The Five Dollar Mail (Book 1: The Green & Book 2: Lynch's Boys)

14: Horse Doctor

Cover painting by Angela Taratuta. Character sketch by Melissa Zayas. Graphics by Jim Shelley and yours truly. To see more of Melissa's work, check  out her webfiction series, Three of  Swords at http://threeofswords.melzayasart.com/

Saint gently laid Storm on the bedding the girls had set up on long sofa in the parlor. They had stoked up the fireplace and the air inside the room was warm and smelled pleasantly of burning kindling and leather. He carefully slid his arm from under Storm's head, letting him settle into the pillows. The express rider was out cold. Evidently, once his feet hit the familiar safety of the station grounds, he had allowed himself the luxury of fainting. Lily was glad to see that Fiona had gotten control of her tears. The last thing they needed at this point was hysterics from anyone.

"Mr. Bari." Lily said, softly. "Could you and Luis please heat some more water?" She'd noticed that Luis had been uncharacteristically silent and frightened since finding out about the trouble. Fiona had told her as they had set up the parlor that Luis and Storm were close, that Luis had kind of adopted his fellow rider as a sort of big brother. Of the crew, only Storm had what appeared to be an endless supply of patience for enduring Luis' jokes and taunts, and for his sometimes irritating chatter. Storm never really got mad at him, even when he himself was the target of an unpleasant prank. He would just get even. And for that, Luis respected and looked up to him.

Right now, though, the youngest rider stood staring at his friend's pale, still face with a look of sick fear that made Lily's heart ache. The boy looked utterly lost. Better to get him busy doing something constructive and helpful, she thought. He doesn't need to be in here imagining the worst.

Saint straightened up and nodded at Luis. "Yes, ma'am. Come on, Luis." He swung a comforting hand to Luis' shoulder, gave it a brotherly squeeze, and led the youth outside to the kitchen.

"All right, ladies." Bender muttered, rumaging through the gear he and Lily had carried in. Lily was impressed that he seemed to have a good bit of actual medical equipment. "Miss McMillian, he's got a bad gash on his scalp. Can you stitch it?"

"I can, yessir. I've done that before." I've sewn up my own brother on a few occaisions, even.

"Good." He popped open the bottle of whiskey and set it between them. "Let's try to get all this done before he wakes up, yeah? No point hurting him if we don't have to. Fiona, help her clean the crud out of his hair so she can stitch it clean. Use the whiskey once you get down to the wound."

Storm's hair was stiff with blood. Fiona gently pressed a wet rag to it, drawing it though his locks to loosten the clots. Lily could see her friend's hands shaking as she slid her hands under their patient's head, gently sweeping his hair out from under him so that it spilled over the side of the sofa. Lily carefully undid what was left of the braid and picked through the matted tangles with her fingers. There was a hawk feather stitched into a strand at the side that she thought she should probably leave alone so she worked around it. Seeing him unconscious, his handsome face bruised and battered, quickly brought her simmering anger into boiling outrage. She pictured him bleeding in a jail cell, with no one caring enough to help him. "So, this Sheriff Holt just...just...left him in the jail in this condition?" she blurted, unable to keep silent. "Bleeding like this?"

"'Fraid so, me love." Bender said grimly. "Speaking of which, do you think you can get the stains out of his shirt?"