“I never made any progress,” Nina said. “It’s a wonder my father doesn’t still buy me dolls for my birthday. You said you were trying to teach Lee a lesson. How?”
“I, ah…” Blair looked away. “He keeps telling me he wants a lady, so I’ve been trying to be one.”
Nina thought for a moment. “You mean as in bubble baths and being helpless and crying over broken dishes?”
Blair turned back with a grin. “And spending too much and eating chocolates and having headaches at night.”
Nina began to laugh. “I warn you that it may take Lee ten years to realize he’s being taught a lesson. You ought to exaggerate what you do. Too bad you can’t fault at the sight of a hangnail.”
Blair sighed. “So far, except for the headache, he’s liked what I’ve done. He doesn’t mind if I just stay home all day and give directions to Mrs. Shainess.”
“But you’re going crazy, right?”
“Not anymore.” Blair smiled. “This afternoon, I’ll start working out a code for the unionist material. At least, that’ll give me something to do. If I continue staying home, my mother might start sending me baskets of berries to can.”
“I have a damson plum recipe that—.”
“Will make your mouth cry with joy,” Blair finished. “I’ve heard of it,” she said, as she put the saddle back on the horse. “I’m not yet reduced to collecting recipes, but if I look at another fabric swatch, I may actually faint. I’ll call you tomorrow and tell you how I’m doing on our crochet patterns. I’d like to get them done before we start on the rest of the magazine, and before we let anyone know of our plans. We’ll print them and show the others what we’re talking about. When do you have to return to Philadelphia?”
“Another ten days. It’s going to seem like an eternity before Alan finishes school.”
“I want you to meet my aunt and uncle in Pennsylvania. I’ll give you their address and write them about you. And I have a few friends there. You won’t be entirely alone.”
“Thank you. Maybe they’ll help make the time pass faster. Good luck with Lee,” she called, as Blair mounted and rode away.
Chapter 33
After four days of being the perfect lady, Blair didn’t know whether she was going to be able to stand the strain. Concerning herself with little more than the mundane duties of running a household was making her tired and cross. And the worst part of it was trying to teach a man a lesson when he didn’t even know he was in school. He’d had four days of seeing his wife as a semi-invalid, no sex, and all Blair had heard from him was a mumbled, “Guess the honeymoon’s over.”
During the day, she worked on the code until she was nearly blind, counting words and making notes and translating Nina’s pamphlet into a bizarre combination of words and numbers.
By the morning of the fifth day, she was sure that she couldn’t last much longer. She left the house with the intention of going shopping and purchasing something frivolous that she could show Lee but, instead, she ended up in Mr. Pendergast’s bookstore looking for anything she could find about medicine.
She wasn’t even aware of anyone near her until the man spoke.
“He’s to deliver the goods on Thursday night.”
Blair looked up to see the man Lee had called LeGault standing near her. She had to control a shudder that threatened to shake her. If the man were lying on a cot, bleeding, she wouldn’t mind touching him, but, alive and well, she couldn’t bear to stand even this close to him. With a slight, cool nod to him, she moved away.
She was looking over a copy of She by H. Rider Haggard when her head came up. What had he said to her?
She looked around the store until she saw him about to leave. “Sir,” she called, and was aware of the curious looks she received from the store owner and the two women customers in the back. “I found the book you said you were looking for.”
LeGault smiled at her. “Thank you so much,” he said loudly before moving toward her.
Blair knew that now she had to think as fast as she’d ever thought in her life. She didn’t want this man to know that she knew nothing about what he was referring to. And, at the same time, she wanted to find out all that she could.
“He’s to deliver them the same place as last time?” she asked.
“Exactly.” He was examining the book as if fascinated by it. “There’ll be no problems, will there?”
“None.” She hesitated. “Except that this time, I’ll be making the delivery.”
LeGault put the book back on the shelf. “It’s not what I was looking for after all,” he said loudly. “Good day to you, ma’am.” He tipped his hat and left the store.
Blair waited for as long as she dared, then left behind him. Since it seemed that anything that one of the Chandler twins did was news, she could almost feel the eyes of the people in the bookstore watching her as she left. Taking her time to pull her gloves on securely, she could see, out of the corner of her eye, LeGault heading east on Second Street toward Parkers’ Ladies Wear. Blair went north, behind the Denver Hotel, across Lead, behind the Raskin Building and came out again on Second—away from the prying eyes of the customers of Mr. Pendergast’s bookstore.
LeGault was sauntering down the street, cane over his arm, looking for all the world like a man window-shopping without a care in the world. Blair crossed the street and went to look in the window of the Parker store.
She didn’t feel that she had time for small talk with the man. “I know all about everything.”
“I thought you did, or I wouldn’t have mentioned it to you in the first place.” He was looking straight ahead into the window. “But it’s not a place for a woman.”
“I don’t imagine it’s a place for a man, either.”
He looked at her. “Imagine? I thought you knew.”
“I do. I also know that this is the last time my husband will be doing this. He hasn’t recovered from his wounds last time, and so I must take his place. After that, you’ll have to do what you must by yourself. Neither of us will be involved again.”
He seemed to be thinking about her words. “All right then. Thursday night at ten. Meet us at the usual place.”
He started to turn away.
“Where should I leave my carriage? I don’t want it recognized.”
He turned back. “I’m beginning to doubt the wisdom of this. Are you sure you can handle this? That you know what’s involved?”
Blair thought it was better to keep her mouth shut, so she just nodded.
“We’ll need your carriage, so park it behind the Aztec Saloon on Bell Lane. Wait there, and someone will meet you and give you the trunk. Don’t fail me. If you don’t show up, it’ll be your husband that catches it.”
“I understand,” she whispered.
For the two days until Thursday, Blair was utterly stupid. She couldn’t seem to remember anything, do whatever she was supposed to do, or think of anything besides what she was to do on Thursday night. On that night, she would find out what it was that her husband was doing in secret. She’d told Nina that she didn’t care if he were a criminal or not, that she loved him just the same. But soon the moment of truth would come. She was sure that Lee was involved in something illegal, and now she was going to participate in order to keep Lee out of it. She was hoping that what she did would make him stop whatever he was doing.
On Thursday night, she dressed in her medical uniform. Lee was called to the hospital to sew up three gunslingers who had shot it out near the New Mexico border, so Blair was alone. She was frightened and nervous as she went down the stairs to the stable where her carriage awaited her.
Only once before had she been to the part of town where she was to wait for LeGault, and that was the night she’d been with Lee when he ran to save the prostitute who’d tried to commit suicide. Ignoring catcalls at the sight of a woman alone in this area, she pulled in behind the Aztec Saloon and waited.
Kane Taggert woke slowly, feeling that something was wrong
but not knowing what it was. The bed was vibrating and he was cold. Startled, he turned to Houston. She was shivering violently, and although she was huddled under covers, she was very cold to touch. He gathered her in his arms and, to his consternation, she still seemed to be sleeping.
“Houston, honey,” he said with gentleness but some urgency. “Wake up.”
The moment Houston woke, she began to shiver even more as Kane held her.
“My sister is in danger. My sister is in danger,” she repeated. “My sister—.”
“All right,” Kane said, getting out of bed. “You just stay here, I’ll call her house and see what’s goin’ on.”
Kane took the stairs down two at a time and ran into the library. There was no answer to the ringing at the Westfield house. The operator said she thought Leander’d been called to the hospital, that there’d been a shooting in the country and he was needed. Kane put a call through to the hospital. The nurse who answered was reluctant to summon Leander to the telephone.
“I don’t care what he’s doin’, it ain’t as important as this. Tell him his wife’s life is in danger.”
Leander was on the phone in under a minute. “Where’s Blair?”
“I don’t know. Houston’s upstairs shiverin’ so bad she’s about to break the bed and she’s colder’n a corpse. She keeps sayin’ Blair’s in danger. I don’t know nothin’ else, but I thought you should know. She wasn’t like this when Blair was taken by that Frenchwoman, so maybe she’s really in danger this time.”
“I’ll find out,” Lee said and put down the receiver to break the connection, then picked it up again. “Mary Catherine,” he said to the operator, “I want you to find my wife. Call whomever you have to, but find her as soon as possible. And don’t let anyone know you’re looking for her.”
“I’m not sure I should after what she said to me last week. She accused me of eavesdropping.”
“You find her, Mary Catherine, and I’ll see that she delivers all your children for free—and your sister’s. And I’ll remove those warts off your right hand.”
“Give me an hour,” the operator said and pulled the plug.
Lee was sure it was the longest hour of his life. He went back to surgery and was glad to see that Mrs. Krebbs had sewn the wounded gunslinger back together. She had a few things to say to him about leaving the operating room, but he didn’t listen. All he could think of was that he was going to kill Blair when he got his hands around her neck. No wonder she’d been so docile lately: she’d probably been planning something that was putting her life in danger.
He went back to the big entry hall of the hospital where the telephone was and smoked one cigar after another, until some of the nurses began to complain about the smoke. He growled so fiercely at the lot of them that they retreated timidly. He paced by the telephone, and when a proud new father started to pick it up, Lee threatened his life and his descendants if he so much as touched the thing. Every two or three minutes, he picked up the receiver to ask Mary Catherine what she’d heard. After the fifth such questioning, she told him she couldn’t find out anything if he kept taking her time.
He managed to stay off the phone for an entire five minutes before he reached for it again. It rang as his hand touched it. “Where is she?” he demanded.
“We should have been able to guess. Someone—and I am not at liberty to say who for fear this person’s reputation would be damaged forever—said they saw her down past the railroad tracks, pulling in behind the Aztec Saloon. Not that I know where that is, because I’ve certainly never been there, and Blair shouldn’t have been there—.”
“Mary Catherine, I love you,” Lee said as he dropped the telephone on the nurse’s desk and ran out the door.
His appaloosa was trained to move quickly, and the town was used to getting out of the way for Lee’s carriage, but tonight, Lee outdid himself as he tore through the streets and across the Tijeras bridge to the part of town that Blair should not have been in. He kept thinking that maybe someone had come to his house wanting help, and Blair’d stupidly gone with the person, but, for some reason, Lee was sure that she was into something more than just a medical case.
At the Aztec Saloon, he left his horse to stand, untied, as it had been trained to do, and went inside. One of the benefits of being a doctor was that he was well known, and that if someone didn’t owe him a favor now, they probably would very soon.
“I want to talk to you,” Lee said to the big man behind the bar.
Ignoring a customer’s request for more beer, the man walked out from behind the bar and nodded to Lee to follow him into a back room.
“Wait a minute!” a cowboy shouted as he was unbuckling his pants. A woman, dirty, bored-looking, lay on a filthy mattress.
“Get out,” the bartender ordered. “And you, too, Bess.”
Tiredly, the woman got up and started toward the door. “I thought I got lucky this time, and you was comin’ to me,” she said as she smiled at Lee and ran her fingertips across his jaw before leaving the room.
When they were alone, Lee turned to the bartender. “I heard my wife was waiting behind here tonight. I figure you have to know something about why.”
The man ran his hand over a three-day growth of beard, then toyed with one of his many chins. “I don’t like gettin’ mixed up with somethin’ like this. LeGault and that woman of his—.”
“What’s that piece of slime got to do with this?” Lee asked.
“He was the one she was waitin’ for.”
Lee turned away for a moment. He had hoped that he was wrong and Blair was only repairing somebody, but if she was meeting LeGault…“You don’t have a choice in-this,” he said to the fat man. “I don’t want to use blackmail or bring the sheriff into this, but I mean to use any method I can to find my wife.”
“The sheriff’s already in this, and he’s after LeGault and that woman. Course they’ll look innocent, ‘cause that feisty little wife of yours is doin’ all their dirty work.”
Lee leaned toward the man. “You’d better tell me all of it and fast.”
“It’s none of my business what they do. I just sell them a little whiskey and mind my own business. All right, don’t get so riled up, I’ll tell you. LeGault rented a room from me so he could hide a woman in it. I don’t know who she was and I only saw her once. Talked funny. A foreigner.”
“French?” Lee asked.
“Yeah, maybe. She was a looker, anyway.”
“So, LeGault was planning something with Frankie,” Lee said thoughtfully. “What else do you know?”
“I happened to overhear them sayin’ somethin’ about gettin’ the goods out of town, and that they was lookin’ for somebody nobody would suspect. They talked about this a lot.”
Lee turned around and slammed his fist into the wooden wall. The pain did him good. “So they found somebody stupid enough to be suckered in. Where did they go, and what did they want taken out of town?”
“I don’t know. I guess you could ask LeGault. He’s sittin’ in a bar down the street. I told him to get out of here, since I didn’t want no ladies in here ‘cause they do nothin’ but cause trouble.”
Lee didn’t say a word before he left the room and was soon on the street again. He slammed into three bars before he found LeGault. He didn’t speak to the man but walked straight toward him, grabbed him by the shirt front and hauled him out of the chair.
“You want to come with me peacefully or dripping blood?”
The cards dropped from the gambler’s hands and he moved his feet to regain his balance. He gave Lee a quick nod as Lee began to shove him out the back door. No one followed them into the alley, whether because they didn’t care, or because they didn’t want to anger a doctor, wasn’t clear.
Leander was so angry that he could barely speak. “Where is she?”
“It’s too late for that now. You should have been here a couple of hours ago.”
Lee grabbed the man’s shirt front and slammed him
against the back wall of the saloon. “I’ve never killed a man in my life, and I took an oath to save lives, but so help me, LeGault, if you don’t answer me right now, I’ll break your scrawny little neck.”
“By now, she’s in the hands of the sheriff, no doubt under arrest for stealing a million dollars’ worth of securities.”
Lee was so astonished that he released the man and took a step backward. “Where? How?” he managed to whisper.
“I told you I’d get back at you for all those years I spent in jail. She was easy. She thinks she’s saving your life, but instead, she’s taking stolen goods out of town, and the sheriff has been informed of what she’s doing, and by now she’s in his custody. I hope you like seeing her in jail.”
As Lee raised his hand to strike LeGault, the man began to sneer. “I wouldn’t try it if I were you. I have a pistol aimed at your belly. Now, why don’t you be a good boy and go visit that pretty wife of yours in her cell? I’m sure it’ll be the first of many such visits.”
Lee didn’t want to waste time on the man, and he didn’t think he’d have the courage to shoot nun, so he backed out of the alley—he didn’t want to give LeGault a clear view of his back.
Lee ran down the street to where his buggy waited and, on second thought, he confiscated a big black gelding that stood tied to the hitching post, vaulted into the saddle and took off southeast out of town. The only place that could have a million dollars’ worth of securities was the train station.