Do Not Forsake Me(42)

Eleven


Lloyd paused outside his house, leaning against the wall and lighting a cigarette. He’d gone to Evie’s house first after leaving his mother, figuring Katie and Stephen would be there. They hadn’t been. Now he needed time to compose himself before going inside his own house to Katie. He’d seen the terror in his poor new wife’s eyes this morning, and she’d been alone to deal with it ever since. He had to be strong for her. She couldn’t see tears in his eyes.

What a hell of a way to start a marriage. They hadn’t even consummated their marriage yet. Last night was spent talking, planning, and just holding each other. He wanted Katie. She wanted him. Yet his heart was still full of Beth, and hers still ached for a lost husband and baby girl. They shared so much of the same pain that they couldn’t quite get past it, and last night had just felt awkward. They were good friends, and Katie had suddenly felt too shy. He’d felt her pulling away, so he’d not pressed the issue. They had a lifetime of love and making love ahead of them. All of that would come when the time was right. Still, he wanted to give her the baby she longed for. She deserved to hold a baby again.

Right now his poor wife must feel so alone and confused. Stephen was home, but a six-year-old boy wasn’t much comfort. The kid had probably cried himself to sleep, scared for his father and grandfather. On top of that, Lloyd remained shaken himself. When he heard all the gunshots this morning, he thought for sure his father had been killed. He’d never seen so much blood in his life and hoped to never see something like that again—not when it was his father who was bleeding.

He tossed the cigarette to the ground and stepped it out before quietly going inside. He was glad as hell now that he had a woman to come home to, someone to hold and to hold him in return. He hung up his hat and guns in the tiny house that consisted of a living room, a kitchen, and two small bedrooms. Figuring Katie to be asleep already, he quietly entered the bedroom to find her sitting in a rocker beside the bed table, a lantern dimly lit. She looked wide-eyed at him and held a rifle in her lap.

“Katie?”

“I wasn’t sure it would be you. There are still some relatives of those men out there somewhere.”

He walked up to her and took the rifle away, setting it aside and pulling her into his arms. She was shaking. “Katie, if I thought you were in danger, I wouldn’t have stayed over at my pa’s place. Besides, I thought you were with Evie. I went there first to look for you.” He held her tightly. “You’re shaking.”

“I’m sorry. I should be strong like your mother.”

He felt like an ass. “You are strong like my mother.” He kissed her hair as she hugged him around the middle. “Katie, it’s over. Even though there are some Buckleys and Bryants left, they live over a day’s ride from here. There hasn’t even been time for them to hear about this and get back here. And the ones involved today were the real troublemakers anyway. There is only one left and he’s in jail, and in a couple of days a prison wagon will come for him.”

“That Brad…he’s still alive.”

“He’s hurting so bad, he’s not going anywhere for days, maybe weeks. They can’t even move him from the jail to a room somewhere.”

“His mother will come looking for him. She’ll bring men with her.”

“I don’t think so. Jessie Buckley is kind of a recluse. She’ll send someone else for Brad.”

Katie started crying. Lloyd wanted to kick himself for not realizing how traumatic this must have been for her. She’d never been around this kind of violence.

“Baby, everything is okay. God, I’m sorry for leaving you today. It’s too bad your folks left yesterday afternoon, or they could have been here for you. I didn’t want you to come to my folks’ house, because I didn’t want Stephen to see his grandpa like that. There was so much blood.”

“I know. You still have bloodstains all over you. It’s just that…you ran out of here so fast this morning…and then I heard all those gunshots…and I saw your father lying in the street and you down too. At first I thought you were hurt, till I realized you were holding Jake down. And Little Jake was screaming…and all those…bodies…”

“Katie. Katie. Katie.” He kissed her hair. “Honey, you should have stayed with Evie.”

“I felt like I was going crazy. Stephen wanted to come home and wait for you, and I needed to keep busy, so I came home to clean some more. Heaven knows, with no woman in this house for so long, it needed it.” She pulled away. “Oh, Lloyd, I haven’t even asked how your father is.”