Saving Grace Unknown (carter reed txt) 📖

buried in his shoulder like it was. Inside I cursed myself for being weak and letting on that things might be getting out of hand. The Doc, loyal as he was to daddy, felt just about the same way as the rest of the men around me that I should not be living on my own on that big ranch. In fact, there was probably more pressure on him than there was on me, seeing as how he held the title to the land, as daddy had asked, until such time I should be married.

I stood like that, with my cheek pressed into his shoulder for a good five minutes, sniffling now and then and feeling kind of bad that I was crying. But if there was a man I could let myself cry in front of, it was the Doc. When the pressure in my neck eased a bit and the tears stopped flowing quite so fast, I pulled away and wiped my cheeks, tried to smile and blinked the rest of my sadness away.

"Lemonade?" the Doc rumbled with a smile out from under his moustache. I sniffed again and nodded yes. He turned and waved a hands towards the sitting room where I should take a seat while he collected Mrs. Livens for the lemonade. He came back, settled with a sigh into his old leather chair and weaved his fingers together over his large belly. "Now. Tell me what the trouble is."

I felt my lip start to quiver again, but managed to hold myself together. Even the Doc wouldn't just let me cry forever before he said enough was enough. I decided the best way was just to be straight with him.

"I've been robbed."

I haven't ever seen the Doc move that fast as he did bolting up in that chair. His eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head.

"Lord, Grace, what in the hell?!?"

I wasn't quite sure of what to make of the question, never having seen the Doc so worked up. He was always the calm one, it seemed.

"It's nothing to fret about," I said, waving my hands at him to try to calm his demeanour.

"Are you hurt?" The question snapped out of his mouth at me, his usual softness suddenly gone.

"Just a bump on the head," I replied, "it's nothing."

The Doc jumped up and walked round the little table between us and put his massive hands on my head, twisting and turning it this way and that, looking for what might be damaged. I poked a finger at the spot where it hurt most and he poked and prodded at it for a little while, watching me wince and cringe as he did to determine what might be wrong. Once he was satisfied that my head was in one piece, he walked back over to his chair and settled into it again, but not nearly as comfortably this time.

Mrs. Livens walked in with the lemonade, glasses clinking on her tray. She seemed to sense that something was out of sorts because she skipped her usual banter with the Doc, put the tray on the table and turned and walked out almost immediately. The Doc didn't bother to pour the lemonade, just fixed me with that stare of his, one I'd seldom seen before, and held me with it for a while before he started to talk.

"What'd they take?" he asked, the question rough and unforgiving. Another swell at the thought of what I had to tell him. I clenched my teeth and looked down hard at the ground for a spell before I had the courage to meet his gaze again.

"Everything." The word came out sounding almost broken and I had to fight just to get it out without erupting into another fit of tears. I watched the Doc's face harden even more and a certain terror gripped my heart at what he might be thinking. He didn't like the idea of me up there on my own any more'n any of the other men around those parts did, but he'd sworn to my daddy he'd take care of me and I knew he felt like this was letting daddy down. Except I was the one that made him do it, convinced him I could face it out there on my own.

"Grace," the Doc growled. It was definitely a growl this time.

"Doc," I began, putting up a hand, ready to counter what he was about to say.

"No. Not this time, Grace." The Doc's words fell like heavy stones on the wood floor. This wasn't going to be easy.

The knock on the door relieved some of the pressure in my chest. Any distraction to give me time to come up with a good argument for why I should keep living up on the ranch, how I could prove to him that I could do things on my own.

The Doc rose slowly and trundled towards the door. He shooed Mrs. Livens away with a wave of his hand and opened the door himself. The heavy footfall of cowboy boots combined with the clatter of spurs filled the hall and any relief I may have felt quickly faded at the thought of who was at the door. Tilting my head slightly confirmed my suspicions as I saw the sheriff's black suit, punctuated by the single silver star on his chest. This was not good timing.

"New horse, Doc?" Sheriff Sam Spencer's gravelly voice crawled past the Doc and across the floor towards me sending a shiver, the bad kind this time, crawling up my spine.

"Come on in Sam," the Doc replied. "We've got trouble."

I turned towards the pair as they walked into the room, doing my best to smile and act surprised at the sight of the sheriff. He nodded and put a finger to his hat at the sight of me.

"Miss Grace, pleasure to see you."

"What a nice surprise to see you, Sam." I couldn't keep all the smugness out of my voice. I'd