A Longer Fall (Gunnie Rose #2)(19)

But Miss Mayhew was immune. Blank stare. I loved it.

We walked past the desk into the wide hall. There was a sign sticking out on the left: WOMEN’S WARD. The men’s ward was across the hall. A door at the far end said EMERGENCY—OPERATING THEATER—PRIVATE ROOMS. The screaming came from there.

The double swinging doors to the women’s ward were closed, I guess to cut down on the noise or for modesty. Eli pushed one open and we went in. It smelled, of course, though maybe it would have been clean and clear if the train wreck survivors hadn’t been there. The engine smell was strong. Fear, sweat, blood, dirt, and all other body fluids added to the bouquet.

The women’s ward was a long, open room containing twenty beds. As Miss Mayhew had said, they were all occupied. There were also a few cots set up running in a line down the middle of the room. They were occupied, too.

I could tell most of these women had been on the train; they had broken limbs, head injuries, and fresh bandages. Though there were three nurses, and they were all working diligently, some of the patients had not been cleaned yet. Their faces were smudged with dirt or blood, and they were still in their train clothes, just as soiled.

I saw Maddy halfway down on the left side. She was in a hospital gown. Due to the heat, she was on top of the sheets rather than under them. Her leg was heavily bandaged. She didn’t look good.

Maddy looked at me as I stood by her bed. For a moment, she didn’t know me. It was almost funny, the expression she wore when she figured out who I was. I’d put the new outfit from my mind. I put a finger across my lips to let her know not to make a big to-do about my transformation.

“Lizbeth?” Maddy said cautiously, kind of feeling her way through the situation. I nodded. She looked past me at Eli. “I remember you from the wreck. Thanks for helping me.”

“We came to see how you are feeling,” I said.

“My leg isn’t as good as I had hoped,” Maddy said. She was unhappy and worried and in pain. “They did some cutting and stitching on it, got the bullet out. I just woke up. I thought after they’d bandaged me I’d get back to the station to see if I could get a train going the other way. But the doctor says I can’t walk on it for a week, at least, and then I got to use crutches. If I don’t take care of it now, I’ll be a gimp the rest of my life, he said. If it opens up again, I might bleed to death.” Maddy looked gloomy, as well she ought. “But I have to get home and get work. And I got to pay the hospital bill. Maybe you can send Jake in here? He should be willing to front me the money for the return trip, plus my wages.”

I could tell she’d been sitting there thinking and fuming and worrying. Who wouldn’t? I hated to bring more bad news down on her. “Maddy, I have to tell you something. After I helped you onto the wagon, we went back to Jake, to fetch him and take him to town, along with the crate. But when we got there, he was dead. Someone had cut his throat. And they stole our cargo.”

Maddy looked at me. After a long moment she gasped real deep and rough, like she was taking the first breath after a blow to the chest.

“We left him to get killed,” she said, her voice ragged. “We left him.”

I had already thought that twenty times. It made me sick. “Yeah, we did. I did,” I said, so she’d know I wasn’t sparing myself. “No way around that. But Jake was alert and armed. I went directly back to him after we’d talked to you and Rogelio. Couldn’t have been more than ten minutes.”

Maddy looked down at her clasped hands, her lips pressed together. “I’ve been with Jake for three years,” she said, presently. “I’ve been to dinner at his house. I introduced him to his boyfriend.”

I kept silence until she got herself under control. After a bit, she took a deep breath.

“So, who’s this friend of yours?” Maddy asked. She jerked her head at Eli. “Where’d you find him?”

She didn’t remember we’d talked about this at the train wreck, and that was not surprising. “I knew Eli from my last job,” I said. “I had no expectations of seeing him here. His job has crossed mine, again.” I didn’t want Maddy to think I’d arranged some kind of rendezvous.

“He a wizard? Holy Russian?” She leaned a little to look past me, her face telling me clearly that Maddy didn’t trust Eli as far as she could throw him.

“You can talk to Eli directly.” I was having my own struggle, to sound neutral. “I’m not his mouthpiece.”

“He why you’re all rigged up?”

“No.” Yes. “I’m all rigged up because women here have to be, or they get… mistreated. I have to track the cargo.”

“What can I do?” It was clear Maddy was not pleased with me, or trustful of my ally, but she knew we had to finish our job.

“Get well,” I said. “Jake would be the last person in the world to want you to get crippled, trying to find out who killed him. And Rogelio is here, he’ll help, unless he’s more busted up than I figured.”

Maddy looked angry, and frustrated, and then… resigned. “It is true that I can’t do any good while I’m bleeding from the leg,” she said grudgingly. “I have to be able to walk, or no more jobs for me. And the pain is more than I’d counted on.” She was white around the mouth.

I nodded, being no stranger to pain. “Do you know a name or address where I can get in touch with our employer? To see about what to do now, how to get paid? At least they owe us for the trip here.”