He looked so pale, though his color was rapidly recovering. He clamped his mouth shut at the sight of Bess and his mother in the room. For her part, Bess schooled her features so that he would not see the fear she felt at the sight of him attached to wires and tubes, with bandages across his ribs and the orange-red antiseptic they’d spread across his weathered skin to ward off infection marring his perfect body.
She moved across the room feeling like a ghost image of herself and leaned across the bed to touch her lips to his forehead, which was feverish. He moved as if to yank the oxygen mask from his mouth and nose, but she stayed the movement with one amazingly steady hand.
“You were already a hero, Judd Taylor, without going and getting yourself shot up like this,” Bess whispered into his ear. She was satisfied by the visible relaxation of his shoulders at the remark. “Now, quit giving your nurses fits. It won’t help you get out of here any sooner. And talking cannot be helping your ribs.”
He gave her his black-eyed glare, but then he winked and seemed to sigh back into his pillow. When Agnes came up on the other side of the bed and laid her hand on his brow, he allowed himself to fall back into a much-needed sleep.
“I’m not leaving him,” Bess told the ward doctor when he came in to check Judd’s vitals and proclaimed him in no immediate danger.
Agnes shook her head. “I’ll stay with him tonight, Bess darling. You are a nursing mama. You need your rest, and Daniel needs to sleep in his crib tonight.”
She couldn’t argue with this logic. Twenty minutes later, she had gathered up her son and been offered a ride home by one of the many patrolmen gathered in the waiting room now that the immediate threat of the robbery was over and the waiting for healing had begun.
Bess sat in the patrol car cocooned in silence, too tired to say even one polite thing to the officer, who seemed to understand because he turned on the radio to a country station and lightly hummed with the music as he drove Bess home. She did manage a thank you as she left the car and entered the empty house, with Jethro hot on her heels and frankly much-welcomed company.
Somehow, despite her tension and worry, she slept. The next morning, she called the hospital to discover that Judd had done well during the night. She arranged for a ride to the hospital and hurried to feed Daniel and be ready when her driver arrived.
A knock at the front door long before she expected her ride to arrive made her jump nervously. She allowed Jethro to greet the visitor first, his deep, threatening bark from inside the house making an aggressive, eerie sound.
“It’s me, Bess,” a familiar voice called from the front step, and Bess sighed with relief.
She pulled Jethro back into the living room, settling him before opening the door to Samuel and Michelle. “Hello,” Bess smiled at them.
Michelle, her arms full with a casserole dish, stepped into the house in front of her brother. “I know you will probably be eating hospital food for a few days, but we’ll just pop this in the freezer for when you get back home,” she called over her shoulder as she escaped into the kitchen to do as she said.
Samuel stopped beside Bess, studying her from head to toe. “You don’t look like someone whose husband just got shot,” he said.
From any other person, it would have been an odd thing to say. Bess chuckled nervously. “I guess you mean that as a compliment.”
Samuel took her chin in his soft fingers and spared her a glimpse of his dimples. Bess was suddenly thankful Michelle was just in the other room, a shout away. “So beautiful,” he murmured, and then dropped his loose grip and took a step back.
“This was on your doorstep,” Samuel said, handing her a large envelope.
Bess looked at it in Samuel’s hand for a long moment before she took it from him. It was going to be another threatening note. She knew it, but she didn’t want to see it just then and verify it. So, she laid the envelope on the coffee table to deal with later and was just about to tell Samuel they should join Michelle in the kitchen when Samuel interrupted her.
“Aren’t you going to open it?”
She shook her head. Michelle walked back into the living room and right up to Bess, wrapping the other woman in a strong, warm hug. “Now that that dish is out of my hands,” she said into Bess’ ear. “What a terrible thing to happen in our little town, and around the holidays, too! I’m so glad none of our policemen were killed. What can we do for you, Bess?”
Bess smiled. “I think we’re all right,” she said. “One of the men is coming to take me to the hospital. I need to keep Daniel with me since I’m nursing him.”
“Oh, but the hospital is no place for a newborn!” Michelle cried.
Samuel made a noise in his throat. “Well, she really doesn’t have much of a choice, sis,” he defended. “I’d be happy to pick you up from the hospital later today, Bess. You just give me a call at Michelle’s.”
A feeling, the one that had helped her survive this long in a wide, ugly world, warned Bess this would not be a good idea. And yet, the notion of unease seemed silly. She nodded at Samuel and simply said a non-committal thank you.
There was another knocking at the door, this time from the officer who was Bess’ ride. She said goodbye to Samuel and Michelle and left the police officer in the living room while she quickly gathered Daniel and her diaper bag, another gift from Agnes, to head to the hospital for the day.
The hospital room was bright with the light coming through the window when Bess arrived. The light showed her the pinched look in Judd’s eyes, which were dulled by the pain killers that still left him in pain. She carried Daniel over to the side of the bed and propped herself next to Judd, taking his hand with her free one.
“How do you feel?” she asked, even though she could see it. She pulled his hand to her mouth and kissed it, then gently rubbed the back of his hand against Daniel’s head. “It’s worse today, hmm?”
He nodded. “Better soon.”
Agnes came into the room, looking tired but not much worse for wear. She smiled at Bess. “Well, we all survived the night, even the nurses.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“I need you both to go home.” A raspy, dull voice that it took a moment for Bess to realize was Judd’s filled the room.
Bess stood up from the bed and backed toward Agnes. “We don’t want to leave you. You might need something. You were shot.” Bess felt the words coming out of her like a steady stream of water she couldn’t stop.
Agnes took Daniel from Bess’ arms and nudged Bess back toward the bed. Judd extended his hand, pulling Bess close again. “I want to know you’re back home with the baby and mama. That’s what I need to get better. I’ll be back home before you know it.”
Bess glanced back at Agnes, who merely shrugged. She turned back to Judd. “I want to talk to the doctor first,” she told him.
Before she could move to find the doctor, the door to the room flew open, and Lillian, dressed as if she were headed to a dinner party in her low-cut, slinky dress, descended on them like a whirling dervish. While Bess watched dumbfounded, the other woman descended on Judd, wailing about his condition as if he were still bleeding and filled with bullets, and would have thrown herself on top of him despite his tubes and bandages had Judd not managed to grab her arm with a burst of strength born of surprise and stop her.
Bess rolled her eyes and moved to put herself between Lillian and Judd. She stretched to her considerable height, shouldered past Lillian’s heaving chest and physically broke the contact between them.
“What is wrong with you?” she enunciated, leaving a little space between each word and taking a step forward so that Lillian was forced to move even further away from Judd’s bed.
Lillian managed to look just a touch apologetic before putting on such an air of hurt that anyone would think she were the wife and Bess the intruder. “Oh, Judd,” she exclaimed, ignoring Bess completely, “I just couldn’t believe it when I heard. And knowing what hospitals are like, I just rushed right over here to watch out for you.”
“Because, goodness knows, his mother and wife couldn’t be trusted with the job,” Bess moved so that all Judd would be able to see was her straight, livid back. She felt his hand at the base of her spine, his fingers tapping her lightly. She took a calming breath and added, before Lillian could come up with some other retort, “Judd was just telling us that he preferred not to have visitors, not even family. So, why don’t you join us in the cafeteria for a coffee before we all leave the hospital?”
Lillian’s mouth moved like a guppy, and then she recovered herself and smiled grudgingly at Bess. “Thank you for the invitation,” she said, “but I have a prior engagement. I’m sure Judd is in fine hands with Agnes here, as you say.”
Agnes joined the conversation for the first time with the mention of her name. “Lillian, I am often reminded of your dear mama’s gracious behavior when I am in your company. You’re sure you can’t join us downstairs, now?”
Daniel, laying in Agnes’ arms, chose that moment to kick out his muscular legs and set to wailing so that the hairs on the back of Bess’ neck stood on end. “Looks like someone is hungry,” she said, taking her son from Agnes and settling into the chair with him.
She had just managed to unbutton the front of her dress when Lillian made a startled sound and turned to face the door. “I’m sorry I can’t stay, Judd. I’ll check on your progress soon,” she said as she hurried out of the room.
The door slammed back into place, and the room was silent except for the monitors attached to Judd and the soft, suckling sounds Daniel made as he ate. Suddenly, Judd and then Agnes began to laugh until Judd grabbed his wrapped ribs and moaned.
“I didn’t know Lillian came in that shade of red,” Agnes said.
“Shame on you, Bess,” Judd agreed.
Bess defended herself. “Well, I couldn’t let her throw herself all over my husband. I had to say something. And I wasn’t about to hide in the closet to feed my son just because she was in the room.”
“Master touch, coffee,” Judd said, but his voice was growing weary.
“I don’t see how you could call that woman gracious, Agnes,” Bess confessed.
Agnes chuckled. “I didn’t say Lillian was gracious, dear. I just said her mother was. But that wasn’t a very Christian thing to do, even if she is disrespecting my daughter-in-law with her enthusiasm for my son. I wish she had stayed for coffee. We might have been able to come to an understanding.”
Bess shifted uncomfortably in the chair, causing Daniel to let out a little wail before she settled him again. “I just wish she’d quit making me feel like I’ve crawled out from under a rock.”
Agnes didn’t know about Christmas Day, so she could be forgiven the shake of her head. “I don’t think Lillian is being deliberately rude to you, dear. She just needs some time to adjust to the fact that Judd actually married somebody else. After all, you’re very pretty, and this happened rather suddenly, when she’s been trying to get Judd’s attention since they were both in high school.”
Bess glanced at Judd then, only to see that his eyes were closed, his chest rising and falling a little raggedly. He needed sleep, and their presence was only getting in the way. As usual, he was right. She sighed and made as quick a work as possible of finishing with Daniel.
They made sure Judd was comfortable, then left the room. Only after speaking with the charge nurse and talking to the doctor over the phone were they convinced it would be safe to leave Judd alone in the hospital as he had requested. Then, Agnes drove them home in a kind of numbing silence without even the radio playing to break up the monotonous slap of the tires on the caliche road.
They settled into a regular routine for the next several days, rising early to do extra chores around the homestead, making just a dent in the chasm left by Judd’s absence, visiting Judd in the early afternoon for a few hours as he continued to heal, then returning home to do the next set of chores until they collapsed in the bed at night, frazzled and worn.
Two more mysterious envelopes arrived during this time. Bess tucked them under the cushions of the sofa and tried not to think about them at all because just one more thing was going to burst the tenuous grasp she had on sanity. And she managed with some success to forget the threats were coming with increased frequency until it was almost too late.
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