Give My All to Jessie (Third in Outlaw Series)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"Mama...." Jessie struggled to think of exactly what she wanted to say. Before she could make up her mind, the door opened and an elder man with wild white hair, thick glasses and bushy eyebrows stepped into the room with a black satchel in his hand and a gold watch chain across his middle.

"I hear our patient is finally awake," he announced.

Jessie's head began to ache. "So it would seem."

"I'll come back and check on you in the morning," Leah assured her and then she slipped from the room.

"You're a lucky girl," the doctor informed her as he sat down in the chair beside her bed and opened his bag. "That bullet would have killed you if it hadn't bounced off your rib."

"Was I really asleep for four days?"

"Yes, you were. We were quite worried about you but you'll be fine now. A bit sore but fine. It's gonna be a good few weeks before you're able to move around without a good deal of pain. I've told the Madame here to get you something to eat and she should be bringing it up soon."

"Thank you," Jessie said. She winced and hissed in pain as she pushed herself up against the wall so she was sitting instead of flat on her back.

"Would you like something for pain?" the doctor asked.

"Not right now," Jessie refused, figuring she'd been out of it long enough already. "I'll take something before I go to sleep."

"Here's you a deck of cards so you can play solitaire to pass the time. You need rest, dear, so make sure you get some."

"This isn't my first time being shot, doc," Jessie grumbled. "I can take care of myself."

He looked taken aback by her grumpiness a moment before getting to his feet with a huff and straightening out his jacket. "Yes, well, if you do find yourself in need of me, you can send someone to fetch me."

Jessie waited until she was alone and then lifted up the neckline of the loose sleeping gown she'd been dressed in. Thick white bandages were wrapped tight around her ribs.

Jessie relaxed against the wall and sighed. She'd gone a long time without getting shot and now she'd been shot and nearly died twice in less than six months.... Maybe it was time to start reevaluating her life and the way she lived it.

***

"Good to see you up and moving around again!" Leah Burke exclaimed when Jessie came down the grand staircase less than a week later. She might have been moving very slowly and leaning heavily against the railing but she was moving.

"I'm ready to get better so I can get out of here," Jessie assured her. "I hate this place. No offense to you, of course," she said to Madame Francine as the regally dressed woman lounged on a chaise beside the fireplace.

"None taken, dear," Madame Francine replied warmly. "You have certainly earned the right to say anything you want."

Jessie shrugged. "All I did was kill a man who needed to be killed. And I almost got killed doing it. That hardly makes me a hero."

"We'll just agree to disagree on that," Madame Francine countered.

Jessie rolled her eyes and walked to the fireplace. She smoothed out her cream leather skirt and tugged at the sleeves of her white blouse. She felt antsy and itchy. She didn't like being here and yet she wasn't well enough to leave.

"Jessie, can we go down to the café and eat? I'd like the chance to talk for a while," her mama offered.

Jessie frowned at the woman attempting to figure her out. Why was the woman suddenly acting like a mother after years of neglect? Jessie wasn't sure to make of her sudden caretaking role and she couldn't help but be suspicious of it.