Page 46 of A Dangerous Heart
A muscle in Isaac’s jaw twitched. Clare dropped her eyes. Nothing was resolved between them. He’d returned from the main homestead this morning to a crisis. And risked his life to save Ben. But Isaac didn’t want a wife or a family.
“We’ll see,” Isaac said softly.
Clare tried to focus on Ben, but the scent of disinfectant was so cloying she found it hard to breathe. When they’d arrived, the doctor had said he’d never seen a break so bad.
The tinkling sound of glass bottles startled her. She jumped.
Clare watched as Hattie dosed Ben with something on a rag and he slipped off to sleep. Apprehension tightened her chest. How would she pay the doctor? She closed her eyes and willed herself not to think about it now. Ben was safe, and he would heal.
Doc Powell motioned for Isaac to join him near the doorway. They were still close enough for her to hear every word.
“Your wife is agitated. I think it might be best if she left the room. We need to keep the patient calm.”
A fiery blush burned across her cheeks. She stared at her threaded fingers and waited for Isaac to tell the doctor that she was not his wife.
When the silence went on for a moment too long, she braved a glance and found Isaac watching her. He arched one brow. The movement drew her attention to the bruise forming beneath the scrape on his cheek. Blond stubble shadowed his handsome jaw, but it was that mesmerizing dimple that truly stood out—especially when he flashed her a reassuring almost smile.
“She’s a strong woman. She’ll want to stay.”
Something in his manner and words unlocked the tension in her chest, and she breathed deeply for the first time since they’d found Ben on the cliffside.
Isaac strode back to her side, his focus on Ben. Why hadn’t he told the doctor she wasn’t his wife? Just yesterday he’d been livid, ready to send her and the boys away. She didn’t come up with any answers as the doc and Hattie worked. After what seemed like hours, Doc pulled her and Isaac aside.
“We’d like to keep Ben here overnight. We’ll want to observe him as the laudanum wears off. I’ll check for broken ribs, new bruising, and signs of internal bleeding.”
Clare’s eyes went to Ben, still out, pale as the bleached sheets on the bed.
“He’ll sleep for a bit longer. Why don’t you go stretch your legs and get something to eat?”
She knew she should eat. But her stomach was still knotted so tightly that she wasn’t sure she could force anything down. “I can’t leave him,” she murmured with a look over her shoulder at the pale sleeping boy in the bed.
“Won’t do him any good if you faint away from hunger,” Isaac said.
“He’s right.” The doctor was already moving away. She could only imagine how busy he was, and he’d spent hours helping Ben this afternoon.
She shook her head. She felt sick at the thought that Ben had been hurt because of her negligence. She’d been sleeping so deeply she hadn’t heard him rustling around in bed or climbing down the ladder. Had she heard the snick of the door closing in the deep of night?
“I don’t like being away from the boys,” she whispered to Isaac, aware of him standing just behind her shoulder and Hattie across the room, cleaning up the supplies on the counter behind the bed where Ben rested.
She knew Eli was safe on the ranch, knew that Drew and Kaitlyn would watch over him, but there was a part of her thatwished he’d come along too, wished she could watch over him every moment of the day. Especially now.
“This wasn’t your fault.” Somehow Isaac had followed the trail of her thoughts.
She sniffled, then widened her nostrils to keep the tears burning behind her nose at bay. “Of course it was. I’m their aunt. I’m supposed to watch over them.”
“He shouldn’t have snuck out. He’s old enough to know better.”
That was the marshal talking, the same man who’d given Ben a gentle lecture about what’d happened in the night as they’d ridden toward town in the wagon. Clare had spent the time staring daggers at Isaac, but Ben had tearfully hung on to every word.
But when she sent a sharp glance over her shoulder, Isaac was watching Ben with a soft expression on his face. When Isaac caught her looking, his face hardened, turning distant.
“Ed wandered off once,” he said now. “He was eleven, if memory serves. The horses had gotten out of the corral, and he went after them too close to dark. Got lost. He was out all night before I found him the next morning, shaking and sniveling and crying.”
She wasn’t sure the affable Ed would appreciate his brother telling this story. She couldn’t imagine the calm, strong McGraw brother looking the way Ben had when they’d found him.
Isaac cocked one eyebrow as if he knew she didn’t quite believe his story. “Ma was beside herself for a week,” he murmured. His hand rested at her waist, and the touch shocked Clare so that her feet moved toward the door at his urging. “Until the terror of that night had time to wear off. And she remembered that us boys were good at getting ourselves out of scrapes.”
Clare hung back at the threshold, a blip of fear stalling her feet. Isaac hadn’t realized her intention and nearly bumped into her. The warmth of his shoulder brushed hers, and she caught the flash of consternation in his expression.
