Page 27 of The Rancher's Bride
“Yeah. Folks call me Pet.”
“All right, Pet.” Ben gave Bethany a light squeeze. “Have you seen Tommy? Do you know where he is?”
“Sure, I do. He’s at the Chapmans. Been there since…” She looked at the sky and started counting on her fingers. “Seven days, I think.”
“That must have been right after he left,” Bethany murmured.
“At least you know where he is now, Beth,” Ben reassured her. “Do you know what he’s doing over there?”
“You see, I was out hunting…”
“Tommy. Tell me about Tommy, Petunia,” Bethany huffed.
“I’m getting there.” Petunia put the trap back in the water. “I was hunting, and I heard this horrible sound. You never want to hear a sound like that. Sounded like something was screaming, but it wasn’t no fox or coyote. So, I went to go find out what it was. Tommy’s horse had caught its leg in a hole and snapped it right in two. When the horse went down, so did Tommy. It trapped him underneath it. I don’t know how long they were there.”
“You went and got help?” Bethany asked.
“No. The rain was coming down again. Tommy had already taken care of the horse. I just needed to get him from underneath it. Once I did that, I took him to the Chapmans because it was the closest. I knew the bunkhouse was right along the creek.”
“You got him on your horse and took him there?” Ben asked.
“Oh, no. I carried him.”
“You carried Tommy?” Bethany stammered. “I can’t believe you carried him.”
“Well, I did. I lifted him up and carried him across my shoulders. Want me to show you?” Petunia moved towards Ben.
“That’s all right,” Ben said, putting his hands out to block the young woman. “Is Tommy all right?”
“Marmee says he’s all bruised up. She didn’t think he had broken any bones, but he was going to need to rest for a while. They couldn’t take him back home on account it was too dangerous to bring him back across the creek.”
Bethany looked at Ben. “I wonder how his coat ended updown here, then.”
Petunia scratched her face, leaving behind dirt streaks on her already dirty skin. “You found his coat?”
“It got caught on a tree. Bethany fell in the creek when she was trying to grab it.”
Petunia snorted, then looked at Ben and stopped. “When we were going to the bunkhouse on the Chapman property, the wind was really whipping. He was using his coat to cover both of us against the rain. That wind snatched it from his hands and blew it right into the creek.”
“Has Doc seen him?” Bethany’s voice trembled, and she turned to face Ben, not waiting for Petunia to answer. Her small hands gripped onto his arms for support. “Ben, I need to get to the Chapmans. Can you bring me to him? I must make sure Tommy is all right.”
“Of course I can, Beth.” Pausing for a second, he looked at Petunia once more. “You live on the other side of the creek, don’t you? How did you get over here?”
Petunia shrugged and picked up another trap. “I had to walk down to where the stagecoach goes over towards town because that bridge is higher than all the others. The water is just at the bottom of the planks. Once I was over, I just walked the long way around and through the trees to make sure no one saw where I was coming.”
“Pet, you are a very smart girl.”
Petunia beamed from ear to ear. “Aw, shucks.”
Ben tenderly tucked a strand of Bethany’s brown hair behind her ear and gently lifted her chin with his calloused fingers. She met his gaze with tear-filled eyes and a quivering lip. “We need to tell Tessa where we are going, and then we’ll head over there right away.”
As they prepared to leave, Bethany cast a wary glance at Petunia, who still stood by the traps. Benjamin watched as a flicker of resistance danced across Bethany’s face at the idea of someone else tending to Tommy’s belongings. He could see her wrestling with the notion, and after a moment, he noticed her shoulders slump in resigned acceptance. With an audible exhale which seemed to carry the weight of her worries, she appeared to set aside her objections, at least temporarily.
“Thank you, Petunia,” she mumbled. “Take good care of those traps.”
Petunia nodded, relief clear in her eyes. “I will, Bethany. I promise. After this, I’ll check my trap line.” She smirked as Bethany’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Yes. I have a line of my own. The only person who knows about it is Tommy.”
Before Bethany could respond, Ben clasped her hand and pulled her toward the house.
