Читать книгу White Christmas in Dry Creek - Janet Tronstad - Страница 10

Chapter Two

Renee stared at the man, willing his chest to rise with another breath. A thick Persian rug lay beneath him—the one she’d used to help pull him inside. It had been under the man this whole time, keeping his back warm and giving him some softness. She exhaled when she saw him inhale. She hadn’t even realized she was holding her breath until then.

She wondered what kind of trouble he had known. Had it all been from Afghanistan or had he gotten some of those bruises closer to home?

Not that it was her business, she reminded herself. She braced herself and turned to the sheriff. “I suppose you’re going to arrest him now?”

The man was unconscious again, so she didn’t think he’d mind her asking.

“Arrest him?” The sheriff looked over in surprise. “We can’t do that. Even if cattle are missing—and it looks like they are—there’s no proof Rusty Calhoun has done anything wrong. It’s all circumstantial.”

The front door was still open, but Renee barely noticed the sting of the cold air. The snowflakes had slowed. Earlier, there had been a full moon, but the clouds had come out since then to make everything dark except where the porch light came through the windows and door of the house. The stranger’s horse was standing patiently by the porch rail. The man’s black Stetson had been pushed against the corner post by the wind. There was no sign of his dog.

“I didn’t think you needed all that much proof around here to arrest someone,” Renee finally said. She tried not to let her feelings show. “He was shot in a place where cattle are almost certainly missing. Ranchers are going out on patrol—like as not with their rifles. It’s circumstantial, sure, but you didn’t have that much more when you arrested me.”

The sound of a distant television let her know Tessie was securely in the bedroom and would not hear them. Yet neither she nor the sheriff said anything for a good minute.

Finally, the lawman shook his head. “You still hold that against me? I don’t know how many times I’ve explained that I arrested you for your own protection. You had been part of the theft at that gas station. We didn’t know at first that you’d been forced into it by your abusive husband. A blind man could see that he was setting you up to take the fall on those armed robberies he was pulling off. Even after we picked him up, that accomplice of his was still running around free and he was dangerous. I wanted to keep you safe from him. You were never even brought to trial. And it all happened a year ago. It’s not like you have a record from it or anything to hold you back.”

Renee nodded, but she didn’t meet the sheriff’s eyes. “I’d just never been arrested before. Not even a parking ticket.”

She had no quarrel with the law. The legal system might be a little black-and-white at times, but every criminal had some sad story in his background. She’d certainly had hers. And this man wouldn’t be the first wounded veteran to do something impulsive. All people needed to be held accountable for their actions. Except that she hadn’t done the crime.

“I don’t go around arresting people for no reason,” the sheriff continued gruffly, his face turning slightly pink.

“Well, I suppose I could have done better, too.” Renee had to give him that. “I didn’t help my ex-husband with those robberies, but I sure didn’t know how to stop him, either.”

When Renee had seen that her husband was robbing gas stations, she’d finally been desperate enough to come look for her father. She’d ended up at Gracie Stone’s nearby house, in as bad shape as this man was tonight.

“That doesn’t make you guilty of anything,” the sheriff said. “Stopping him was my job. What you should have done was come tell me what he was doing. Sooner than you did.”

Renee nodded. After Gracie and her father married, they welcomed her and Tessie into their family along with Gracie’s three grown sons. But Renee wouldn’t let herself lean on the Stone family. She needed to find strength inside herself if she and her daughter were ever going to have a good life. Now that she was a Christian, she believed she could do that.

“I’m not saying you should arrest this man,” she finally said. “It’s just that if you are going to arrest the guy tonight, I want you to do it now, before Tessie has a chance to come back. She thinks he’s a prince. It would break her heart to see you put handcuffs on him.”

“I wouldn’t do anything to hurt that little girl,” Sheriff Wall responded. “You know that.”

The sheriff leaned back on his haunches and continued, “And while we’re on the subject, I know Tessie is not particularly comfortable with any of the men around here. Well, except for her grandfather.”

“Tessie and men are—” Renee paused, searching for the right word “—complicated.”

The sheriff nodded. “But she seems to really like this guy. At least enough to talk to him and call him a prince. She’s not afraid of him, either. That’s something for her. He needs to be checked out better, but he sounds like he’s single. I wouldn’t rule him out completely. For all their faults, the Calhouns were honest people. And Tessie sure needs a better father than the one she’s got.”

Renee turned to the lawman in astonishment.

“He’s absolutely the worst kind of man we could get involved with. Look at him.” She gestured. “Only a violent man gets that many wounds. He spouts all kind of romantic nonsense about angels just hoping some woman will be foolish enough to fall for it. He might have Tessie wrapped around his little finger, but I’ll never budge. He and my ex-husband are enough alike to be brothers. I hope I never see him again after tonight. He even has a wolf for a dog. What kind of a father would he make for a little girl?”

“Ah,” the sheriff said. “Well, that’s too bad.”

They were both silent again.

“You’ve been talking to Betty, haven’t you?” Renee finally asked.

Sheriff Wall pushed his hat down farther on his head. “Betty’s the dispatcher. I talk to her all the time.”

Renee gave the sheriff a stern look. “Just so you know—I’m not looking for a husband. She thinks I need one. I don’t. Tessie and I are doing just fine.”

“Understood,” the lawman said with something like relief in his voice. “I like to help, but I’m not much good as a matchmaker anyway.”

“No, you’re not,” Renee agreed with a smile.

The sheriff was silent for a moment and then he pointed to the phone Renee held in her hand. “Speaking of Betty, is she still—”

Renee grimaced in dismay and held out the phone. She’d forgotten all about it.

The lawman took it and put it to his ear. “You still on here, Betty? Could you call Havre and see if they have anything on a Rusty Calhoun? They probably don’t, but it’s a place to start.”

Renee could hear the ambulance as it stopped in front of the house. The sound of boots announced the arrival of two uniformed men as they came through the open doorway. The thin worker had a tattoo on his hand and the stockier one had a beard.

“This must be our patient,” the tattooed man said as he knelt and put his fingers over the pulse on Rusty’s throat. “He’s doing better than I thought he might from what Betty said.”

Renee felt relief wash over her as the two men loaded Rusty onto a gurney and wheeled him out of the house.

The sheriff hung up the phone. “They’ll take Rusty to the clinic in Miles City. There’s nothing for you to worry about. You and Tessie can go to bed.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” Renee said as she reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out the slip of paper. “I took this out of the man’s pocket. It has a phone number on it.”

The sheriff took the paper and studied it. “Not a local number. Looks like something back east. I’ll have to give it back to him, though. No permission for a search.”

“He was unconscious,” Renee said.

“All the more reason.” The sheriff started walking toward the open door. “If I end up arresting him for anything, it could jeopardize the whole case.”

Renee could see the taillights of the ambulance through the side window on the house. A gust of cold wind blew inside before the sheriff could close the door. Renee wrapped her arms around herself. She felt the chill and shivered. She suddenly realized she’d have to see that man again. She had his horse and that beast he called a dog. She’d have to call over to the bunkhouse to see if anyone was awake to help her. She didn’t want to walk out to the barn in the dark with that animal around. Just because the man called him a dog didn’t make him one.

* * *

Early the next morning, Rusty sleepily noticed the antiseptic smell around him while his eyes were still closed. This place felt familiar, but he wasn’t ready to wake up. It was not full light yet and he heard the rumble of voices in the distance. Slowly he remembered and his entire body tensed. He started to reach for the knife he kept in his right boot. Then he realized his toes were bare. He wore no socks. His boots were gone.

He opened his eyes and tried to rise on his elbows to look around. He had trouble because he had a bandage around his chest, and one arm was tangled up somehow. He wasn’t in the humble hospital where he’d spent weeks after being wounded that last time in Afghanistan, though. The knowledge made him relax. The walls here were painted a light pink and the windows were intact. His boots were beside his bed. He slumped back against the pillows. He even smelled a hint of coffee in the distance.

A cotton blanket had been draped around him, but the air was cool. There was no hint of food and he wondered if he had missed breakfast. He had a headache, but he could easily move his left hand and reached over to the bandage on his side. His arm was in a sling. He remembered now that they’d brought him here in what seemed like the middle of the night.

He looked at the machine next to his bed and pushed the call button. The events of last night were coming back to him. He was amazed he’d headed for the Elkton ranch like a homing pigeon when he was in trouble. His mother had always said Mr. Elkton had the best ranch around. It had made his father furious, but Rusty agreed with her. He’d been ten years old when they’d first had that argument.

Now he just shook his head. He didn’t have time for memories—good or bad. He was anxious to get out of here and find out what kind of trouble his brother had gotten mixed up in.

Rusty was reaching for his boots with his good arm when his eye caught a furtive action near the open door. He glanced up just in time to see a dark shape move out of view. He hadn’t seen much, but he knew there was no white or pastel color on the figure, so it wasn’t a nurse.

“Who is it?” he demanded, realizing why he’d flashed back to Afghanistan. Someone had almost killed him last night and he didn’t know why. He could still be in danger. He’d never been as scared in his life as he had some nights in the army. He wondered if fear would always pull him back there.

He dragged his right boot close and slipped his hand down to the small pocket in the interior of the leather where he kept his knife. It was empty.

He moved to the wall beside the door anyway and lifted the boot. The heel was hard enough to knock someone out. Even clad in this threadbare hospital gown and with only one arm working, he could do enough damage to slow someone down if he had to get away.

“Rusty,” someone whispered and he relaxed. He recognized that voice. He put his boot down at the same time as his angel peeked around the corner of the doorway. He hadn’t realized last night that she was so slender and slight. Just a wisp of a woman.

“Are you all right?” she asked hesitantly. “The nurse said you were still sleeping.”

“Not anymore.” He grinned for no good reason.

Then he stopped and just looked at her. She’d been all golden and shining last night. Today she was subdued and more copper than gold. Maybe it was the difference in her hair. It wasn’t spread out in a halo this morning; she’d pulled it back into a smooth braid. The hair still captured the light, but it was deeper, more intense. And her face was paler than it had been last night. But that didn’t make sense. She wasn’t scared of him today the way she had been then.

At least, he didn’t think she was afraid today until he saw her blink. That was the exact moment she’d gotten a clear look at him.

“Someone messed with my boots,” he tried to explain, hoping that would be enough to make the sight of him seem normal as he stood hunched by the wall with his hospital gown open in the back, his boot clenched to his chest and a blanket caught in the loose ties of his gown.

“Oh.” She nodded uncertainly.

She had freckles on her nose. He wondered how he had missed that last night. And her face looked drawn, as if she was worried about something and had been for some time.

“How’s your little girl?” he asked, realizing as he said it that the woman must be married since she had a daughter who thought her father was a king.

Not that it was any of his concern if she was married.

“Fine.”

Rusty knew so little about family life. His mother had left a few months after she’d made her comments about the Elkton ranch. Then it had been Rusty, baby Eric and their father doing the best they could. It didn’t take them long to forget all of her housewife ways. They ate from tin cans when they were hungry and slept in beds without sheets when they were tired. He knew boys were expected to like that kind of life, but he would have traded it all to have his mother come back to visit, even if it was just one time.

Rusty felt the weight of the blanket and looked down long enough to untangle it and wrap it around him like a toga.

“Are you Mrs. Elkton?” he asked his visitor as he then knotted the hospital gown ties around his back so everything was secure.

Mr. Elkton had been a widower when Rusty was a boy, but a lot could have changed since then.

The woman shook her head as though what he’d said was unthinkable. “I’m the cook for the ranch hands. My daughter and I live in our own place behind the bunkhouse. We’re just taking care of the main house while the Elktons are gone. We don’t own it or anything like that.”

“Oh.” Rusty was uncomfortable now that he seemed to have made the woman feel as if she was less than he had expected. Not that he knew why she felt what she did. He must look like a deranged drifter, so she shouldn’t be worried about impressing him.

It was a reminder, though, of why he avoided pretty, delicate-looking woman like her. He never understood them and he’d had a few relationships where he’d tried. He preferred women who were uncomplicated. If they had any emotion, they kept it to themselves. Serviceable was what they were, he thought. Good soldiers. If he ever hooked up with a woman, it would be with one like that.

“I’m sorry,” Rusty finally mumbled.

Just then a nurse sailed into the room, a clipboard in her hands and a small frown on her face. She assessed the situation in a glance. “If you’re looking for that knife of yours, the sheriff took it out of your boot. We don’t allow weapons in the hospital.”

“Of course you don’t.” Rusty was more comfortable with a woman like that. The nurse was starched and disapproving, without a hair out of place. She knew how to take orders and give them. She couldn’t be hurt or dismayed by anything he did.

“The sheriff also said you’re free to go when we’re finished with you,” the nurse added.

“Thanks,” Rusty said.

“You had a knife?” his visitor asked then, apparently still shocked. “All that time last night, you had a knife?”

The woman’s voice rose in hysteria. She made his spine tingle. He felt an urge to promise he’d never touch a knife again, not even to cut his steak. Or butter his bread, if it came to that.

“I wasn’t going to use it,” he assured her as best he could. It didn’t seem to do much good, if the outraged expression on her face was any indicator.

“Honestly,” he added. “I left my military blade in the hospital back east and bought the kind of knife the ranch hands usually have. It’s more to cut twine than hurt anyone.”

She looked at him, suspicion pinching her face. “Some men have been trained to kill with a fork.”

“Not me,” he said, defending himself. He could kill with a ballpoint pen, but he thought it best not to mention that. “I’m finished with violence.”

The chaplain had brought him that far, at least. He wasn’t prepared to gather any more guilt on his soul over people being hurt. Not even when it came to the feelings of a flighty, emotional woman like this one.

“I need to take your vitals,” the nurse announced as she stopped pushing buttons on the machine by the bed. “It’s best if you’re lying down when I do.”

“Just a minute.” Rusty kept his eyes on his visitor. She wasn’t looking too steady.

“My daughter was there,” she finally said, as though that explained it all.

Even if he hadn’t done anything to cause her distress, Rusty didn’t like seeing her this way. He reached to his left and pulled a chair over for her. He was remembering more about last night the longer he stood there. Maybe he wasn’t as blameless as he thought.

“I promise you were safe,” he assured her. He wasn’t sure how she’d react if he took her hand, but that was what he wanted to do. “I’m sure I scared you, but I would never have hurt you. I owe you my life. If you hadn’t taken me into your house last night, I would have died.”

He hated to say it, but he was a fair man. She deserved the acknowledgment. “I owe you big-time.”

“I didn’t have a choice,” she said, a little downcast.

That wasn’t the response he’d expected.

“Well, I’d like to think you don’t regret it,” he said a bit stiffly.

She finally sat down on the chair.

“No, I don’t regret it,” she admitted and a shy smile formed at the edge of her mouth. If he wasn’t mistaken, she was teasing him. “Not too much, at least.”

The morning light came in through the window and settled around her, making her face shine a little. He could see why he’d thought her skin was the color of pearls last night.

“You truly are remarkable,” he said softly.

Her honey-colored eyes widened and the specks in them seemed to multiply. She clearly hadn’t expected him to be that nice.

“I’m just myself,” she said.

That was why he should never forget that excitable women were completely incomprehensible to him. It wasn’t as if he’d been going to lean over and kiss her or anything. She didn’t need to be alarmed at a simple compliment.

And then he realized he was standing too close. She was sitting in the chair and he was leaning in a little so he could talk to her easily. Hovering, really. Maybe he would have kissed her if she kept smiling that way.

That would never do, he thought as he straightened himself.

“What I should have said is that I’ll pay you for last night.” He instinctively reached for his wallet. Which, of course, he didn’t have since his clothes were gone. He looked over at the small table beside his hospital bed. “Don’t worry. I’ll write a check before you leave.”

“I really should take your blood pressure,” the nurse interjected. “And don’t let Renee tell you that she’s just a cook. She keeps that bunkhouse working. Doctors the men when they’re sick. Makes them take their vitamins. Sees they call their families.”

“So your name’s Renee,” Rusty said with a smile.

The woman gave a curt nod. “Renee Gray.”

“Lovely name. I’m Rusty Cal—”

“—houn,” Renee and the nurse said in unison and then laughed.

“There’s no such thing as a stranger around here,” the nurse finally said. “We all know your name.”

“Can you give us a minute?” Rusty asked the nurse. He still wasn’t certain that Renee was doing so well this morning. She was acting a little erratic, in his opinion. Scared one moment and delirious the next.

“Well, I guess I can come back later,” the nurse agreed.

Rusty couldn’t detect any hint of hurt feelings or dismay in the nurse’s voice. Yes, she was the kind of woman for him, even if he couldn’t quite picture kissing her.

“Now,” Rusty said when he turned to Renee. The nurse was gone and he realized he had nothing left to say. “Oh, and I owe you for taking care of Annie, too,” he suddenly remembered.

She shook her head. “Pete, one of the ranch hands, helped me. She’s doing fine in the barn.” She paused. “I didn’t see your dog, but Pete and I left some steak bones out by the barn and they were gone this morning.”

“He’s around. He won’t be far from Annie.”

“What’s his name?”

“Dog.”

“He looks like a wolf.”

“That’s why I call him Dog. To remind people.”

“Oh.”

“Tell Pete thanks, too.”

Rusty was going to owe a lot of people before this was all over.

“I—ah.” The woman nodded and then stood up. “I came because I called the Elktons this morning and told them what happened last night. Mr. Elkton wanted me to pass along an invitation for you to stay in the bunkhouse, if you want—with the ranch hands. Mr. Elkton said he remembered you from when you’d worked for him a few days when you were a boy.”

“Really? He remembered me after all these years?”

That touched him.

Renee nodded. “He said he’d never seen a kid work like you did. And all for a necklace. Wouldn’t even take a break for a soda. And then you came back two extra Saturdays and chopped wood because you thought he’d overpaid you the first time.”

“We Calhouns don’t take charity.” Rusty wouldn’t have been able to buy the necklace in time if he hadn’t accepted the man’s extra money, though.

“Well, I hope whoever you bought those pearls for appreciated it,” Renee said politely. “Mr. Elkton remembered you describing it to him. Said you talked about it being the most beautiful strand of pearls ever strung together.”

“I should have taken those pearls out and buried them like Dog does his bones in the backyard,” he said bitterly.

“Oh.”

Renee looked at him for a bit.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” he finally admitted. “They were proper pearls. Still are. It’s not their fault they weren’t good enough.”

He saw no point in stirring up past heartache. He’d bought the pearls for his mother’s birthday, only to have her leave home with some guy in a pickup five hours after Rusty had given the necklace to her. She didn’t even have the courage to tell his father what she was doing. She’d left when his father was out in the fields and Rusty had to tell him what happened. Rusty hadn’t known his mother had left the necklace behind until he went to bed and saw it on his pillow. No note or anything with it.

They had been the best pearls Rusty could afford, but they were not good enough for her. Something in him had given up that day. Maybe that was why he never seemed to understand those pretty, delicate-looking women like his mother. He’d never tried again to please a woman—and now the same kind of soul-churning woman stood in front of him with that hesitant look on her face, clearly unsure of how she felt about him.

Putting the past behind him, he stood up, military tall. “Tell Mr. Elkton that I appreciate his offer of a place to stay.”

“Well, it’s just a temporary arrangement until you can get settled somewhere else,” Renee added and then swallowed. “We just— He didn’t know if you had anywhere to go.”

“I’ll do something while I’m there to earn my keep. And I’m serious when I say I want to pay you for the care you gave me last night.”

“I didn’t do much,” the woman said with a shrug that reminded him again of his mother. They both looked as if they carried the weight of the world on their backs and were too fragile to survive. His heart always went out to women like that.

“Well, I’d still like to pay you something,” he said. Right was still right, even if he shouldn’t get involved with her.

She looked at him again for a minute.

“Maybe you could do me a small favor,” she finally said, biting the corner of her lips nervously.

“Of course.”

“I want you to talk to my daughter.”

Rusty was surprised. “I don’t really have much in common with little girls.”

Truthfully, he’d rather give the woman a few hundred dollars.

“Just tell her you don’t have a message from her father,” the woman said in a rush. “That you don’t even know her father. Tell her you’re not a prince.”

“I guess I could do that,” he said slowly. “Those things are all true.”

And they were fairly obvious, he would think, even to a child.

The woman nodded. “Good, then. It’s settled. Tessie is at the practice for the nativity pageant. You can come with me to pick her up.”

Rusty nodded.

“Just be careful not to volunteer to play a part.”

“Me?” No one had ever suggested he belonged in a pageant before. The thought was rather alarming. “I don’t think I’m the type.”

“Good.” Renee seemed relieved. “The kids are so impressionable at that age.”

“I’m sure they’re all angels,” he assured her, trying not to let it sting that she thought he was a danger to the children.

She laughed and left his room, much to his relief.

It took the hospital five minutes to find his clothes and another forty-five minutes to discharge him. Rusty wasn’t sure Renee would still be waiting for him, but he found her in the lobby area, leafing through a magazine.

He walked toward her. “Thanks for staying.”

She stood up. “Later you’ll be able to share the pickups that the ranch hands drive around. But until then, I figure all you have is your horse. Unless you want to ride around on that wolf of yours.”

Rusty nodded. “Dog is pretty big, all right. Thanks for looking out for him and Annie. I’ll take them back to the Morgan ranch as soon as I can ride. Unless I’ve found a place to rent by then. And I’ll ask around for a pickup to buy.”

He didn’t want her to think he was poor. He’d never given much thought to money when he was in the service, but he did have a good-sized savings account.

“You should wait to spend any money until you get the hospital bill,” she said. “You might be amazed at how much it costs to get fixed up now that you’re not in the army. I know you’ve had your share of hospital stays.”

There was something off about the look she gave him then, as though she had a secret and it was making her blush. Why would she care about his hospitalizations, anyway? How did she even know about them?

It wasn’t until he followed her outside that he figured it out.