Free Death Devil (9781101559666) by Jon Sharpe

only ever been with one man in my life. We were engaged to be married. He left me when . . .” She stopped.
    â€œWe don’t have to talk about it,” Fargo said. He’d rather not talk at all.
    â€œNo. It’s all right.” Belinda gazed at the window. “He courted me for three years. We agreed that we would wait to marry until after I was done with medical school. But it was hard, I guess, my being so busy with my studies that I hardly had time for him. One day, clear out of the blue, he stunned me by saying he couldn’t go on with the way things were. Either I devoted myself to him or he would leave me. He actually gave me an ultimatum. Be a doctor or be his wife.”
    â€œYou chose the doc.”
    â€œWhat else could I do?” Belinda said, and her eyes moistened. “By then I’d invested too much time, to say nothing of money, in my education. I couldn’t up and quit. I tried to make him see that. I told him that as soon as school was over, I was his. But he said that once I became a doctor, I’d be working all hours of the day and hardly ever around, and he didn’t want a wife who was never home.” She sighed. “And do you know what? He was right. I haven’t been with a man since.”
    Fargo remembered a comment Harold McWhertle made to the effect that she arrived in Ketchum Falls three or four years ago. “That’s a long time to be alone.”
    Belinda nodded, and swallowed. “Now you understand why I’m a bit apprehensive.”
    â€œHave any liquor in the house?”
    Belinda chuckled. “What, you think if I’m drunk, I’ll relax and enjoy it more?”
    â€œMight work,” Fargo said. He was pleasantly surprised when she nodded and stood.
    â€œDo you know what? I’ll by God do it. It’s been too long since I let down my hair.”
    â€œOr your dress,” Fargo said.
    Belinda laughed and sashayed out, saying over her shoulder, “I have a bottle of Monongahela in the kitchen. I’ll be right back.”
    Fargo stretched his arms along the settee. A good meal, some whiskey, and a fine figure of a woman. Life didn’t get any better than this. He patted his stomach and heard the clink of glasses and she came around the corner smiling.
    â€œHere we go.”
    The bottle, Fargo noted with satisfaction, was three-fourths full.
    Belinda set the glasses on the table, opened the bottle, and poured barely enough whiskey to fill a thimble into each glass.
    â€œIs that all the coffin varnish you can handle?” Fargo said. “I like mine to the brim.”
    â€œSorry. I’m used to always staying sober in case my services are called on in an emergency.”
    â€œThere’s no emergency now.”
    From outside came the drum of hooves. A horse whinnied, and someone yelled, and in a few moments her front door shook to hard pounding.
    â€œDr. Jackson?” a woman hollered. “Are you in there? We need your help!”
    â€œWho can that be?” Belinda said in alarm, hurrying from the parlor.
    Fargo went with her.
    The pounding grew frantic.
    Belinda called out that she was coming. She opened the door and exclaimed, “Edna McWhertle! What on earth is wrong?”
    The farmer’s wife clasped her hands in appeal. “It’s our cousin, Artemis. You have to come quick.”
    â€œHold on,” Belinda said. “Earlier today your husband practically threw me off your farm. Now you want me to come back out there?”
    In a rush Edna said, “Harold’s not there now. He went off with the others. And Artemis needs help bad. Dogood can’t do anything. He’s not a surgeon.”
    â€œTry to stay calm and start from the beginning. What exactly ails your cousin? And where did your husband go off to?”
    â€œI’m sorry,” Edna apologized. “It’s just that Artemis isn’t long for this world, I fear. He was shot with an