Jodi Thomas: Texan's Touch

Adam raised an eyebrow. He’d treated hundreds, but couldn’t remember one being from anywhere near his home. Rarely had there been time to ask.

“Send them away, darling!” she cried. “I can’t have people like them ruining my party. I swear, one looked more like a bear than a human. You’d think those kind of people would have sense enough to come to the back door.”

“But what if one of them is in pain?” Adam started down the hall to the dining room.

“Then let Dr. Wilson take care of him. I can’t have this kind of thing happening.” She followed Adam. “If you let them come to our home, before you know it they’ll be bleeding all over the rugs.”

Adam wasn’t listening. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear anything she was saying. “Which way to the kitchen?” he snapped at her. Perfection was crumbling before his eyes.

She waved in the direction of a closed door at the back of the dining area. “I hope Charles managed to hold them back. I couldn’t very well have the strangers mingling with the guests.”

“No,” Adam fought down his anger as he stared at her. Her hair wasn’t sunshine, it was gold, cold hard gold. “We wouldn’t want them dying past the butler’s pantry, would we, Bergette?”

She look disgusted. “You don’t think he’s dying, do you?”

Adam moved down the row of dining chairs pushed back from a huge mahogany table. “Did these men give a name?”

Bergette’s full skirts kept her from following him. “I heard the thin one call the huge one Wolf. Wolf, what a name.”

He reached for his gun, but no holster was about his waist. It must be two of the Shadows! If Nichole’s brother had followed him for four months to kill him, one gun might not be enough. Besides, the war was over. Hadn’t this Shadow rider gotten the word?

“Stay with the guests!” he ordered. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

He moved through the dining room thankful that Bergette hadn’t argued. As he approached the far exit, a tall form pivoted slowly around the doorjamb, opening the door as he moved.

“Evening, little brother.” Wes grinned. “I thought I might just drop in for a few minutes. Hope I didn’t spoil Bergette’s party.” His tone left no doubt that he cared little for Bergette’s feelings.

“You saw the two men?” Adam met his brother’s gaze.

“I saw them.” Wes brushed his gun handle. “The big one almost frightened May to death when she stepped out on the porch and found him standing in the middle of the yard like he grew there at sundown.”

“You know who they are?” Adam stood only inches away from his brother. Silently, Wes slipped him a derringer and Adam folded it into his coat.

“I’ve seen too many men not to be able to size them up. They’re shabby and underfed, but both ride like the wind. And the thin one carried your medical bag. A bag you lost right about the time the war ended.”

Wes didn’t need to say more. Adam knew he’d filled in the blanks.

“Only thing I can’t figure”-Wes moved toward the closed doors of the room called the butler’s pantry-“is… are they here to thank you, or kill you?”

“There’s only one way to find out.” Adam gripped the knob and opened the door.

NICHOLE REMOVED HER jacket, folded her arms, and leaned against the spotless counter. All she’d wanted to do was see Adam McLain again… prove to herself that he was more a daydream and less a reality. No man could have been as kind, or good, or tender as she remembered. She must have lost a great deal of blood to conjure up such a fantasy. All the men she’d known were hard and measured their worth by their ability to fight. All but the doctor, it seemed.

But getting to see Adam McLain again had turned into a traveling minstrel show. Wolf, always protective, insisted on coming with her. She’d spent the war crossing back and forth along the line, outrunning bullets most of the time. Now he thought she needed a bodyguard to travel by train to this little town at the southernmost tip of Indiana. Standing in a fine house, Wolf, puffed up like the bear he resembled, was pacing the polished floor of a room not three strides long.

“I don’t see why you wanted to come here,” Wolf mumbled in a low roar as he scratched his beard.

“I told you,” Nichole answered for what felt like the hundredth time. “I owe him my life, the least I can do is bring back his bag.”

Wolf looked around. “He can afford another one.” He bumped against a cabinet, causing glasses to tinkle like church bells. “All hell’s going to break loose back home. I haven’t got time to ride a train north just to see some doctor.”

“I could have come alone.”

“No, sir.” Wolf shook his head so hard she could almost see some of his fur fly. “If you’re crazy enough to want this, Nick, I’ll be close in case there’s trouble.” He shook one beefy finger at her. “Always have someone you can trust to watch your back. You never know when you’ll have to retreat.”

Nichole frowned. The only trouble she could think of would probably come from her brother. He was uncomfortable about her being a woman. Everything had been fine between them when she rode as one of the men. But since the morning he found her kissing the Yankee, he’d been uneasy. Even with the war over, he still called her Nick and referred to her as “he” most of the time.

When the door opened, she forgot all about Wolf. The man who had held her so gently and kissed her so tenderly appeared before her looking far more handsome than she remembered. His brown hair was combed neatly and the peace had eased the worry lines along his forehead.

He was dressed in a black suit that fit him like it had been tailored just for him, and a shirt so white it deepened his tan. Nichole could never remember a man looking so spotlessly clean. His warm brown eyes stared only at her, as if she were somebody special.

For a long moment, he just stared at her as though he were drinking in the sight of her with one long draw.

“Wes,” he said slowly as he smiled at Nichole and opened his hand toward her. “I’d like you to meet Nichole Hayward and her brother, Captain Wolf Hayward of the Gray Shadows. Miss Hayward”-Adam moved to the side allowing another man to enter-“my brother, Captain Weston McLain.”

The man behind Adam let a smile lift the corner of his mouth as he stepped around his brother. “ Miss Hayward. Captain Hayward.” He nodded at them both. The smile spread until it almost reached a thin white scar along his cheek. His was of the same build as Adam, brown hair, brown eyes, but somehow different, harder.

“This isn’t a social call.” Wolf’s low voice seemed to rumble around the little room like a loose cannonball. “Nick wanted to return the medical bag you left behind and have you check the wound at her side for healing. Then we’ll be on our way.”

Nichole knew no one in the room except her brother believed the reason.

Adam’s brother’s smile now infected both corners of his mouth. “Well, Captain Hayward.” He turned toward Wolf. “If my brother has got doctoring to do, we best step out of the room.”

“What?” Wolf widened his stance. “I ain’t leaving her alone with some damn-”

“I’ll be all right,” Nichole interrupted. “He’s a doctor, Wolf. What do you think he’s going to do, kill me right here among the china after he risked his life to save me during the war?”

Wolf didn’t look like he planned to be uprooted. “You never know what they’re going to do. Keep your gun handy, Nick.”

To prove her point, Nichole handed her Colt to Wes. “I’m not holding a weapon on the man who saved my life. He’s under no obligation to check the healing.”