The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,212

circled the wagon, desperately searching for Eulis. She couldn’t bear to think of him lying broken and bloody beneath that runaway team.

“Eulis! Eulis!” When she realized someone had her by the arm and was pulling her back, she jerked free. “Let me go!”

“I suggest you stay out of the way, and for once let real men tend to the business of the day.”

Anger burned as she found herself face to face with Boston Jones. The derisive tone in his voice was like a slap in the face.

“I’d be happy to, but I don’t see any yet,” she countered, and pulled out of his grasp.

Not even the snowfall could hide the fury on his face as she ran past him, but she didn’t see and wouldn’t have cared.

“Eulis! Eulis!”

“Here! I’m here,” he yelled.

She heard his voice coming from somewhere above her. She looked up and saw him standing in the back of the runaway wagon, holding a woman’s body.

“She’s burning up with fever!” Eulis said, as he staggered to the side of the wagon, handing her off to a pair of men who quickly carried her inside the general store.

“Someone get the doctor!” another man cried.

They passed within inches of where Letty was standing, and as they did, the woman’s head lolled loosely against Letty’s shoulder. She looked down and gasped.

“Lord, Lord,” she muttered, and reached for Eulis’s arm. “Get out of there! Get out of there now!” she cried, and yanked hard.

Eulis staggered, then jumped, steadying himself just before he went face down in the snow.

“Dang it, woman, what’s wrong with you?” he shouted.

But Letty wasn’t talking, she just kept pulling him through the crowd to their wagon. He picked up the tools that he’d dropped, and tossed them into the wagon. But Letty wouldn’t relent. She kept pushing at his back.

“Get in!” she yelled.

“I ain’t had time to check on the rooms at—”

She grabbed him by the arms and yanked him around until they were standing so close they could feel the heat of each other’s breath.

“We got to get out of here! Now get in the wagon and don’t argue! Please!”

It was the, please, that did it—that and the panic he saw on her face. He didn’t understand, but they’d come too far together to start doubting each other now.

Letty bolted for the wagon as Eulis yanked the reins from a miner and crawled up beside her.

“Look out!” he yelled, and slapped the reins across the mules’ rump. “Hi-yah! Hi-yah!”

Miners scattered in every direction like the snow that kept falling as their wagon began to roll. Boston Jones watched from inside the store, frowning as he watched them leaving the city, then shrugged.

Crazy. Both of them were crazy.

He glanced over his shoulder at the woman lying on the counter. Everyone around her was pointing and talking, but he couldn’t be bothered. He took another puff of his cigar and walked out of the store as Letty and Eulis disappeared.

It wasn’t until they had reached the top of the hill before Eulis pulled the team to a halt.

“Now talk to me,” Eulis said. “What was that all about?”

Letty’s face was as white as the snow swirling around their heads. She put her hand on the arm of Eulis’s coat, then on his collar, and then splayed her cold and numbing fingers across the front of his chest.

“You held her here… and here,” then she started to cry.

Eulis’s heart started to pound. He didn’t understand, but she was scaring him just the same.

“Letty. For God’s sake, please. Tell me what’s wrong.”

Tears were freezing on her cheeks, but nothing was as cold as the place around her heart. Each breath that she took came slower than the last, as if everything inside of her was dying. She stared into Eulis’s face, watching the way the snowflakes settled on his eyelashes and the two frown lines that formed between his eyebrows when he was on the verge of angry. Never had she cared for him as much or been as scared.

“Letty… damn it!”

She bit her lip then opened her mouth. Even though she knew she was talking, she couldn’t hear herself saying the words.

“Smallpox. That woman had smallpox.”

Eulis grunted as if he’d been sucker-punched. He looked down at his hands and then back up at Letty.

“Are you sure?”

She nodded.

“Then don’t touch me,” he said.

“It’s too late,” Letty said. “Besides, I’ve had it.”

Eulis went weak with relief. “Thank God,” he said, and before he thought, he hugged her.

Eulis’s arms were around Letty for