Free A Cowboy at Heart by Virginia Smith, Lori Copeland Page B

honey mingled with something he could not place, and the result was delicious. He drained the mug dry, afraid she might take it away before he’d had his fill.
    With a satisfied set to her lips she returned the empty mug to the table. “Keep that down and there will be soup.”
    He would have protested that of course he could keep down a few swallows of sweetened tea, that in his day he’d swigged enough whiskey to float a riverboat and kept it down, but at the moment his stomach felt a bit queasy. Bragging might not be a good idea.Instead, he closed his mouth and concentrated on not throwing up.
    Maummi Switzer slid a straight-back chair across the floor to the bed and lowered herself into the seat. “It has been four days since you were shot,” she repeated, “and we feared you dead more than once. Dr. Sorensen came from Hays City and pulled a bullet from your back.” She plucked something off the table and showed him a piece of mangled lead. “Katie stitched your head, and together we have kept you clean to guard against a killing fever.”
    What being clean had to do with fever he didn’t know, but his thoughts snagged on one comment. “Did she help…you know.” He lifted a hand and pointed toward the blanket that covered his body from waist to feet. “Change my skivvies?”
    “ Ach , no!” The elderly woman seemed scandalized at the thought. “A young widow has no place in such a task. I did that myself, with Jonas to help.”
    Jesse didn’t know whether to be relieved or more deeply embarrassed. He decided on the former. Maummi had birthed two babies, and Jonas was a man. Better them than a pretty young woman.
    He settled gingerly against the fluffy stuff at his back, which he decided was a small tick stuffed with feathers. Mighty glad he was for it too, because his back was sorer than he could imagine. He’d been shot before while riding the cattle trail, once in the shoulder and once in the leg, but he’d never imagined pain like this.
    “Has anybody gone after the no-good scoundrel who did this to me?”
    She did not meet his gaze as she shook her head slowly. “It is not the Plain way to retaliate.”
    If his lungs didn’t hurt so badly he would have heaved a sigh. No, of course it wasn’t. And now that he looked back on his encounter with Littlefield and his hired thugs, he was glad Jonas hadn’t tried to confront them alone. They would make mincemeat out of a mild Amish guy like him. In a few days Jesse would be up and about, and he’d settle his own grudges then.
    “That fence still up?”
    “ Ja . Our Katie and the boy help Jonas carry water for the animals morning, noon, and night.”
    Jesse stared at her. Katie had a son? He’d somehow gotten the impression she’d had no children before her husband went to his rest. “The boy?”
    “ Ja . One of Rebecca’s orphans, sent by her Colin to help us.” She leveled a stern gaze on him. “Because you are no help and only double the work for us all.”
    Rather than feel the barb personally, Jesse managed a feeble chuckle. If Maummi Switzer felt confident enough to jab at him, she must not be overly concerned about his recovery.
    She rose and scooted the chair back across the floor. “Rest now.”
    “Hey! You said something about soup.” He attempted only a weak protest because his head had begun to swirl and his eyelids felt as though they were being pulled closed by an unseen force.
    “A good laugh and long sleep are a doctor’s best cures.” She smiled, not unkindly. “Sleep now. Soup later.”
    He would have shot back a response, but he couldn’t manage to stay awake long enough to think of one.

    Katie pumped the handle, watching as water spilled into the bucket. The boy, Butch, stood at her side waiting for the bucket to fill, his expression solemn. Actually, his countenance rarely varied from the grave expression he now wore. The only time she’d seen something approximating a smile was when he’d been given the task of