Whirling with a gasp, Melissa stood and flew across the room into his arms. “Daddy! How did you get back so fast? And what about those men? What did you do with them?”
“All in good time, honey,” he said. “Right now, seems to me you have more important things to worry about. Can he be moved, Timothy?”
Dr. Newcomb entered the exam room from his office and sighed. “I wouldn’t advise it. He might bust his stitches.”
“What if we carried him?”
“What are you thinking, Chuck?” Timothy asked, concern written on his face.
“If I’m going to give the man my daughter today, I want them to have their own room at the inn.”
Melissa blushed at her father’s pointed words, but, gazing back at Marcus, she could see his eyes were closed again. Kneeling next to him once more, she stroked his cheek and smiled as he cracked open his eyes.
“You ready to have a wife?” she whispered, trying to keep the smile out of her voice. “You sure you want me?”
“I never say anything… I… don’t mean, sweetheart,” he reminded her, wincing as he coughed again.
She kissed his brow and grinned at him. “You rest now, Marcus. I’ll be back before you know it with the preacher.”
“Hurry, sugar,” he implored.
Feeling more apprehension, she stared at him with worry. “Why? Are you bleeding again?” Peeling back the blanket, she inspected his bandage and felt him chuckle and grimace at the same time.
“No, Lissa. I’m just an… impatient man. The sooner I make you… Melissa McCaide the better.”
She blushed but covered him back up and kissed the palm of his hand. “You two be careful with him.” She scowled as she stood and glared at her father and Dr. Newcomb with her fists on her hips. “If I find so much as one stitch busted on this man when I return, heads are going to roll.”
She heard Marcus chuckle behind her. “Best listen to the woman. She doesn’t make… idle threats.”
“Go on, honey,” Chuck said with a grin. “Go find the preacher. Marcus will be safe with us.”
Smiling at Marcus once more, Melissa strode purposefully from the office and out into the late-afternoon sun.
~ * ~
By the time she returned with Pastor Robinson in tow, her father and Dr. Newcomb had succeeded in moving Marcus to Maude’s
Inn
. She didn’t know how they’d managed it, but they’d carried him to the second floor after renting room number seven by his adamant request. Melissa couldn’t help but blush as she entered the room, glancing at everyone present.
Somehow, Shirley had been told of Melissa’s return, and she waited there as well, smiling and sniffling herself. Melissa hugged her.
“Do you love him?” Shirley whispered in her ear.
“More than I ever thought possible.”
“He loves you too, Lissa. I saw the looks he gave you every day working in the general store. He’ll make you happy.”
“I know.”
Pulling away from her, Melissa wiped a few tears from her eyes and turned to face the man lying on the bed. He was smiling weakly at her, propped up on the pillows. His bandage was fresh, and she surmised that Timothy must have changed it before she’d returned.
Pastor Robinson looked back and forth between them, and a look of confusion crossed his face. “Lissa, you’re marrying Marcus?”
She turned to him with a happy smile. “Yes.”
“But what about Timothy?”
Dr. Newcomb put his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “She loves him. What can I say? Besides, I think I’ve caught the Widow Skaggs looking my way more than once.”
Everyone in the room laughed, and Marcus patted the bed next to him. “Come here, sugar.”
Licking her lips, Melissa sat tentatively on the bed, not sure what to do. But Marcus slowly stretched his right arm across her shoulders and pulled her back on the pillows with him. Blushing to her roots, Melissa lay beside him on her side, watching as he winced and turned toward her as well. He laced his fingers with hers and smiled bravely.
Melissa barely heard the pastor as he began his prayers. Marcus’s gaze held hers, and she shuddered under its intensity but didn’t look away. It was all too surreal, marrying him on the very same bed where they’d first made love, with her father and sister smiling down on them. She felt a pang of guilt for hurting Timothy, but her thoughts of regret left her when Marcus recited his vows.
When it was her turn to speak the words, she wondered if she’d be able to choke them out. Tears fell freely as she lay there, her head sharing a pillow with Marcus’s. His eyes were shining as she pledged her life to him, and she hoped he could see the love brimming in her eyes.
A few more prayers were said as she held his hand, still gazing into his eyes. As she drew a ragged breath, she heard Pastor Robinson utter the words she’d dreamt of hearing ever since the first day she’d laid eyes on Marcus.
“I now pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. McCaide. You may kiss your bride.”
Letting go of her hand, Marcus curled his arm around her waist and drew her close to his body. Smiling as his own tears fell, he kissed her tenderly.
He was her husband! She could hardly believe it.
Marcus pulled away slowly, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. “You’re mine now, sugar.”
“I always have been.”
He smiled.
“Well, I think we’ve overstayed our welcome,” Chuck said. “We should let these two lovebirds rest for awhile.”
He ushered everyone out of the room, then he returned to the bed, kissed Melissa’s cheek, and shook Marcus’s hand.
“Welcome to the family, son,” he said proudly. “You’re a damn fine man, and I couldn’t wish any better for my daughter. But if you break her heart again, McCaide, I won’t be so merciful next time.”
“You have nothing to worry about, sir.” Marcus smiled, still stroking her cheek.
“Call me Dad.” Chuck winked and closed the door quietly behind him.
With everyone gone, Melissa found herself suddenly shy in her new husband’s presence. It was hard to believe they were married and that Marcus had indeed given her his life as well as his heart.
“What are you thinking about?” he whispered.
“I’m thinking about how much I love you. About how happy I am to be your wife. What about you?”
“The very same thing. You’re Melissa McCaide now, sugar. And I’m going to spend the rest of my life thanking you for marrying such a hardened, foolish, dangerous, lovesick man like me.”
Melissa giggled and gave him a quick kiss, but when she tried to pull away, his hand on the back of her head stopped her. He kissed her slowly and thoroughly, making sure she couldn’t get away until he was finished.
“I’m sorry, Lissa,” he said, tracing the lines of her face with his finger.
“For what?”
“For not giving you a proper wedding night.”
Touching his face, she looked into his golden eyes and saw his pain and sorrow at not being able to make love to her. She smiled and shook her head.
“You already did.”
When he gave her a confused look, she stroked his hair and explained.
“The night in the foothills--the one that should have been my wedding night with Timothy. That was our wedding night. We said our vows to each other under the stars.”
Marcus pulled her closer, resting his forehead on her shoulder. She could feel his body trembling as she caressed his wide back and kissed the top of his head.
“I love you, Lissa,” he said in a shaky, muffled voice.
“I love you too, Marcus.”
Pulling the blankets over them both, she relaxed against him and soon fell asleep.
Twenty-three
Over the next two weeks, Melissa left their room only long enough to get food, water, and books for them both. The first few days after he was shot, Marcus slept most of the time, yet Melissa refused to leave his side. Whenever his bandage needed to be changed, she washed his wound and dressed it herself, content to be nursing him back to health.
He’d lost some weight from not eating much, but after about a week, his hunger returned with a vengeance. It seemed to Melissa that the man would never be full, even with the amount of food he was eating. But she would smile and think to herself that he couldn’t be on death’s door with such a hearty appetite.
Her dresses and other clothing were moved to their room by Shirley and her father, as well as Marcus’s supplies from Pete’s saddle. Fortunately, her father had taken care of the horse, leading him to the livery stable and putting him in the capable hands of Butch.
Finally, after about a week, Chuck decided to tell them about the men they’d encountered in the wilderness.
“They were the Sweetwater Boys,” he explained as he sat in a rickety wooden chair with his feet up on the sill of the nearby window.
“Never heard of them.” Propped up against the pillows with his ankles crossed and a book in his lap, Marcus watched as Melissa cleaned up after changing his bandage. He scowled as if trying to place the name.
“Came down from
Colorado
and knocked over a few banks and stages,” Chuck said. “It’s a good thing we found Lissa when we did. Some women have gone missing after their robberies and never been found.”
Melissa shuddered as she washed her hands in the bowl then placed the pitcher full of water back on the side table.
Marcus noticed and patted the bed beside him. She came to him quietly and saw her father smile as she tucked her head under her husband’s chin.
“I had to kill one of them,” Chuck said. “That Joe fellow was downright ornery and had a knife in his boot I hadn’t counted on. Almost met my maker soon after you two left the clearing.”
Marcus squeezed Melissa tight. “Good. The bastard deserved to die.”
“Marcus!” Melissa gasped. “He didn’t do anything other than kidnap me. Is that grounds for death?”
“He was going to rape you along with the rest of them,” he reminded her with a hard stare. “If your father and I hadn’t shown up when we did, I’d have killed them all myself for what they would have done to you.”
Swallowing hard, Melissa hid her face in his chest, remembering how he’d killed Dean without a second thought. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized how dangerous a man Marcus McCaide really was. The unguarded hatred in his eyes for her captors had been plain to see. But, in a way, it also warmed her heart to think that the man she loved more than any other would fight to the death in order to protect her.
“Do you disagree?” he asked, hooking his finger under her chin to make sure she couldn’t look away.
Thoughts of what she’d known Dean had a mind to do ripped through her--of his shoving her face into his crotch, of forcing her mouth open to receive him--and she trembled. She also remembered Dean’s words that Joe would have raped her regardless of her miscarriage. Shaking her head, she bit her lip and sniffled.
“I’m sorry to upset you, sugar.” Marcus hugged her close.
“It’s all right,” she said, wiping her eyes. “I just didn’t know how… protective you are of me.”
“You are my wife, the woman I love. Why wouldn’t I be?”
Melissa blushed but gave him a soft kiss regardless.
“I turned in the other man without a fight up in
Jacksonville
,” Chuck went on. “Got myself a hefty reward too. Seems as if the Sweetwater Boys were worth five hundred dollars
each
, dead or alive.”