Page 20 of A Forgotten Heart
He’d been shot. The knowledge sank in.
He heard Elsie’s skirts swish into the room, stop somewhere near.
He gritted his teeth against the pain and peeled open his eyelids. Elsie stood a few feet away, avoiding his eyes, her hands fisted at her sides.
“Are you all right?” she asked stiffly.
He wasn’t. The ugly feeling left behind from his dreams swirled in his gut.
“Elsie.” He rose up onto the arm that didn’t hurt as much. The room started to spin, and he blinked slowly.
Elsie stepped to his side. “Don’t get up.”
He couldn’t if he wanted to, not with being so off-balance.
She pushed gently on his shoulder. “You’re going to undo all of the doctor’s stitches. Then where will you be? I could hardly watch when he sewed you up the first time.”
Sweat beaded on his forehead. “You stayed and watched? You must love me.”
She frowned, already moving across the room. “I have some biscuits ready. Stay still.” She called the words over her shoulder as she scurried out of the room.
He watched the doorway where she’d disappeared.
Why was she keeping so much distance between them? Acting like she was mad. Or hurt. The angry words swirling through the fog of his brain might be a clue. Had they fought?
Pain pulsed in his shoulder and head as he waited for her to return. He tried to force his brain to make sense of the kaleidoscope of images he’d had since he’d woken at the doc’s office the first time.
Why weren’t he and Elsie at the family homestead? Where were his brothers?
He could remember a calving season, riding with Ed. Drew scolding him. Isaac playing checkers. Nothing more recent.
She bustled back in carrying a plate with a biscuit. Her eyes focused on the floor. “I’m sorry, but I could only scrounge up ingredients for biscuits. You probably need a stew or soup, but at least you won’t starve.”
She put the plate in front of where he remained propped on his elbow and retreated a few steps.
He didn’t want her to leave.
“How’s your family?” he blurted. “I bet Darcy is missing you.”
Her jaw stiffened, a sheen glistening in her eyes. Did that mean her parents were once again making demands? “El, they left you over Christmas to go on holiday back east. They shouldn’t expect you to be at their beck and call.”
Her eyes shot to his. “I’m not at their beck and call. I want to be there for them. Like they were there for me. What’s wrong with that?”
He must be a little scrambled in the head. He knew she wanted to please them. Especially her mother. She always said she owed it to them to make them happy, although he never understood why.
Still, he shouldn’t have asked a question he knew would be a trigger point. “I’m sorry, El. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be there for your parents. Your kind heart is something I fell in love with.”
Her heart-shaped mouth dipped at the corners, a look that always squeezed his chest. But when she bit her lip to keep it from quivering, it about undid him. “Ah, El?—”
A giant piece of biscuit was shoved into his mouth. “Why don’t you eat and stop talking.”
He chewed but didn’t take his eyes from her. Even if she did avoid his gaze like she might turn to stone if she met his eyes.
A blast of wind slammed into the window, making it rattle. Elsie whipped her head toward the sound, the plate in her hand trembling.
She set the plate down and moved to the window with arms crossed over her middle, staring outside. Why wouldn’t she talk to him? Conversation usually passed so easily between them.
She’d been shy when they first met. He remembered how he used to do little tricks to get her to talk with him back then.
