Chapter 15
Urgency building with every step, Jacob scanned the darkened alleyways of the sleepy fort.
No moon out tonight. He listened, his heart thudding heavily in his chest, but couldn’t hear anything above the music spilling out from the hall.
He strode out of the fort confines, lengthening his stride, something inside him propelling him out into the night.
But this was the opposite direction from camp.
Jacob warred with the pull inside him. Kate was good with directions; she should have known which way to go.
But if she had been taken … He swallowed hard.
He saw a thicket of trees to the left, just far enough from the fort to be out of earshot.
His mouth went dry. He quickened his pace.
His ears caught the faint sound of running feet and someone gasping with exertion, and fear flooded his body.
He broke into a run and called out to the darkness, “Kate!”
“Jacob!” came the faint reply, but the terror he heard in her voice sent his blood roaring in his ears.
“I’m here!” He pulled out his gun, searching furiously for her in the night.
There! He sprinted toward her, stomach lurching as he saw a hulking shape looming behind her, reaching out, grasping her hair, yanking her backwards.
Jacob roared in fury and plowed into her attacker, taking him to the ground, the force of the impact nearly knocking the air from his lungs. The brute snarled and landed two vicious blows in Jacob’s ribs.
Pain exploded in his side. He rolled away and hauled himself to his feet, gasping, hunched over. He had lost his gun in the tussle. Starlight glinted on the epaulets of an officer’s uniform as the assailant rose. Blast it all, he was big.
Raising his fists, Jacob went in swinging.
Jacob’s right cross connected with the lout’s jaw, and he managed to land his left in his stomach, but Jacob had dropped his guard and took a brutal hit in the temple. He stumbled back, vision swimming. The officer closed in, grinning wickedly.
Jacob swayed on his feet. Stay in it, Munroe! She needs you! He shook his head, growling in pain, and raised his fists again.
Then the brute’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he collapsed in a heap.
Jacob’s vision slowly cleared. Kate stood over her unconscious attacker, her chest heaving, her hair pulled loose from its pins and tumbling in riotous waves around her, blood on the butt of Jacob’s pistol held in her shaking hands.
He limped over to her, gently taking the gun out of her hands. “It’s all right, Kate. He’s out cold. You got him.”
Kate looked at him, eyes wide, tears gathering on her lashes. She choked out a sob. “He was so nice. I didn’t think he would—” She cut off, putting a shaking hand to her mouth.
He ever so gently laid a hand on her shoulder, and she collapsed into him, weeping.
He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tenderly, fighting against the waves of white-hot rage coursing through him.
He thought of his gun. If Kate weren’t here …
he breathed deep, clenching his jaw. She needed him—that was the most important thing right now.
He held her as she cried, until her tears were spent and her breathing slowed.
“Thank you, Jacob,” she whispered into his shoulder. His heart hitched at the way she said his name. Kate drew back, her tears glistening in the starlight, an unfathomable serenity on her face. “You are an answer to prayer, Jacob Munroe. I prayed for the Lord to help me, and He sent me you.”
She said it with such simple conviction. He shivered, thinking of the restless urgency that had led him straight to her. Had he really been used by some divine power?
The officer groaned and Kate gasped sharply, clutching Jacob’s arm as terror washed over her features.
Jacob quickly moved in front of her, then bent over the attacker.
He was coming to. Making quick work of it, Jacob sliced the officer’s shirt and hogtied him as tight as he could.
Even in the darkness he could see the lump forming on the base of his skull and the caked blood fanning down over his mouth and chin.
Had he punched his nose during the fight?
Jacob gave the knot a final tug and stood up gingerly, clutching his side.
Now that his blood had stopped pumping, the pain in his ribs flared with every breath, and his head throbbed with every heartbeat.
He gritted his teeth. Kate still needed him.
She trembled violently. He slowly shrugged out of his coat, suppressing a groan, and draped it gently around her shoulders.
“Kate,” he said softly. She stared down at the officer.
“Kate? Kate, look at me.” She turned to him, eyes wide and unblinking.
“Did he—?” Jacob’s throat closed around the question.
She shook her head. “No,” she rasped. “He … he tried, but he didn’t.”
Jacob let out a breath. “Let’s get you back to the fort. There’s a good doctor there. I just want to make sure you’re all right.”
“What about him?”
“That’ll hold ’til I can get the captain. He’ll know what to do.”
By the time they reached the doctor’s door, dawn had begun to break over the hills.
Jacob’s head swam. His breath was shallow and quick.
He raised his hand to knock and gasped in pain.
The sound pulled Kate out of her daze, and she looked up at him with concern.
“You’re hurt,” she said, touching his temple with featherlight fingertips.
“I’ve been worse.” He shrugged, catching her hand before she got his blood all over. It was her turn to cry out in pain. His anger flared. “What did he do to you?”
She shook her head, cradling her hand gingerly. It was covered in blood, the knuckles split and swollen. “It was the other way around, at least with this.”
Jacob saw the officer’s mangled nose in his mind’s eye and grinned savagely. “Well done, Kate McGrath.”
The corner of her mouth twitched in a momentary smile. Then her eyes went blank again. “It hurts.”
The door burst open, causing them both to start.
A portly man with white hair askew and sleep in his eyes scowled at Jacob over spectacles perched precariously on his bulbous nose.
But when he saw Kate’s tear-streaked face, his gaze softened, and he bustled them into his front-room clinic, escorting her to a chair, lighting a lamp, stoking the fire, and putting water on to boil.
He plunked himself down on a stool in front of her and gazed at her intently.
“Now, fr?ulein, you tell Dr. Müller what happened.”
Kate swallowed, looking down. “There was a man—” She stopped, her chin quivering.
“A man who tried to hurt you, ja?” Dr. Müller asked softly. She nodded, biting her lip. “Did he accomplish what he was after?” She shook her head, and he sighed in relief. “Let us have a look then.” The doctor tsked, lifting her chin gently, bringing the lamp closer to examine her neck.
Bile rose in Jacob’s throat at the bruises already forming around her throat. “Kate, maybe I should—”
She grabbed his hand, eyes pleading. “No, don’t go. Please, Jacob. Stay with me.”
He squeezed her hand. “All right then. I’ll stay.”
“No lasting damage, I think, but your voice, it will be sore for a bit,” Dr. Müller clucked, turning her cheek to the light and inspecting a mottled scrape. “I will put some salve on that.” He peered over his spectacles. “Is that from …?”
“His beard.”
Jacob’s jaw clenched.
“Now, your hand, bitte.” He gently stretched out her fingers.
She stiffened, wincing. “Can you move them on your own, leibste? It will hurt, but please try.” She flexed her hand slowly, cords standing out on her neck with the effort, but she didn’t cry out.
All her fingers moved except one. Dr. Müller nodded, gathering supplies.
“A broken knuckle, as I thought. How did it happen?”
“I hit him in the nose.”
The doctor’s eyes twinkled. “I would bet a silver dollar his nose is in worse shape than your hand,” he said with a chuckle and started binding her hand.
“Kate, I gotta go,” Jacob said. Her grip tightened on his hand. “I gotta tell the captain about what happened. Make sure that brute gets locked up. And I’m sure your family is worried sick about you.” She nodded, eyes downcast, slowly releasing her grip.
By the time he had informed the captain, sent a sleepy-eyed messenger boy to the train to make sure the McGraths knew Kate was safe, and made it back to Dr. Müller’s clinic, dawn had fully broken.
Jacob’s breath came in ragged gasps as he clutched his side, every beat of his heart sending waves of pain through his head.
With the doctor’s help, he eased himself onto the examining table, each movement sending pain knifing into his ribs.
He stifled a groan. His head felt like it was going to explode.
Kate slept on the chaise by the fire, her hair glinting in the firelight and falling in waves of copper to the floor, her beautiful blue dress torn and dirty. His heart ached at the sight.
“How is she, Doc?” Jacob asked in a tight whisper.
Dr. Müller clucked his tongue and answered softly. “She is strong. And not just for breaking his nose!” He tapped a pudgy hand to his chest. “Her heart, her soul. She will be all right.”
Jacob heaved a sigh and winced.
“Now, let us see to you, young man. It is the left side, ja?” His hands worked deftly as he helped Jacob remove his shirt and then examined his side, checking each rib, listening to his lungs.
“Two cracked ribs. Not broken. Lungs, schon. Head”—he paused, peering into Jacob’s eyes—“your head is not so good. You will need to rest.” He wiped off the blood that caked the side of Jacob’s face, then mixed a poultice for his ribs and bound his chest tightly.
“No riding for at least a week. Keep this bound tight until it stops hurting to breathe.”
“Sorry, Doc, my job requires ridin’, so I’ll be ridin’ tomorrow when we leave this place.
” Jacob eased himself off the table in increments.
He tried to stand up straight, but the room spun, and he clutched the edge of the table for support.
Dr. Müller peered at him in growing amusement.
“Well, maybe I’ll find somewhere to lay up for a while.
Guess I’ll have to ride like the blazes to catch up. ” He reached for his shirt.
“You can stay in our wagon ’til you can ride again,” Kate said softly behind him. She reached out, helping him shrug into his shirt, her gentle hands as soft as a summer rain even with the bulky bandage. “It’s the least I could do, for savin’ me from … for savin’ me.”
Her eyes glowed like amber in the firelight, and all he wanted to do was ease the haunted pain he saw in their depths. Jacob clasped her good hand. “Thank you, Kate.”
She gave him a small smile.
They walked slowly back to camp. Jacob kept his arm clamped to his side and tried not to breathe. Kate stared unseeing at the ground in front of them.
“What will happen to him?” she asked abruptly.
Jacob clenched his jaw. “The captain has him locked up by now.”
“And then?”
“Might spend a few days rottin’ in a cell,” he said tightly, balling his hands into fists, seething at the injustice of it.
She just nodded, still staring at the ground, her brown eyes hidden beneath her lashes.
Jacob huffed out a breath and mumbled, “Shoulda shot that piece of scum when I had the chance.”
“I’m thankful you didn’t.”
He stopped in his tracks. “Thankful? Kate, he tried to—” He realized he was yelling. He continued in a fierce whisper. “He tried to ravage you!”
“You think I don’t know that?” Her voice shook. She still wouldn’t meet his gaze, and fresh tears tracked down her cheeks, tears that reflected the shame casting its dark shadow across her face.
Seeing her in pain made rage surge up and crash through his limbs. He wanted to pummel something. No, he wanted to pummel someone. All the way to the grave. He took a sharp breath in through his nose. “Kate, he deserves to—”
“No, Jacob, he doesn’t. What will killin’ him accomplish other than puttin’ blood on your hands and takin’ away his chance to repent and receive the Lord’s grace? Do we not all need mercy?”
Her question hung in the silence. Jacob stared at her in disbelief. Emotions warred across her features: anger, fear, hurt, sorrow. And yet through it all, he saw a peace that just didn’t make sense. Kate's quiet voice reverberated in his mind.
Do we not all need mercy?