Page 28 of A Groom for Millie
“My name’s Heather Barnes. I’m the town’s midwife.”
“Midwife? Didn’t realize I needed one.” His joke was feeble, but he saw a smile break out across Heather’s face.
“We have a new doctor in town, but no one knows him well enough yet. Millie wanted to make sure that no one knew you were here.”
Millie. The beautiful redhead with piercing eyes.
“You must be very discrete, or Millie trusts you a great deal.”
“Oh, it is in my nature. I’m the soul of discretion.”
“How long have I been asleep?”
“Nearly a week. I was able to get the bullet out and pack the wound with bitter herbs. Once there was no sign of infection, I sewed you up. Not my finest work, but all those sewing lessons my mother forced me to take could be put to some use.”
“Where’s Millie?” he looked around the room. The room was small but clean. There was a wardrobe in the corner along with a small desk and chair. There was also a basket that Robert could see was filled with toys.
“She’s asleep. She’s been tending to you around the clock. She slept in this chair, although I don’t know how she did it. It is rather uncomfortable.”
“She watched over me?”
Heather nodded. “Changed your dressing and sponged you down when she thought you might have a fever.
“I guess I need to thank her. And you. You probably saved my life.”
“Luckily, no bones were broken.” Heather pointed to his leg under the blanket. “You have a horrible bruise on that leg. It looks like the slug was stopped by whatever you had sewn in your pants.”
Robert lifted the covers and quickly put them back down. “Where are my clothes?”
“They couldn’t be saved. Millie burned them.”
“Shouldn’t she be telling me all this?” A sinking feeling developed in the pit of Robert’s stomach.
“I burned them,” Millie called from the doorway.
Robert’s eyes snapped to hers. She was wearing a plain day dress with a white apron over it. There were dark circles under her eyes. Robert winced. She had those because of him. It didn’t matter though, he still thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
“Did you…?” He left the question unspoken.
“Not to worry, I tore out the lining of your pants. They were too heavy to be regular cloth.”
“What did you do with the money?”
“Don’t worry. Every single cent and bill are accounted for. I put it in your saddlebag, which is in my room. How did you come by that amount of money? There was nearly four hundred dollars in your pants.
“I won it at cards.”
“You must be good.”
“Very good. Heather told me that you watched over me.”
“I didn’t want you to be alone.” Millie moved closer. “They found your horse four days ago.”
“Tanner?”
“Is that the name of your horse?”
Robert nodded.
