Part 25 (2/2)
The storm worsened, the rain pelting her face with a stinging force. By the time the two of them made it back to the house, Joe was already inside.
They had the fire roaring, the water heating, and Joe stripped of his wet clothing. Wrapped in nothing more than a blanket, he lay on the floor. The men lounged around the kitchen laughing, telling jokes, acting as if Joe's accident was nothing but a trifle.
”He woke up?” she asked.
”Not that I know of.” Red glanced at Pelican. ”Give him a kick, would you?”
Pelican-a great pouch of snuff swelling his lower lip and making him look like his namesake-gave Joe a little shove with his foot.
”Stop it! What are you doing?” She raced to his side and shooed the men back.
”Oh, come on now, Miss Ivey. It's not too often we get the chance to kick the boss while he's down.” There was no malice in Pelican's voice, and his expression was one of amused tolerance. As if he were teasing about some child who'd sc.r.a.ped his knee.
The men chuckled. She could not believe they would jest at a time like this. Before she had time to say so, Fish and Milton lumbered down the stairs with a bed from the spare room.
”Be careful!”
But they paid her no heed, gouging the wall on one side and sc.r.a.ping the stair rail on the other. By the time they made it into the kitchen, they'd left a trail of destruction in their wake.
She quickly scooted a chair to the side.
”Hoist 'em up, boys,” Red bellowed.
The men closest to Joe each grabbed a limb and swung him like a pendulum.
”No!” she screamed.
But he was already airborne. The blanket around him slipped loose, pooling at the crux of the V his body made. He landed with a thud on the mattress, his modesty barely intact. A puff of dust billowed out around him.
”Out!” Anna pointed a finger at the door. ”Out before I throttle every last one of you!”
They looked first at her and then each other, clearly perplexed.
”What's the matter?” Thirsty asked.
”What's the matter? What's the matter? That man has a head injury and you boys are throwing him around like some log you plan to send down the chute. That's what's the matter.”
Gibbs glanced at Joe. ”Oh, he'll be all right. That little b.u.mp's nothing compared to the one a fellow down in Tacoma got. Why, that one was so big it killed him dead. Joe's not dead. He's just sleeping it off.”
Narrowing her eyes, she advanced on Gibbs. ”Well, let me a.s.sure you, Mr. Gibbs, that b.u.mp you saw on the Tacoma man is nothing compared to what I'll mete out to anybody who so much as touches Joe again with anything other than the most gentle attentions.” She jabbed her finger in his chest. ”You understand me?”
He didn't budge.
She shoved him. ”Do you understand me?”
Falling back a step, he raised his hands. ”Yes, miss. We'll all be very gentle from now on. Won't we, boys?”
They mumbled their agreement.
Mollified for the moment, she turned back to Joe and jerked the blanket down to cover his huge, hairy legs. It didn't stop her from noticing the sheer magnitude of them, though. Why, his thighs were twice as big as her waist.
They were also extremely white compared to the dark golden color of his chest. Grabbing the other end of the blanket, she tucked it around his torso.
”What happened exactly?” Ronny asked.
”I don't know. I was up in my room. But from the sound of it, the tree didn't fall straight to the ground. It hit something else, I think. I'm not really sure.”
”What in the Sam Hill was he doing chopping that thing in the middle of the night?” Red's exasperated tone had the men nodding and grumbling their agreement.
She lowered her chin. ”It's my fault.”
”Your fault?” Red's voice held more than a little surprise.
”I've been pestering him to chop it down. You saw how it leaned?”
A log in the fire s.h.i.+fted, causing sparks to shoot out.
”That doesn't explain why he decided to take it down after dark.”
She swallowed. ”I made him mad.”
No one said a word. The water on the stove began to bubble. A crash of thunder shook the windows.
She swiped her eyes. ”Somebody needs to go for a doctor.”
They looked at each other, s.h.i.+fting their weight.
She frowned. ”What?”
Ronny cleared his throat. ”Miss Ivey, I don't mean any disrespect, but we can't start out for a doctor until morning. Then it will take half a day to get to town, no telling how long to find the doc, then all those hours to get back. Joe'll be awake long before that and the doc will have come for nothing.”
Anger began to simmer inside her. She took a step forward. All but Red took a collective step back.
Anna zeroed in on him. ”I want a doctor, Red. And I do not plan to wait until tomorrow night to get one. This cannot be the first time you've had an emergency. What did you do the last time you needed a doctor and didn't have time to wait?”
He pulled at his collar. ”Well, we waited until morning and then went and got the doctor.”
”What happened to the patient after all that time?”
”He died.”
The blood drained from her face.
”Not that Joe's going to die!” he a.s.sured her. ”He's just got a little b.u.mp.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but Red interrupted. ”Listen, if you want one of us to go get the doctor, well then, I'll send somebody on Shakespeare at dawn and the doc will be here late tomorrow night.”
<script>