Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
They arrived in Golden in good time and went straight to Doc Martin’s office.
“Come in. Come in. Emily, have a seat on the table, please.”
She clamored up on the table and waited for the doctor to ready his instruments. He had a pair of scissors and a pair of tweezers, just like Ben had for the previous wound.
The doctor came over to the table.
“Please remove your shirtwaist.”
Emily took off the garment and held it in her lap.
Ben stood with his arms crossed leaning against the door.
The doctor snipped and pulled out each of the ten stitches.
“There you are. All better. You did very well keeping it clean. The wound looks great.”
“Thanks. Ben kept it clean and dry for me.”
“Good job, son. I’m sorry that the injury will leave such a bad scar.”
“Don’t be, Doc. I’ve never been a vain woman other than about my weight and Ben got me over that right quick.”
Ben nodded but didn’t say anything while Emily put back on her blouse.
When she got off the table he spoke up.
“Is she healed now doctor? Is she well?”
The doctor looked up at Ben and cocked an eyebrow.
Emily saw the question in Ben’s eyes.
“Yes, she is completely healed. What is the problem?”
“She has been avoiding…me. I thought the reason was that she was not healed and was uncomfortable. Now I think there is something else behind it.”
“That is something you and Emily must work out for yourselves. I can only say that physically, she is healed.” He looked at Emily. “Is there something I should know, my dear?”
Emily looked down at the floor and shook her head.
“There is nothing.”
“Em?”
She looked up at Ben, tears in her eyes.
“I can’t talk about this in front of Doc.”
“Okay, we’ll wait until we’re on the way home, but we will talk. Do you understand me? No avoiding the issue any longer.”
She nodded but didn’t trust her voice not to crack and herself to burst into tears if she said anymore.
Emily walked out of the office, leaving Ben to talk to Doc alone. Once she was away from his presence, she felt better and called over her shoulder, “I’m walking up to the general store. See you there.”
She didn’t know if he heard her or not.
Emily stepped out onto the boardwalk in front of Doc’s office on Fourteenth Street and headed east one block to Washington Street and the Golden General Store.
The shop was a marvelous place where a rancher, farmer, miner, or the wife of any of those men, could find anything they want.
If Frederick Foster didn’t have it on the shelf, he’d order it in.
“Well, someone must like me.”
Melissa Mills stepped out of the mercantile door and stopped Emily’s progress. She took a small derringer out of her pocket and pointed it.
“Just turn around and stay on Washington for a couple of blocks.”
“You won’t get away with this. You can’t just kill me and expect to get away with it. You’ll got jail and that baby you’re trying so hard to hide in your loose dresses, will be born in prison.”
“Shut up, just keep walking.”
Emily shrugged and walked about three feet in front of Melissa. She inched her hand down into her pocket and realized she’d stopped carrying the Colt when Doris died.
As they passed Fourteenth Street, Ben greeted them as he exited the doctor’s office.
“Emily? Melissa?”
“What are you doing here?” asked Melissa, her voice filled with anger. “She’s supposed to be alone.”
“She’s not alone,” said Ben.
Melissa shook her head. “No, don’t you see. You have to marry me. Your mother promised if I just got rid of Emily, you’d marry me. You don’t love her, I know you don’t. Doris said so, but you did love me. I know you did. Can’t you just love me again?”
Slowly Ben walked forward, his hands down at his sides. The boardwalk was a good six feet wide and as he walked forward, so did Emily until they passed.
“Why don’t you marry that man you left me for?” asked Ben bitterly.
“He didn’t love me. As soon as he found out I was expecting, he hightailed it out of here as fast as he could and I haven’t seen hide nor hair of him since.”
Emily didn’t like hearing the bitterness in Ben’s tone—he still wanted her.
Ben stopped walking when Emily was safely in back of him.
Emily turned and watched Melissa around Ben’s shoulder.
“I thought you’d put on some weight. I’m sorry for you Melissa, but I will never marry you. My mother was insane, you see. Her telling you that if you got rid of Emily that I’d marry you was just another form of her insanity. Now give me the gun.”
Melissa shook her head.
“I’ve got no reason to live if I can’t have you. I can’t raise this child alone.”
She lifted the gun toward her head.
Ben lunged and grabbed away the gun from her.
Melissa collapsed onto the boardwalk.
Once he had the gun, he went down on one knee next to the distraught woman.
“Melissa. We’ll work something out. I promise. There are other men you could marry. There are orphanages.”
Emily heard the words and her heart didn’t just break, it shattered. She’d been so hopeful that Ben might actually love her, but it appeared he still had feelings for Melissa after all.
She wiped her eyes.
“I’ll get the doctor.”
Emily turned and ran to the doctor’s office where she told the middle-aged man what had happened.
Doc followed her out of his office and down the street to where Ben knelt holding Melissa in his arms.
Emily didn’t need to see any more. She struggled to speak, to keep her tone level.
“I’m taking the buggy and going home. You can borrow a horse and come later.”
He nodded. “That’s fine. I need to see this through.”
She jutted out her chin and then got into the buggy parked outside the doctor’s office. When she’d cleared the town she let the tears flow. The situation was obvious. He couldn’t love her because he still loved Melissa.
When she got home she packed her valise. She couldn’t stay in a relationship when the husband loved another.
She’d just picked up her bag to leave when Ben came in and closed the bedroom door, leaned back against it and smiled.
“What are you doing?”
“I could ask the same of you.”
He jutted his chin toward the valise but his smile never wavered.
“I’m leaving. I’ll go somewhere where I’m wanted for more than a brood mare. I have a friend in San Francisco who will take me in for a little while and—”
Ben shook his head and slowly crossed the room.
Emily dropped her valise and looked for a way to avoid Ben. She broke for the door her pregnancy making her slow. He caught her and swept her into his arms. His smile never faltered.
He carried her to bed.
“You should have known that I love you by the way I treat you. Love is more than just words. It’s actions, too.”
“I saw you with Melissa today. I could see that you still love her—” Did he say he loved me?
“I was trying to soothe someone who was about to take her life and that of her child. She nearly got herself put in prison for a very long time. I almost married her. I can’t just turn my back on her, no matter how much I may want to.”
“You wanted to?” Could I be wrong? Could he love me?
“Yes.”
Emily kept her head down as Ben talked to her. She realized he was correct, he’d proven over and over again that he loved her, if she would just look.
Ben lifted her chin with his knuckle, then kissed her left eyelid.
“I.”
He kissed her right eyelid.
“Love.”
He kissed her nose.
“You.”
Her heart soared at the words.
Then he claimed her lips in the best kiss she’d ever had in her life.
After they broke apart but he continued to cradle her face between his palms and look into her eyes.
“I may not say it enough but I hope you can tell by the way I treat you how very much I love you.”
Heart racing, she wrapped her arms around his neck.
“I do, now, but sometimes I need to hear the words, too.”
“I’ll do my best to remember to tell you every day, that I love you.”
“And I’ll do the same. Because I do love you, so much, and I have for so long, it seems like forever.”
She lifted herself and met is lips in a scorching kiss, followed by another and another.
“I love you, forever, Ben Logan.”
“I love you, too, Emily Logan. Forever…and a day.”