Give My Love to Rose(1st in Outlaw Series)

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Langley was scared. It was morning but his mama wouldn't wake up. She had been okay the night before other than her real bad cough but now she was terrible sick.

She kept mumbling as she tossed and turned under her covers and when Langley laid his palm on her forehead, her skin had burned him. He knew he should go for the doc but they'd gotten snowfall in the night so he couldn't walk to town and he couldn't saddle the mare on his own.

"Mama, what can I do to help you?" he whispered, his voice echoing in the quiet of the cabin.

He pushed a bit of th sweaty hair from her brow when she didn't answer and he pulled the covers up to her chin.

Langley stood and walked from the room. Never in his life had he felt so helpless and terrified. He wished Marston would come back. His mama had told him that the man would but Langley was beginning to think she had lied to him to spare his feelings.

Langley kicked the table leg. Why hadn't he gone to the doctor sooner! He'd known his mama was sick but she had kept insisting for weeks that it was simply a cold and she would get better. He never should have listened to her.

What if that banker showed up while mama was in the bed like she was? He had heard the man demand payment any way he could get it last time and while Langley didn't know exactly what that meant, he knew it was a threat to his mama.

Just to assure himself that he could protect her, Langley grabbed the rifle from beside the door and tested the weight of it in his hands. Then he went to the counter, grabbed a stale biscuit and tore off a chunk with his teeth.

Langley went to the fireplace and began to stoke the fire, poking at it and becoming lost in his thoughts and worries. Pounding hooves approaching the cabin, yanked Langley from his thoughts.

He tossed down the poker and raced toward the gun. Langley scooted a kitchen chair to the door and climbed on so he could stick the rifle barrel out of the hole. Without thinking about what he was doing, and simply wanting to protect his mama, Langley pulled the trigger.

The recoil of the rifle, sent him stumbling backward and tumbling off the chair. Langley was sent sprawling on the floor and the rifle went sliding away.

"Dammit!" a man's voice bellowed. "Rose? Langley? Whichever one of you just shot me is going to have the favor returned! I swear on all that is holy, I will put a bullet in your damned ass!"

"Marston?!" Langley exclaimed as he leaped to his feet and threw open the door. "I didn't kill you, did I?"

"I'm talking aren't I?" Marston grumbled.

Langley stared up at him. He was just as big as Langley remembered as he stood there in his duster coat with a blood tear across the sleeve. "I'm sorry, Marston! I thought you was someone else. I didn't hurt you too bad did I?"

"No, it ain't too bad," Marston replied, relief flooding him at seeing Langley alive and well. "As a matter of fact, you shot me in the same spot my brother has already gotten a time or two."

"You have a brother?" Langley asked. Marston nodded as he looked over the boy's head for any sign of Rose. "And he shot you?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Wow..." Langley sighed. "I'm glad I don't have a brother."

"You should be," Langley agreed. "Where's your mama?"

Langley's blue eyes filled with fear and worry. "She's real sick, Marston. She's been sick for weeks but this morning she won't wake up and she's burning hot."