A Longer Fall (Gunnie Rose #2)(15)

“I’ll try to find some more, and another bandage,” Eli said. “Though it hardly needs a bandage now.” He looked pleased.

“I owe you more and more.” I couldn’t sound happy or even content about that.

“I have a strong feeling the scales will balance,” Eli said, and gave me a crooked smile before he left. I locked the door behind him.

I stripped off my clothes in record time. The bathtub was nice and deep, and I started the water running. It got hot pretty fast, and I put in the stopper. There was a bottle of stuff on the stool beside the tub, and it was labeled FOR THE LADIES. Maybe it would turn me into one. The water foamed up and the smell of lavender filled the room. I smiled again. Things were looking up.

There were lots of towels and they were all thick, not a threadbare one among ’em. Even the washrag was thick. I climbed in, feeling better than I’d felt in days.

I was humming when I took out the stopper. I stepped out onto the fuzzy mat and glanced in the mirror. I felt more like myself, more in balance. “After all,” I said, “I can always go back and shoot those ladies.” That cheered me up. I hummed as I washed the bandage in the sink.

Eli, too, was in a better mood when he returned with a couple of small shopping bags. “I had to walk several blocks,” he said. “Every pharmacy in the area is selling out of first-aid stuff. But I have fresh bandages and some of that ointment.” He’d enjoyed stretching his legs and tracking down what I needed, I could tell.

I sat on the bed wrapped in a towel while Eli emptied out the drugstore bag. Didn’t take Eli long to re-dress my arm. He read the directions on the ointment and dabbed it on the wound, circled my arm with gauze twice, pinned it in place.

“That antiseptic stuff seems to work great,” I said. “Thanks for getting more.” I wasn’t sure I would need it after today, but I was glad to have it on hand.

“It’s going to change everything,” Eli told me. “That’s what the pharmacist said.” Then his smile faded, and he had that look. He was going to tell me something he knew I wouldn’t like.

“Spit it out,” I said.

“When I was going out, Mr. Mercer at the front desk stopped me. The man who’s not going to suffer me to live.” Eli grimaced. “Mr. Mercer told me he had not realized I was taking a woman up to my room, a woman to whom I was not married.”

I stared at Eli. “He really said that?”

“He really did.”

“I bought dresses. I got underwear. I have a purse. Now this man I’ve never met wants me to be married, too. Who made these people God?”

“Themselves, apparently.” But Eli did smile just a little. “Mercer’s more than a desk clerk. He owns the hotel.”

“So Mr. Mercer can have us thrown out, and then we wouldn’t have anywhere to stay. I bet every hotel in Sally is full by now.” Plus, I was in love with the bathtub. “Does he want me horsewhipped or stoned?”

“Mercer just wants some whitewash, apparently.” Eli sat beside me on the bed. “So I told him we were married.”

“Okay.” It didn’t make any difference to me. I knew who I was.

Eli looked like he was relaxed all over. “Then we’re all right,” he said. “I got you this, to look the part.” He opened the second bag, the smaller one, and withdrew a tiny box.

“This” turned out to be a plain, thin gold band. Eli took my left hand and slid the ring on.

Something about the ring, about Eli putting it on my finger instead of handing it to me… that made the air in the room suddenly feel fraught.

Eli had bought himself a wedding band too.

“I hadn’t thought I’d marry so young,” I said, making myself smile, willing the tension to go away.

“Good God,” Eli said. His eyes flew wide. “Lizbeth! How old are you? I’ve forgotten, if I knew.”

“I’m still nineteen,” I said. “Same as when you asked me in Mexico.”

“Lots of people are married by the time they’re nineteen.” But Eli looked uneasy.

“I don’t think anyone’s going to ask to see my birth certificate,” I said, wondering if I even had one. “In Texoma, I’ve been counted grown up since I left school when I was sixteen. And that was kind of late to still be in school.”

“I thought you might get mad about all this,” Eli said.

“I got other things to worry about, things a lot more important.”

Maybe I could have put that nicer. But Eli only raised his eyebrows, to tell me to go on.

“I have to find out what happened to our cargo. I have to check on Maddy and Rogelio. Harriet Ritter and Travis Seeley can connect me to Jake. If anyone looks close, they’ll see he was murdered. I may get accused of killing him.”

Eli smiled. It was like the sun coming out. “We do have a lot of things to do. Can you wait to check on your friends? So we can try to get a lead on your cargo? Are you feeling well enough?”

I noticed he had said “we.” And I felt the biggest sense of relief. Doing everything by myself had seemed like a huge, steep mountain. I knew no one in Sally. I knew nothing about who’d employed the Lucky Crew. I had almost no money. But I tried not to let it show. I didn’t want Eli to feel I was a burden on his shoulders.