Part 7 (2/2)

Cathy flinched violently as one of the men clambered onto the table beside her and plucked out the filthy gag. She was running her tongue around her dry mouth when his hand slid familiarly over her b.u.t.tocks, fondling her intimately and giving her a l.u.s.ty pinch. She gave a little choked cry and Jon whirled, his eyes blazing murder.

”Well, wench, which l.u.s.ty stag w.i.l.l.ya have? Both are hot forya , I vow.” Big Jim's voice brought Jon back to his senses.

Cathy looked first to Jon, her eyes touching on the lean, handsome face, set hard now with tightly reined anger, and then sliding over his broad shoulders and powerful chest, unfamiliar in their formal dress. As her gaze met his she had to bite back a wry smile. How certain he was of her! His confidence showed in his eyes. Well, he had reason. Much as she would have enjoyed discomforting him by choosing the other, she dared not. This was no time for childish games of vengeance. Jon was risking his neck to save her, and she was suddenly conscious of a weak desire to be held tightly in those strong arms. Devil that he was,he spelled safety to her now. He was her only security in a very insecure world.

She barely glanced at Billy. He held his arms up to her as though to lift herdown, and she shuddered away. The light from the lantern fell on his outstretched hand, the bite mark she had made a livid circle around the thumb. Jon's eyes went swiftly from the wound to Cathy's injured jaw, and flushes of angry color stood out on his cheekbones. ”Choose, wench!”

Cathy swallowed.”Ichoose him,” she said clearly, nodding at Jon. The men roared their approval, clapping Jon on the back and making lewd jokes at Billy's expense. Jon responded in kind to the quips, some of his remarks putting Cathy to the blush. But his hands were gentle as his knife cut through her bonds. At the tenderness of his touch Cathy felt an overwhelming surge of warmth for him. He could have been killed as a result of her willfulness. She knew that had he lost, he would have fought to the death to protect her. The knowledge brought a lump to her throat. When her legs and arms were free, she held out her arms to him wordlessly. He reached up to lift her down, catching her around the waist and swinging her as lightly asa thistledown to the floor. With a quick movement he shed his coat, wrapping it around her shoulders to cover her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. His arm stayed loosely around her waist as he ushered her toward the door.

”Hold, there, Captain!”Billy cried, watching the two with obvious hostility. 'Where do you think you're go-ing?

”My friend, if you don't know without me telling you,Ipity the women of this town. They're in for some mighty poor sport,” Jon answered lazily, turning to face the man as he spoke. The onlookers guffawed. Billy flushed a mottled purple.

”You can't take the wench away, Captain,” Big Jim told Jon in an aside from behind the bar.

”Nah, she stays!” another of the men cried.

”How is this?” Jon's voice was deceptively cool. He pushed Cathy casually behind him, and she felt her heart quake.”Iwon her in fair play, didn'tI?”

That s true enough, someone chortled. But you didn'twaittohear the rulesofthe game! You didn'twin her outright! You just sort of rented her for a while. Then she goestoBilly, then to Joe, thentoHarper, and so on. Wewas justplayin ' for first turn on her,ya see!”

Cathy could see the muscles of Jon's back tighten beneath his thin s.h.i.+rt. She looked at him anxiously. From her place behind him she could just make out the granite set of his jaw as he looked over the a.s.sembled men. Two of them had sidled over to block the exit. Cathy's hand went to curl instinctively about Jon's hard forearm. He didn't respond, but the others in the room saw and were amused.

”The wench is sure hot for you, Captain. Why don't you take her right here? We'd all like to watch!”

”That's a right good idea, Captain,” Billy said. ”Then we can be sure that you don't take off with a property that rightly belongs to all of us. If it's privacy you want, I'm sure Big Jim will be glad to move out from behind his bar.”

Big Jim nodded his agreement. The men began to finger their knives, grinning at Jon openly. He looked them over for a long moment, and beneath her hand Cathy could feel his muscles tensing like a tiger's for the spring. But then he shrugged and said easily, ”With a wench like this, I could bed her in the mud and think myself between the softest sheets.”

The men snickered. Jon swung around, pulling Cathy into his arms. His back was turned to the room and his broad shoulders protected her from the sight of the men. He bent down to nuzzle her neck l.u.s.tily, then whispered in her ear, 'When I give the word, run as hard as you can. There's a constabulary about half a mile to the west. Tell them who you are and what's happened. They'll send you safely back to your father.”

Cathy's eyes widened endlessly. Why should he actually be helping her to get away from him-unless he thought he would no longer be around to enjoy her?

”What about you?” she whispered tremulously.

”Worried about me, little cat?”The corners of his lips lifted in the ghost of a mocking grin. ”Don't be. I've managed to take care of myself quite well for years. Now, enough talk. Just do as I say. Understand?”

Cathy's eyes met his wonderingly, and what she saw in the gray depths melted the hard little core of defiance that had knotted her belly ever since he had first taken her.

”Yes, Jon,” she whispered.

”That's my girl,” he murmured in her ear,then his hands were molding her to him as his mouth found hers in a pa.s.sionate kiss, much to the delight of the guffawing onlookers.

Cathy's mouth returned the sweet pressure, opening to him endlessly with no thought of denial. Her arms clung tightly around his neck. She felt bereft when he suddenly let her go.

”Now!” he hissed, whirling to take a punch at the men who guarded the door. Caught by surprise, one crashed to the ground, leaving just enough room for Cathy to slip past and out into the street. Her last frightened glimpse of Jon showed him reeling beneath the blow of ahamlike fist as the rest of the men closed on him angrily.

Cathy flew down the street followed by the outraged bellowing of the men in the saloon as they realized that she had escaped. The sharp pop of a pistol cracked like a whip behind her. She ran as she had never run before in her life, lungs aching as she labored for air. But she didn't head west for the constabulary. She ran for the ”Margarita,” and help.

Six.

”He is lucky to still be alive,” Dr. Sandoz grunted, stepping back from the bunk. His eyes ran over Jon's unconscious body, pale and corpse-like in the flickering candlelight of the s.h.i.+p's cabin. ”If he were not so strong a man, the loss of this much blood would already have killed him. As it is, he is very weak, and his temperature is high. We may still lose him.”

Cathy bit down hard on her trembling lower lip. Jon mustn't die, he mustn't! Especially not as a result of rescuing her from the consequences of her own willfulness! She would never forgive herself. Oh, G.o.d, why had she ever been so foolish as to try to escape to a strange city where she had no friends? She had known he would come after her, and had secretly relished the thought. She had wanted to teach him a lesson. . . . And she had killed him instead! If only she could have brought Harry and the men back faster, before Jon was stabbed- and stabbed-and stabbed. . . .

”Young woman, are you listening to me?” Dr. San-doz'svoice broke impatiently into her thoughts. ”I am a busy man, with many patients left waiting. I do not have time to waste while you day-dream.”

Cathy flushed, and started to reply sharply. She was still not accustomed to being spoken to so harshly. But she remembered how totally dependent Jon was on this man's skill, and held her tongue. If the doctor could save him, then she would let the doctor speak to her any way he wished.

”I'm sorry, doctor. What were you saying?” Cathy's tone was meek.

”He is going to need constant care for the next several days-maybe even weeks. His recovery depends on two things: his reaction to the high fever that is setting in, and whether or not his wounds become infected. The dressings must be changed every four hours, from now until I tell you otherwise, and the wounds themselves must be sprinkled with a powder I'll leave with you. And he must also take one of these pills each day” the doctor said, holding up a small, gla.s.s vial. ”Not to follow these instructions would be the same thing as shooting him here and now. Can I rely on you to be his nurse?”

His stern, dark eyes fixed on Cathy. She noddedfer-vently .

”Yes, doctor.Of course.”

”You can rely on the crew, too, Dr. Sandoz,” Harry broke in coldly from the foot of the bunk. ”We'll take it in s.h.i.+fts to nurse him. This-lady-has already done enough!”

”I'm going to nurse him!” Cathy glared at Harry, who scowled back at her. ”And I'll make a far better job of it than you and your filthy sailors would, you insufferable little prig! If you had only listened to what I was telling you, instead of trying to drag me back aboard the 'Margarita' when I kept saying that Jon needed help, you might have been able to get there in time to keep him from being hurt!”

”Cap'nset us all to looking for you,” Harry retorted, stung. ”How was I to know you were telling the truth? I thought you were trying to trick me into letting you go! Besides, if you hadn't crawled out the d.a.m.ned windowleaving a trail that a blind man could see, you'd be long gone by now and we'd all be happier!And the captain. . . ”

”That is enough!” Dr. Sandoz broke in, his eyes flas.h.i.+ng from one to the other. ”The rights and wrongs of the situation do not concern me! If you are going to quarrel like children, I will leave now, and not return. Aid Captain Hale will almost certainly die.”

Cathy and Harry exchanged sullen looks, and apologized to the doctor.

”Very well,” he said at last. ”Young woman, I am making Captain Hale's care your responsibility. I have found that females, through their gentler natures, tend to make better nurses than men. You,” he said, looking at Harry, ”can see to it that she is relieved from time to time. I take it that you are in charge of this s.h.i.+p during the captain's disability?”

Harry nodded wordlessly.

”Bien!”Dr. Sandoz smiled at them both. ”Now, young woman. . . .” He proceeded to give Cathy detailed instructions on Jon's care.

”I'll be watching you,” Harry said fiercely to Cathy after Dr. Sandoz had gone, leaving behind the promised pills and powder. ”And I'm warning you now, that if Jon dies and there is even the remotest possibility that you did or did not do something to cause it, I'll hang you from the highest yardarm.Lady or no lady. Understand?”

”Oh, go to the devil!” Cathy replied rudely, and was about to enlarge on this theme when a m.u.f.fled groan from the cause of their quarrel brought her attention back around to him.

”Jon?” Cathy asked anxiously, leaning over the bunk and placing one hand on his dark forehead to see if it felt feverish. It did.

”Captain?”Harry said at the same time.

Jon moaned and tossed, his long body thras.h.i.+ng from side to side beneath the piled quilts.

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