Taking A Trip With An Outlaw

Chapter 4 - Caring for Grace

Chapter Four – Caring for Grace

As Liam had come out of that tent and spotted Grace being help with a pistol against her temple, he had an overwhelming urge to run and grab her out of the man’s arms.  Watching Grace as she calmly moved her hand to rest on her pistol I had done the same and waited to see if there was any opening at all to take a shot to release her from her captor.

As the men spoke Liam tuned them out to try and focus on getting Grace away from harm and back safely into his arms.

As the conversation went on he realised that nothing was going to happen quick enough and just as his hand was pulling out his pistol it seemed that Grace had had the same idea. As she fired a bullet into the man’s chest she was free and as she turned to face the other two men, her unruly red hair swung around her body.

Shots were fired all over the place as Grace shot at the men, snapping out of his shock Liam pulled his gun up and took aim at the men, glancing to his right he saw that Fred and Granger were doing the same thing.

Soon the air was quiet and Liam let out a huge sigh of relief as Fred barrelled towards Grace hugging her tightly from behind. Jealously raged through him before he reminded himself that the two were cousins and that he had no right to be jealous at all.

He slowly began to walk towards the cousins as his father told everyone to get back to bed. Jimmy Farland had fallen asleep on his post and if not for Grace’s quick thinking, things could have been much worse.

Grace still hadn’t turned, yet when all the men had returned to the tent Fred let out a gasp exclaiming that Grace was injured.

Liam and Granger sped towards Grace as she fell into Fred’s arms. He gently lowered her to the ground as his hands traced over her body asking her how many times that she had been shot. Before she’d even managed to mumble the reply he had discovered the wounds on her hip, leg and shoulder. Liam cursed as he grabbed his father’s hands placing them on her leg and hip, and snatching one of Fred’s hands to press firmly into her shoulder.

Grace’s moans were becoming less frequent as she slipped further and further into unconsciousness, Liam ran to his tent pulling his saddlebag from his bedside and rushing back to Grace. Her breathing had become deep and shallow and her face was pale in the night. Emptying his bag onto the ground he found the needle and thread as he pushed Fred’s hand away and began stitching the wound on her shoulder.

“What about the pain?” Fred yelled trying to push his hands away yet Granger interrupted as Liam growled and continued stitching.

“She’s too far gone Fred, she won’t feel a thing. ‘sides my boy first trained to be a Doc, he knows what he’s doing!”

As Liam skilfully stitched together all of Grace’s wounds he gently took some rags and wrapped them round the wounds.

“Fred, if you can carry her to her tent, I’ll stay with her tonight to wait and see if the fever breaks”

Fred carried Grace to her tent and laid her down kissing her forehead and turning to Liam as he began to leave “Liam please make sure you get her through this, she’s the only family I have left and I can’t lose her.”

“I’ll do my best” he promised as he turned back to Grace and heard the entrance of the tent flap closed.

As the night drew on Liam soaked Grace’s forehead with cold watered rags and cleaned her wounds to make sure that they didn’t become infected. She was hot to touch and every now and then she would moan and ramble incoherently.

A couple of nights later after people came and went and Granger was sat in the tent with Liam. Liam had begun to feel stronger towards Grace, the way her plump red lips were against her slightly tanned skin, the dark eyelashes that framed her wide deer like eyes and the curly hair that lay sprayed out across the ground where she lay.  Each day he willed for her to get better and each day he drew more and more attached to her, seeing her in his dreams and mumbling her name when he didn’t realise he was doing it.

Granger sat holding her hand and stroked it every now and then as if the action would get her to wake. He’d definitely shown a softer side towards the girl and Liam couldn’t understand why they were so close.

“You feel a lot for her don’t you Pa?” Liam questioned looking into his eyes

“It’s as if she were my own, I’ve only cared for her for 5 years but in all my time no one could get me to laugh like she does other than your mother. She’s a lot like your Ma you know son? The way she has that fiery spirit and courage. I know I couldn’t take 3 bullets without crying out. She’s stubborn and yet caring. She was only 16 when I found her, you should have seen her Liam – all battered and bruised, she was such a skinny thing too and real timid. After I took her in she wouldn’t look anyone in the eyes, not even Fred. Sure she got on best with him over the others but any sudden movements would have her cowering, I wanted to change that, I needed to. I couldn’t stand to see this poor girl so broken.” Granger gasped with emotion “You were 22 and all grown up and married, and I wanted to get Freya to help raise the girl but I didn’t want to burden you so I did the next best thing and raised her meself goo and proper. Sure she behaves more like an outlaw but I had to do it so that she’d get by in this world and not be put in that position by the likes of Sheriff Longly again!”

Liam thought over what his father had just said he was pleased that Granger had decided against sending Grace to him because then he wouldn’t be able to understand the feelings that he was feeling now. They were stronger than what they were with Freya. Freya was kind and gentle and she brought him out of his outlaw ways but the truth was Liam didn’t want to leave that life he wanted someone to share that life with and that person was Grace.

The two men sat in silence as Liam saw the emotion running across his father’s face, suddenly a large gasp filled the room as Liam turned to see Grace breathing deeply before coughing harshly, she was still sick but now that she had awoken everything would get a lot better.

Granger quickly let go of Grace’s hand and pulled her in to a hug, this was some of the first emotion Liam had really seen of his Pa. There were times when his father was affectionate but most of the time he wore a very tough exterior.

“You silly lass, I thought we’d lost you Grace! Why didn’t you say you’d been hurt you silly, silly girl” Granger pulled away from Grace as her eyes filled with tears.

“I’m… I… I’m s.ss..sorry Granger, I swear, I swear” Grace stuttered as Granger pulled her back into a hug soothing her whilst rocking her backwards and forwards.

“It’s alright girl, pull yourself together, your cousin is running the ground raw waiting to come and see you but Doctor Grange here said that only one visitor was allowed in at any time and I must say I’ve been real selfish” Granger winked as Grace laughed softly whilst looking in Liam’s direction.

“You cared for me when I was ill?” she asked

“Hm” Liam grunted putting away his supplies, his job was done and he had to get away to help make himself understand the feelings that he felt towards this woman. “I’m going outside” he said as he went out the tent and motioned for Fred to go in in his place.

Fred was only too quick to oblige as Liam swarmed to the river side and sat beneath a tree in the hot sun. He knew that he was developing an infatuation with Grace; he just didn’t want to be rejected to feel the pain like what he felt with Freya all over again.

Freya. He would always love her because she was a part of his life for many years but now he had to move on and try to live how he wanted for Freya.

All Liam knew for sure was that he was caring for Grace.