Chapter Six
In Good Hands
She was right, so I shut my trap. A sudden dizziness o’ercame me, and I reckoned I must have passed out, because the next thing I knew I was lying in bed and Oscar was frowning o’er me.
“Jimmy! Jimmy, it’s all right, now.” He looked so worried, and I hated to cause him such stress.
Then Miss June’s face came into view, and I don’t think I was ever so glad to see a person other than Oscar.
“Well, there you are,” she said with a smile. “I’ve had a quick look at that gash and we’re going to need to stitch you up, but you should be just fine.”
I was relieved to hear it. I tried to push myself into a sitting position, but the sharp stab of pain and Oscar’s hands holding me down prevented it.
“Jimmy, I swear—” Oscar said, with more anger than I’d expected.
“Be still,” Miss June advised me. “You’re going to have to rest for a few days as well, and you’d better not fight me on that.”
I relaxed and lay back into the comfortable mattress, as helpless as a newborn.
“I reckon I ain’t up to a fight right now.”
“No, you ain’t. You gotta do as Miss June says, because I want you—” Oscar made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a stifled sob. “I want you to get well and strong again. I need you well and strong, Jimmy. You know I do.”
My gaze flashed to the love of my life, and it hurt to see him so upset. He was more used to me taking care of him than the other way around.
“I know you do,” I said, reaching out to clasp his hand. “I’m sorry.”
He rolled his eyes, and it soothed me to make him tetchy and irritated.
“Don’t be sorry,” he grumbled, smoothing his thumb o’er my knuckles and holding my hand tight in his. “Just do as Miss June says.”
“I will.”
“And the next time you feel like takin’ the quick way down, you think twice, all right?” He sounded stern and fed up, and I forced a smile.
“I will, for certain. Maybe you better go in front next time.”
He rolled his eyes again. “Yeah, maybe I better.”
He leaned down and kissed me on my forehead, the press of his sweet, soft lips like a balm to my soul.
Trick came in then with a steaming basin of a milky liquid that she placed with care onto the bedside table.
“Hey, Jimmy,” she said, flashing me a smile. “Good to see ya.”
“Trick,” I said, grinning. “I’m glad to see you, too.”
“Trick, will you and Oscar help Jimmy roll onto his good side, so I can see what I’m doing?” Miss June asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” Trick said, and Oscar said, “Sure.”
With their gentle assistance I moved into the position Miss June wanted me in, with more than a little discomfort.
“All right, let’s have a better look at this wound. This is going to sting. I’m going to use carbolic acid to clean it, but I’ve diluted it quite a bit.”
“What’s that smell?” Oscar murmured, wrinkling his nose.
“It’s the phenol.”
That must be the carbolic acid she was talking about. ’Twas a sweet, acrid scent that made me a bit sick to my stomach. Or maybe that was due to the thought of Miss June touching me where it already hurt so much.
Miss June cut away the bloodied bandages then began to disinfect the injury.
I tried not to make any noise, but it hurt like hell. I reckoned I was on my last legs when it came to withstanding all this pain, and a few helpless whimpers escaped.
“I’m sure Oscar won’t think less of you if you make a sound, Jimmy. It has to be painful.”
I grimaced. “Sure.” But it was hard to go from stifling everything to being plain about my suffering. Seemed second-nature to be stoic.
“He only makes those sounds when he’s caught up in a tumble. And even then, only right before he spends.”
I glared at Oscar while Miss June grinned. “Is that so?” she asked.
“’Tis.” Oscar looked smug as he perched on the corner of the bed with his arms crossed.
“You should”—I grimaced at the pain but gestured at Oscar—“hear the noises Oscar makes. You’d think I was killin’ a goat,” I panted out, feeling like I needed to defend myself.
Oscar made a shocked face, but then he started laughing.
“A goat? Jimmy, that’s not fair.”
“Oh, yeah, ’tis,” I grunted. “But I like it, so don’t change.”
“Okay, I won’t.”
He moved closer and took my hand again as Miss June prodded and poked and wiped up the fresh blood.
“Well, it’s not too bad. I’ve seen worse.”
“You have?”
Miss June nodded curtly, pressing her lips together.
“I have. One night a bastard client sliced one of my girls through the thigh and almost killed her. She bled so much we didn’t think there was much hope. But she made it.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“That was Trick.”
Oscar and I exchanged a glance.
“God,” he said.
“That’s awful,” I concurred.
“Yes, it is. I do my best to protect my girls, but sometimes…” Miss June looked tired.
“You do a good job here, Miss June. It ain’t gonna be perfect,” I said.
“I know,” she said. She looked me in the eye. “This needs stitching.”
“I know it.”
“I have laudanum if you want it?”
I thought about it. “No, not that. But I’ll take some willow bark tea before you start, if you have some. And probably another cup soon after.”
“Of course. Oscar, can you go ask cook to make it? Let her know I sent you.”
“Sure.”
Oscar let go of my hand and stood up. “I only wanna say that—Jimmy and I are very lucky to have friends like you, Miss June.”
“Thank you. I feel the same. It’s not many men would journey across country at the request of a woman of ill-repute.”
Oscar nodded and left, shooting a concerned glance my way before he did.
Miss June gazed at me as she held a fresh cloth soaked in the disinfectant to the gash in my side.
“Jimmy, I’m glad you’re here, I truly am, but I’m not sure you’re gonna be able to ride out to look for Cal anytime soon.”
“Oh,” I said, forcing a smile, though the thought of having my wound stitched, and the pain that would cause, made me a bit faint. “I’ll be fine after a day and with a good night’s rest.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Now, Jimmy. I’m not going to stitch you up and care for you, only to have you ignore my advice and not heal well.”
“Fine. What then?”
Miss June looked at the door, and I knew what she was thinking.
“No,” I said. “No, way. Oscar’s not going out to look for Cal by himself.”
Miss June fixed her gaze on me with an arched brow. “Do you honestly think I’d send him out by himself?”
“No, but—”
She held up a finger. “Let me speak, please.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Now, I need Mr. Hanover here to keep me and my girls safe. But I was thinking of sending Trick with him.”
“Trick?”
Miss June nodded. “She can ride better than many men, Jimmy. She’s a good horsewoman and doesn’t have any shame in sitting astride, which is safer—and I don’t have any side-saddles. And she can shoot.”
“She can?”
Miss June gave a curt nod. “Yes, sir. She made Gus teach her after she recovered from her injury. She keeps a pistol hidden in her room. I taught all of them to shoot after that. And most of them are good, too. It’s amazing what a woman can do when she’s taught.”
I didn’t doubt that that was true.
“Yeah, I taught Oscar to shoot. He was such a city boy that he hadn’t ever used a gun before. Me and Clarence—that’s my friend in Port Essington—we taught him to shoot a rifle, too, and he’s a pretty decent shot. He carries a revolver, but I reckon I can let him have the rifle if they go out.”
“Are you okay with that?” Miss June asked, knowing how protective I was of Oscar.
I huffed a laugh then winced. “I reckon I’d better be. ’Cause Oscar’s gonna want to.”
Miss June smiled. “I have a feeling it will make a nice change for Trick, too. She gets mighty bored around here sometimes.”
“Hmm. Even with all the—” I made a gesture.
Miss June shrugged.
“That’s her job, Jimmy. She may get some pleasure and fun out of it—I hope she does—but any job gets monotonous after a while.”
“I suppose.”
I’d never really thought about it. I knew that women were as capable of enjoying a tumble as men were, but I hadn’t considered if that was your means of making a living, that it might get to be not so much fun after a while—which was a sobering thought, for certain.
Not to mention that having to do it for money meant you might not always be feeling an attraction. Maybe most of the time you weren’t.
Oscar came back with a cup of the willow bark tea, cooled a bit so I could drink it down quickly, which I did. Then Miss June set up and got to stitching.
Oscar looked a tad queasy as he sat on the bed holding my hand like a good husband. But when I glanced at him, he’d gone a mite pale and his gaze was fixed on Miss June’s delicate and skilled hands.
“You okay?” I asked him.
He scowled. “I’m fine.”
“You don’t have to look.”
“I ain’t lookin’,” he said, averting his eyes. “Don’t it hurt?” he whispered in a quiet voice full of suffering.
I gasped every time Miss June poked the needle in, but I squeezed Oscar’s hand.
“Sure, but I’ve suffered worse. This ain’t nothin’ compared to the pain I felt when you got taken on our journey—or when you were lost in the storm and Clarence brought you back.” I squeezed his hand. “I can handle this kind of pain better than that kind.”
I could see he was torn between watching that Miss June was careful with the needle and avoiding the sight of my skin getting punctured so matter-of-factly. Miss June seemed to notice that, too.
“Oscar,” she said, not looking up from her careful work.
“Yes, Ma’am?”
“Could you please ask Trick to come up here? I need to speak to both of you.”
Oscar’s hold loosened on my hand.
“Sure. You gonna be all right?” he asked me.
“I’m fine. Go on.”
I relaxed my fingers so’s he could slip his hand from mine. He walked to the door, glancing back to check on me. I gave him a smile, which he returned before walking out and closing the door quietly behind him.
Miss June met my gaze and smiled. “That boy is so in love with you.”
“I know it.” I hesitated, but I wanted to talk about something with the only person who might understand. “Speaking of which… I found out he don’t…he don’t really know when his birthday is. And he can’t be sure of the age he told me when we met.”
I felt some shame curl up inside my chest. My old friend had come back. Though compared to the sorts of things I’d been involved with in the outlaw gang, this was maybe not as brutal or careless, but the thought of it made me uneasy.
Miss June nodded. “You think he might not be twenty-one, you mean. Or even twenty,” she said wryly.
“That’s the crux of it.”
Miss June continued her work and thought about what I’d said.
“Well, Jimmy, I don’t know. I had my doubts when you said Oscar was twenty-one, but you seemed so certain he wasn’t lying, so I didn’t want to say anything more.”
“He wasn’t lyin’ . I know he wasn’t. It’s only that…there ain’t no way for him to be certain. And I…I would never have preyed upon a child.”
Miss June paused her stitching and stared at me with curiosity. “You think that’s what you were doing?”
I shook my head. “No, I-I don’t feel ’twas. In fact, Oscar was the one who—the one who…started everything,” I said weakly.
Miss June’s smile widened.
“That doesn’t surprise me one bit. That young man is fearless.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t I fuckin’ know it.”
She laughed. “He’s old enough to know what he wants and how to go about getting it.”
“I suppose.”
“Oscar is smarter and more sensible about a lot of things than most folks twice his age. He understands the world and his place in it. He knows it’s not a fair place, and he’s not afraid to do things outside of what might be expected of him.”
I nodded. “He ain’t had much of a life up to now.”
“Mm-hmm,” Miss June said. “I have a funny feeling neither have you, Jimmy Downing.”