eulis quickly stepped forward.

“Dear girl… won’t you let Sister Leticia assist you to your home?”

Mary shuddered. Home? It was the last place she wanted to be.

Letty saw the empty expression in the girl’s eyes and read it as more than shock. She slipped an arm beneath the young girl’s elbow.

“Mary is it? My name is Let… uh, Sister Leticia. Will you let me walk with you?”

Mary could see the woman’s lips moving, but she couldn’t hear her voice. Then she started to shake.

Without waiting for her to answer, Letty slipped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, then looked to the sheriff.

“Where does she live?”

He pointed down the street. “Her parents run the dry goods store. They live above it.”

Letty nodded, and then patted Mary’s arm. “Lean on me,” she said softly.

Mary was halfway home before she realized her feet were moving. She stopped, looked down at herself and saw a rip in the bodice and dirt all over herself. She’d lost the heel on one shoe and her face was starting to burn where her face had been skinned. She touched her face then helplessly tugged at the tear, trying to pull the torn sides together.

“It will be okay,” Letty said softly.

Mary swayed on her feet then looked up. She didn’t know the woman, but she saw kindness on her face, and it was enough to break the wall of her defenses.

“No, it will never be okay,” Mary said. “I am with child and this morning, they hanged the man who got me this way.”

Letty sighed. She’d heard plenty of similar stories from girls who’d worked in her position, but never from a girl of a proper family.

“Do your parents know?”

“No.”

“You need to tell them. They’ll know soon enough, as it is.”

The girl swayed where she stood then looked away.

“No. I’d rather die than see the disappointment on their faces.

Suddenly, for Letty, the near-fatal accident took on a whole other connotation.

“Look at me,” Letty said.

“I can’t,” Mary said. “I’m ashamed.

Letty took her by the arms and shook her.

“So ashamed that you’d kill yourself instead of face the truth?”

Mary covered her face with her hands.

Before Letty could speak, someone put a hand on her shoulder and turned her completely around. She found herself staring at the middle of a big man’s chest. At that point, she looked up then took a studied step back.

“Are you makin’ Miss Mary cry?”

Letty wasn’t in the habit of being intimidated by any man, no matter the size.

“No. She’s doing a fine job of it all on her own,” Letty snapped. “And who are you?”

“Dooley Pilchard. Pleased to make your acquaintance,” Dooley said, and then frowned at himself. He wasn’t sure that was true, but the manners that had been drilled into him as a boy had popped out without thought.

Dooley didn’t know that his heart was in his eyes as he looked at Mary Farmer, but Letty recognized the look. She’d seen it on a miner’s face as he’d promised to love and honor Letty’s friend Truly Fine until death did them part. Letty stared long and hard at the man, then back at the girl.

“Does he know?” Letty asked.

Mary gasped and looked up.

“Know what?” Dooley asked.

“Don’t!” Mary cried, and then covered her face again.

Dooley pulled himself up to his full height of six feet, seven inches, and gently moved Mary’s hands away from her face.

“Miss Mary, we need to get you home and those scratches tended to on your face.”

“I can’t,” she whispered.

He frowned. “What you mean, you can’t? Are you hurtin’ in your limbs? I can carry you easy. Just let me—”

“Tell him!” Letty said.

Mary turned on Letty.

“Shut up! Shut up! I shouldn’t have told you. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Told her what?” Dooley asked.

“She’s with child.”

Mary groaned and started to wilt.

Dooley grabbed her before she could fall and then scooped her up in his arms.

“I reckon I’ll carry you the rest of the way,” he said softly.

“I don’t want to go home. I want to die.”

Dooley felt like dying himself, but he didn’t have time to let the feeling fester.

“Yeah, I already figured that out,” Dooley said. “Might near took me with you.”

Letty’s eyes widened. “Are you the man who saved her?”

“I reckon I am,” Dooley said.

Suddenly, it was as if good Lord himself leaned down from heaven and whispered the answer in her ear.

“I know how to fix this,” she said shortly.

Dooley pulled Mary away from Letty as if she’d just tried to attack her.

“You ain’t