Chapter 19 #2
“Mother, throw me the knife,” Norma Jean called, a request Louisa ignored as she took off after Paulie, as did Flick, who already had the automatic nail gun in his hand.
Annaliese grabbed hold of Seth’s hand as she ran past and tugged him through the saloon behind her, her pace increasing the second a shot split the air.
After stumbling through the back door, Annaliese came to an abrupt stop when she caught sight of Paulie writhing on the ground.
Concerningly enough, blood was leaving a stain as it spread over his shoulder, not that Louisa, who was standing over Paulie, holding Seth’s pocketknife/gun invention, seemed concerned about that.
“How delightful to learn this little gadget actually works, darling,” Louisa began, nodding toward the gadget in a hand that wasn’t shaking in the least. “I must admit, though, that I wasn’t intending on shooting the man.
I simply mistook what turned out to be a trigger for what I thought was the thingamajig that caused a blade to pop out. ”
Flick took a step forward and sent Louisa a small smile. “It might have been a mistake, Mrs. McCormick, but it definitely earned you the title of heroine of this particular adventure.”
As Louisa took to beaming in delight, while Norma Jean began looking grumpy, Flick moved closer to Paulie, then pinched his nose, undoubtedly because Paulie now reeked of skunk.
After taking hold of the rope that was still tied around Paulie’s beefy arm, Flick wrapped it around both of Paulie’s hands, then the hitching post before taking a good few steps away from the man in order to draw in a gulp of air.
He then moved back to the hitching post, using Seth’s automatic nail gun to nail the rope to the boards even after he’d knotted it more than a few times.
“I think that’ll hold you until the authorities get here,” Flick said before he tore off a piece of his shirt and began using it to blot the blood dripping from Paulie’s bullet wound, having to stop mid-blot to walk away to get more air.
After drawing in a few more breaths, Flick headed Paulie’s way again, returned to mopping up blood, then took to examining the wound before he pressed the bloody bit of his shirt against the hole in Paulie’s shoulder and retreated, evidently having run out of air.
“You’re not in danger of bleeding to death because the bullet was small, but a doctor’s going to need to dig that out,” Flick said a good five breaths later.
“Not to worry, though. I doubt it’ll take the authorities long to get here since the train depot already sent them a telegram explaining about the train robbery. ”
“Ain’t no way those authorities will know where to find me,” Paulie grunted.
“We found you and we’re not exactly Pinkertons,” Flick countered.
“Everyone knows Pinkertons always become involved when there’s a train robbery.
I don’t think they’ll have any trouble finding you since we didn’t, something that suggests you shouldn’t have stopped off at the closest town from the tracks you ran across. ”
“Couldn’t very well not stop after Miranda said she was starving.”
Miranda didn’t bother to respond to that as she walked up to join Flick, smiling a smile Annaliese could only pray she hadn’t taught Norma Jean how to do because the last thing the Merriweather Academy for Young Ladies needed was for all the students to begin smiling in what could only be described as a coquettish fashion.
“I cannot tell you how tickled I am that you came to my rescue, Flick,” Miranda said, batting her lashes at a furious rate as her smile widened, something that left the strongman rather red in the face.
“See?” Norma Jean said to no one in particular as she nodded toward Miranda.
“That type of look right there is what I want Miranda to continue teaching me because I definitely don’t have that particular expression down to perfection just yet.
” She turned to Louisa. “We’ll have to keep her on as my chaperone since she still has so much to share with me. ”
Amusement flickered through Louisa’s eyes. “Chaperones, if you’re unaware, don’t usually make it a habit to teach their charges flirtatious behavior.”
“But that behavior came in handy when I decided to use the one skunk vial I’d stashed in a pocket of my chemise and needed a distraction so Paulie wouldn’t see me retrieve it,” Norma Jean argued.
“All it took was for Miranda to start fluttering her lashes, paired with this cooing sound she’s yet to teach me, and Paulie didn’t even remember I was in their company.
” Norma Jean’s brow furrowed. “It’s just too bad I couldn’t get to my reticule earlier because we would have been free ages ago, what with how I’d stashed all the remaining skunk vials in there. ”
“Too bad indeed. However, about those skunk vials and loot you helped yourself to from my safe . . .” Seth moved to join his sister, who immediately took to looking somewhat wary, although she masked that a moment later when she lifted her chin.
“What about it?” she asked.
“Have you considered that it might be tricky to use those bills you stole from my safe since they now reek of skunk?”
Norma Jean waved that aside. “I’m not an idiot, Seth. I didn’t put the money I borrowed from you into my reticle. That’s a robbery just waiting to happen. I sewed it into my drawers instead as any sensible person would do.”
“A rather ingenious place to stash money, even if you shouldn’t have borrowed my money or skunk deterrent in the first place.”
Norma Jean crossed her arms over her chest. “Did you, or did you not, when you were speaking about a personal safety device, tell me that it was mine?”
It wasn’t exactly unexpected when Seth’s eyes went a little distant before he frowned. “I did tell you that.”
“Then it stands to reason that I didn’t even need to borrow the skunk devices since they already belonged to me.”
“I wasn’t intending to give you over forty vials of it.”
“But you never clarified that with me.”
“Perhaps not, but I know I never told you that you could help yourself to any money that’s stashed in my safe.”
Norma Jean was smiling a second later. “You once told me, when I was ten and was crying because I’d run out of pin money but needed a new pair of ice skates because Velma was hosting a skating party on the lake, that there was no need for me to cry because you’d always spot me money whenever needed, so . . .”
“The cost of a pair of ice skates is far different from helping yourself to all the money I had in my safe.”
“True, but you did say you’d spot me money whenever needed, and I definitely needed money to fund this venture.” She gave Seth’s shoulder a pat. “I have every intention of giving you most of it back, though.”
“You’ll give all of it back, just like you’ll promise to never help yourself to any of my inventions again from this point forward.
” Seth shook his head. “Know, though, that I’m perfectly aware that I’m somewhat to blame for the skunk debacle since, clearly, even considering giving students a skunk deterrent was a grave error on my part as that particular safety device obviously needs to be reserved for young ladies who possess a certain level of maturity. ”
“I just used them to free Miranda. How much more mature would you want me to be?”
“Mature enough to realize that disrupting an entire afternoon of classes, as well as rendering numerous students ill and coercing your friends into aiding you—that aid getting them suspended—was an irresponsible thing for you to do.”
Norma Jean’s brows slammed together as she shot a look of pure outrage Annaliese’s way. “My friends got suspended?”
Annaliese inclined her head. “Of course they did, because, again, what they agreed to do for you disrupted classes, and I can’t tell you how many students literally lost their lunches because of the smell.”
The outrage faded from Norma Jean’s eyes. “I didn’t think about anyone growing ill.”
“I’m sure you didn’t, but that’s what happened, so now you, along with your friends, have to accept the consequences.”
Norma Jean was glaring at Seth a second later, evidently having nothing of worth to say to Annaliese. “You’ve ruined everything by tracking me down.”
“And I’m not sorry about that, but . . .” Seth frowned. “You didn’t actually think that I would lounge around, twiddling my thumbs and simply wait in Chicago for you to return, did you?”
“I didn’t think you’d even notice I was gone,” Norma Jean shot back.
“I was at the academy not long after the skunking happened and realized rather quickly that you were nowhere to be found.”
Norma Jean’s lips thinned. “You told me you weren’t going to be at the academy that day because you had a meeting with someone.”
“No. I told you I couldn’t pick you up from classes. I was at the academy before lunch.”
“To check up on me?”
“Not at all. I’d gone there to enjoy a luncheon with Annaliese, and one where we’d been planning to discuss bugs, something that had to be postponed due to your shenanigans.”
Annaliese couldn’t refuse a wince when Norma Jean immediately leveled a glare on her brother, muttered something that sounded like “unbelievable,” then turned on her heel and stalked away from everyone without another word.