To Tame a Wolf

“Elijah,” she called as he pulled up beside the wagon. “Thank God you’re here.”

Eli touched the brim of his hat. “I’m sorry I gave you cause for worry, Miss Tally. I just got back last night. I rode over half the Valley looking for word of Mr. André, but—” He choked on his excuses and shook his head. “You found him.”

“Two days ago, up in Castillo Canyon.” She glanced over her shoulder at her brother, and Eli saw the fear she so seldom revealed. “He’s alive, but badly hurt.”

Eli stared into the wagon bed. André didn’t look alive. Any man might mistake him for just the opposite. “When Miriam told me you’d gone on from Tombstone…”

“Don’t blame yourself, Eli,” Tally said. “I know you did what you could.” She frowned. “What happened to your leg?”

He rubbed the stiff limb. “Hierro caught a prairie-dog hole and threw me. It’s just a little sore.”

“I’m glad you’re all right.”

His health was the last thing he wanted to discuss. “Miriam said you’d hired a tracker. She’s been sick with worry herself.”

“I know.” Tally clucked to her footsore team. The horses had already smelled the water from the spring and increased their pace, ears pricked toward the green swath of trees. “The tracker rode straight for Tombstone to bring the doctor. I expect both of them any time.”

“Miriam knows you’re coming, Miss Tally. I’ll tell her about Mr. André.” Eli wheeled Hierro about and rode back to the house, grateful to escape the horrible sight of André’s pale, staring face. Miriam came out as soon as he dismounted at the garden fence.

“She’s found André,” Eli said. “He’s hurt bad, but a doctor’s coming.”

“Then we’ll need an extra bed made up,” Miriam said. “Miss Tally?”

“As well as you’d expect. Bone-weary and downhearted.”

“Alone?”

“Someone patched André up, but she’s by herself now. That tracker she hired is getting the doctor in Tombstone.”

Miriam pursed her lips. “I didn’t know back then if Miss Tally did the right thing in hiring him, but I was wrong to doubt her judgment.” She peered up at Eli’s face. “And why the sorrowful looks, Sergeant Patterson? The Lord’s blessed us this day.”

Eli pretended to adjust Hierro’s bridle. Miriam always knew what he felt inside, even when he didn’t show it. “I failed Miss Tally, Miriam.”

She gripped his forearm with a strong, slender hand. “It was Mr. André who failed her first. Now go help Miss Tally and let me get back to my work.”

She rushed inside, leaving the faint comforting scent of flour behind her. Pablito dashed up to Eli and tugged at his sleeve. “Can I ride Hierro, Eli?”

Now you hide behind a child, Eli thought as he scooped the boy up onto the saddle. But he was glad for Pablito’s incessant chatter, especially when Tally made the last turn away from the creek and past the outermost corral. Eli met the wagon, letting Pablito stay on Hierro’s back while he carried André into the house.

Miriam gave Tally a firm hug in the doorway and spoke softly to her friend. Tally answered, but Eli didn’t hear her words. André felt like skin and bones in his arms. He didn’t stir even when Eli laid him down on his bed.

“Thank you, Eli,” Tally said. She touched his arm and knelt at her brother’s bedside.

“Do you know how this happened?” Eli asked, sick in his belly.

“Don’t you be bothering her with questions,” Miriam said. She put a basin of steaming water on the side table. “You’re just getting in the way, Elijah Patterson.”

He knew she was right, but he lingered for a few moments, watching André’s face for some sign of awareness. “I’m sorry, Miss Tally.”

But she was lost in her own worries, and Miriam had no time for him. He left the room and the house, swung Pablito down from Hierro’s back, and rode for a certain hill where a man could see most of the valley and the road along Cold Creek. At dusk he glimpsed a funnel of dust and then two riders approaching at a steady lope.

He met them half a mile from the homestead and quickly took stock of the newcomers. The older man bowed low over his horse in exhaustion, but the younger sat erect in the saddle, and his stare was that of a born predator. This was the tracker Miriam had spoken of with such wariness.

Eli turned to the other man. “Doctor?”

“Johansen,” the man coughed. “I hope the patient is still alive after…all this way.”

“He’s alive. Please follow me.”

The doctor sighed and kicked his mount’s sweat-streaked barrel. The tracker reined his seal-brown stallion alongside Hierro.

“I guess Tally made it back all right,” he said.

Tally. Eli bristled at the informality but took care not to show his annoyance. “Mr. Bernard arrived with his brother a few hours ago,” he said.

The tracker laughed. “You keep your secret from the doc, but don’t bother with me. I already know the lady pretty well.”

Eli clenched his fists on Hierro’s reins. “I doubt that, Mr. Kavanagh.”

“Tally talked about me.”

“She mentioned hiring a tracker in Tombstone.”

Kavanagh clucked his tongue. “Don’t hardly do justice to what we’ve been through together. And who’re you?”

“Elijah Patterson, range boss of Cold Creek.”

Kavanagh’s pale eyes glittered with the last of the day’s light. “The man who disappeared looking for André. Tally said you’d probably be here.”

Eli held his emotions in check. Neither Tally nor Kavanagh could know anything of what was in his heart unless he let them see. “I was looking in the Valley. Miss Bernard found her brother in the mountains.”

“Good thing I was in Tombstone to help out,” Kavanagh said, “or Mr. Bernard would be panther meat about now.”

“I’m sure you lent your assistance with no thought of gain for yourself, Mr. Kavanagh.”

Kavanagh laughed. “I reckon you’re the one who runs off any varmints that trouble the Bernards.”

“I have that privilege.”

“And I look to you like one of them varmints.” Kavanagh made no display or open threat, but Eli knew a man of his nature would pack at least one gun and probably a selection of knives for good measure.

“Miss Bernard hired you. I don’t usually question her judgment.”

“That’s right loyal of you, Patterson.”

“Are you of the opinion that Miss Bernard doesn’t deserve loyalty, Mr. Kavanagh?”

The tracker scowled. “Tally asked me to deliver the doc to her door, and that’s just what I’m doing.”