“No. We took care of two of them, at least. We didn’t know if the Ballards had sent them, or someone else. No one told us not to interfere. So we did.”
“But… you went out to that awful house when Mrs. Ballard summoned you. What did you expect would happen?”
“We expected we’d get a chance to explain to Mrs. Ballard. By then we had realized what a mistake Iron Hand had made taking a job from the Ballards.”
I looked at her with some doubt. Harriet flushed.
“We got our payback for being stupid,” she said.
True enough.
“Sorry about Travis,” I said. I waited to see how she would take that.
Harriet looked like her face was made of iron. “I’m going to find that Sarah Byrne. I’m going to kill her slowly. After she cut Jake’s throat and grabbed the chest, she was spied by a man who worked for the Ballards. He told Holden, and Holden drove into town, picked her up, brought her and the chest out to the plantation. He paid her off big-time, asked her to stick around to help out. She was there when we arrived. She was waiting to get behind us with her gun.”
“You don’t need to look for her.”
After a moment of silence, Harriet shook her bright head. “So I won’t have the satisfaction of killing her myself. At least the bitch is dead.”
We sat quietly, waiting together. “What will you do now?” she asked.
“I got to find out how Eli is. After that, I may have to help him get home,” I said. “Then I’ll go back to Segundo Mexia.”
“I may not have mentioned that I own a chunk of Iron Hand,” Harriet said.
That was more startling news, but I was too tired to give it much energy. “No, I don’t believe you said anything about that.”
Harriet smiled. “You need a job, you come see me. Our headquarters are in Britannia, in North Carolina.”
That explained the accent. “I appreciate your offer.”
“I’ll wait with you until the doctor comes,” Harriet said. And she did.
We sat without speaking until Dr. Gimball came in. His white apron was bloody. Eli’s blood. “Mrs. Savarov,” he said. “Your husband is out of surgery.”
“Okay,” I said, to show I was listening.
“I got the bullet out. I stopped the bleeding.”
I nodded.
“The bullet didn’t hit anything vital. I sewed him up again. I think he’ll be all right.”
Harriet patted my shoulder and left. I exhaled, felt everything inside me relax. “What now?” I said.
“Lots of bed rest,” Gimball said. “No stairs, no walking for a few days. You can give him a sponge bath, but avoid the area of the incision. He’ll be taking antibiotics to avoid infection. I want to keep him in the hospital for two days, and then you can take him home. I’ll want to drop by to see him again, two days after that.”
I wondered where I was supposed to take Eli. Where I could spend the night, for that matter. No matter what apology Nellie had given me, I didn’t want to go back to the Pleasant Stay; besides, it had stairs, which would be bad for Eli when he got out of the hospital. Of course, the Ballards’ house was empty now. That was an awful thought. I bit my lip to suppress a crazy giggle.
“Do you know a place I can take Eli until he can travel?” I was not happy about asking, but I didn’t have the energy to scour Sally, which I wanted to leave at the first opportunity.
Nurse Allen, who’d come out of the room where Eli was—at least, I figured so—said, “I don’t know about anything other than tonight, but I have an extra bedroom at my house, and that’s where I’m headed now.”
“I sure appreciate the offer,” I said.
“I’ll be ready to go as soon as I hand off to the night nurse.”
“Can you show me where Eli is, first?”
Nurse Allen took me to a two-bed room not far from the operating theater. He hadn’t been wheeled past me, so there must be another way out of the operating theater.
Eli was in the bed closest to the door. The curtain was drawn between him and the other sufferer. I stood looking at him, biting my lower lip, trying not to cry. Eli had bandages all around his chest. He was white as a sheet. He smelled like medicine.
I stood by him for a long time, watching his chest go up and down. Then I pulled the wooden chair up to the bed and sat, my hand on his. Then I lay my head on the bed, and I slept.
“Mrs. Savarov?”
It was a gentle voice, a woman’s. I was on my feet in a snap, my hand on my gun.
Nurse Allen stood her ground, giving me a very disapproving look.
“Yes?” I said, relaxing a little.
“Let’s go.”
“Who’ll be on duty tonight?”
“Nurse Underwood.”
A tall woman stepped out from behind Allen. She had her hair up in a bun behind her white nurse’s cap. She looked strong.
“Mrs. Savarov,” she began in a smooth voice, “we let you stay longer under the circumstances, but you have to go now. I promise you I’ll call Nurse Allen’s house if there’s any change in Mr. Savarov’s condition.”
“I need to take all Eli’s possessions with me.”
Both women looked surprised.
“When he gets out of the hospital, I’ll bring ’em back, clean.”
Underwood went to a narrow closet by Eli’s bed and pulled out a bag. “Everything he was wearing, it’s in this bag,” she said.
My arms full of Eli’s clothes and boots, I turned back to the bed. I was self-conscious because the two nurses were standing there. After I looked down at Eli for a long moment, I bent over and whispered in his ear, “I’ll be back tomorrow morning.”
And I followed Nurse Allen out of the hospital.
“We need the car?” I asked.
“No. It’s a block away.”
So we walked. It was easy to see the nurse was worn out by the way her shoulders slumped. She turned in to a little house, and I could tell it was neat as a pin by the light of the street lamp. She unlocked the front door, and then we were in a tiny living room with shining polished furniture.
Nurse Allen said, “I’m not being real hospitable because I’m dead on my feet. You need anything in the kitchen, you’re welcome to it. Here’s the guest bedroom. Here’s the bathroom. I’m in the room across the hall if you need me, but I pray you don’t.”
“Thanks again, and good night,” I said, turning in to the room she’d pointed to as mine. It was small, but I didn’t care. I waited to hear her go into the bathroom, and when I figured she was in bed, I took my own turn, leaving it as clean as I’d found it.
Before I climbed in the bed, I checked the window to make sure it was locked. The bed creaked and shook with age. I had my guns beside me. The night was cool enough that I didn’t have to turn on the fan.
It felt incredibly good to lie down.
I tried to think over the day. Too much had happened to remember all of it in the weariness of the moment. I didn’t feel well, and I realized I hadn’t had anything to eat in many hours. But I couldn’t imagine trying to find food, or even getting up from this bed, and that was the last thought I had before I said hello to sleep.