Page 45 of A Soft Kiss in Summer
“His fever is dangerously high.”
Josiah tried to regulate his breathing.All the running he’d been doing lately told him how out of shape he was.Sitting behind his desk was taking a toll.“What do you need?”
Doc Tibbens listened to Archie’s heart and didn’t say anything until he’d straightened.“He needs to go to Elkin.I can’t tend to him.I’m not physically able to.”
The door to the office opened, and they all turned to it.Violet’s gaze went straight to Archie.“What’s happened?”
“He’s sick,” Bonnie said, tears once again falling down her cheeks.“We need to get him to a doctor that can tend to him.”
Violet nodded while stepping further into the room, wrapping one arm around Bonnie to try to comfort her.“We’ll take him,” she said before looking over at him.“Can you go with us?”
“Of course.”When the arrangements were made, he headed back across town to get Jake and got him settled at the livery stable before switching out the horses on the wagon Ewan and Daisy had used to go out to the house.
He sent Clay to tell Rufus to keep an eye on the jail while he was gone, and it took over an hour to get everything settled.By the time the sun was high in the sky, they had Archie on a soft pallet of blankets in the back of the wagon being tended to by Bonnie, with Violet beside him on the wagon bench.
The ride to Elkin was made in silence, everyone lost in their own thoughts.He hoped Rufus didn’t run into any trouble.He hated leaving the town unprotected, but it couldn’t be avoided.Sure, he could have had Rufus take Archie, Bonnie, and Violet into Elkin, but with the Edwin situation still an ongoing issue, he didn’t think it was a good idea.Besides, he could find that preacher and see if he’d ever finalized their marriage with the local courts.
And if he hasn’t?
Then his marriage to Violet was a non-issue.The annulment they’d agreed on wouldn’t be needed.
Violet shifted in her seat and he glanced over at her.She looked pretty today and had been glowing when they’d been shown that little house.
The conversation he’d had with Ewan two nights before whispered inside his head while they’d been there.It explained the look on Violet’s face.She’d wanted that little house.Wanted to make a home out of it, just like Ewan had said.It was probably why the old man had them up before the chickens to show it to them.He knew Violet would want it.
As mad as he should be at the old man for meddling, he couldn’t fault him.He wasn’t doing anything but trying to make his granddaughter happy.
And he was hell bent on doing the exact opposite.
He blew out a breath.Regardless of Violet’s feelings, it couldn’t be helped.Finding that preacher in Elkin would leave him with a hard decision.If he’d filed the license, then they were legally married and getting the marriage annulled would undoubtedly break Violet’s heart.She hadn’t told him she wanted to stay married, but she’d alluded to it a time or two and if what Ewan said was true, she had feelings for him, something he’d suspected for a while now.
Would being married to her be such a bad thing?
No, it wouldn’t be, but it wasn’t safe.He’d put Violet in danger for no other reason than she was married to a lawman.
Plenty of lawmen have families.
Yes, and those same men had to bury their families when some criminal held a grudge they couldn’t let go of.He’d seen it too many times to count, and he didn’t want to risk Violet’s life like that.He wouldn’t.
It was near dark by the time they made it to Elkin and later still when he stepped out of the doctor's office and onto the sidewalk and looked around the town.It was much larger than Silver Falls.It was several streets wide and a couple of blocks long.There were businesses on both sides of the road and music from the two story saloon filled the streets to clash with the multitude of voices.
He spotted the Wright Mercantile down the road, light shining through the windows.He’d been inside a few times when he was here, but couldn’t remember a single thing about it, not even Edwin.
Noise behind him drew his attention away from the building.Violet stepped onto the sidewalk and pulled the door to the doctor's office closed.She looked tired.He imagined she was.They’d both been woken up too early.
“I think I could sleep for a week.”
“So could I.”He looked down the street both ways, finally spotting a hotel at the far end.“I’ll go grab us some hotel rooms.”
“All right,” she said.“But Bonnie’s staying here.The doctor and his wife already made up a cot for her.”
The look she gave him heated his blood.Since sharing the little room behind the jail with her, sleeping next to her was beginning to feel natural.Back home in Silver Falls, they had no choice in the matter.Here they did.
He could easily get two rooms and no one would be the wiser and the rational side of his brain told him to do so but the other side, the one that kept whispering to him that she was legally his wife and he had every right to sleep next to her told him to get one room with an extra small bed and be done with it.
He glanced back down the street to the hotel and cleared his throat.“Stay here with Bonnie.I’ll go see about the hotel room and find us all something to eat.”
He didn’t wait for a reply and headed down the street.He had a decision to make on the short walk across town and he couldn’t think properly with her so close.He needed a hotel room, but did he get one room or two?And did he want to go find that preacher that married them or pretend he didn’t exist and bed his wife like he should have done days ago?
