Undercover Justice

A tale of greed, and hope.

Undercover Justice By Carolyn McBride

Copyright Carolyn McBride 2020

Chapter One

The wind swirled the dust up and off the street as a horse plodded into town, the rider on the chestnut’s back slumped in the saddle. The horse made its way down the street ignoring the few people that it passed. It had been some time since it had been brushed and cared for. Sweat had dried on its flanks and mixed with the dust, giving the poor beast an air of neglect. Finally, it turned toward a weathered building and stopped at the trough of water in front. The rider could hold on no longer and slid from the saddle, falling in an ungraceful heap onto the dirt. A little boy who had been crouching in the shade of the trough bolted into the building. He emerged a moment later clutching the skirt of a thin, dark-haired woman.

“All right, Cassius, no need to pull so hard, I’m coming…oh, I see,” The woman hurried to the collapsed rider before turning back to the boy. “Cassius, go get Uncle Emmett, quick!”

As the little boy ran to the general store, she felt for a pulse. It was weak and thready, but it was there.

“Lita!” Emmett called out as he ran to her side.

“Looks like another exhausted cowboy. Can you take him inside?”

“It’s a good thing you’re my family, Lita,” Emmett grunted a little as he lifted the rider. “Go get the door.”

Cassius already had the main door to the medical clinic open, so Lita rushed ahead to open the door of a private room upstairs.

Emmett shouldered his way in a few moments later and laid the rider on the bed before turning. “Need anything else, Sis?”

“I think I’ll be okay now. If I need you again, I’ll send Cassius. Thank you, Emmett,” Lita said as she laid a hand on one of his arms.

Her brother shot her a grin. “Anything for you. Never know when I might need a doctor, after all. I’ll head back to the store.” His eyes twinkled and a smile shone out from the depths of his dark beard.

“Can you turn the sign on your way out?”

“Sure thing. I’ll see you later,” Emmett nodded and left the room, pulling the door closed behind him.

Lita turned back toward the bed, startled to find two green eyes gazing back at her.

“Where am I?” the stranger rasped.

“Your horse brought you into town. You’re in the medical clinic of Kennecot. I’m Dr. Knight…”

“No Doc!” The rider struggled to sit up.

“It’s okay, I promise, I’m a real doctor!” Lita tried to hold her patient down, wondering if she should have asked Emmett to stay. “I just want to find out why you collapsed.”

The cowboy didn’t have a lot of fight left and fell back onto the bed, breathing heavily.

“Snake bit me in the leg…”

“What kind of snake? I need to cut these pants off…”

“No!” The rider grabbed Lita’s wrist. “Just take my boot off and lift the pant leg, please…I only have one pair of pants…” Before he could say anything else, the cowboy lost consciousness.

“Damnit…Cassius, get my stethoscope and the spittoon from the corner, please,” Lita asked as she pulled up the pant leg closest to her. She found the bite easily, a large red blotch surrounding two punctures in the cowboy’s calf.

Cassius put the spittoon on the floor beside the bed and handed Lita the stethoscope before turning away to get the doctor’s bag from the main room downstairs.

Lita put the ends in her ears and bent to undo the cowboy’s shirt to listen to his heart, surprised to find his chest wrapped in cloth. “What in the…?”

It didn’t take much of an examination to figure out why her patient didn’t want to be seen by a doctor.

By the time Cassius came running back with the bag, Lita had buttoned the rider’s shirt again. She wasted no time in taking her scalpel from the bag and making a small cut over the puncture wounds. She bent her head and sucked as much of the poison out as she could, spitting it into the spitoon. When finally the wound had stopped bleeding and looked less angry, Lita turned again to the boy at her side.

“Go get me the jar marked mandrake, okay?”

Cassius ran off again, leaving Lita to mumble to her still unconscious patient. “Good thing I taught him to read.”

When she finally closed the door behind her some time later, the sun was setting and her patient was breathing easily. Cassius was waiting out in the hall as she’d asked him to do, and he looked up at her with a question in his eyes.

“I think he’ll be okay now,” Lita ruffled the little boy’s hair. “Let’s go and have something to eat while he sleeps, okay?”

But late that night, after Lita had tucked her adopted son into bed, she found sleep to be elusive. She gave up and rose from the bed. She checked to be sure Cassius was sleeping and wrapped her sweater around her shoulders. Questions about the stranger upstairs in her clinic had kept her awake so she eased quietly out the door and across the yard to the backdoor of the clinic. By the light of the lantern clutched in one hand, she let herself into the room. It was easy to see how she had mistaken the gender of her patient by the short dark hair and slim build without curves. Earlier that evening, Lita had asked Cassius to wait out in the hall while she changed her patient into a nightshirt that would be more comfortable. A task made all the easier by the fact that the person in question had remained unconscious. She checked the snake bite under the bandage and while it looked better, she knew from hard experience that infection was just as serious a danger as the venom had been. The difference was that infection would take longer to kill the victim.

The skin was still red. The bandage showed evidence of pus, and Lita shook her head silently as she turned to retrieve fresh bandages from a drawer in a nearby cabinet.

“I guess I lived, then?”

Lita’s gaze flicked up to her patient to find those green eyes watching her. “You did, but now we’re fighting the infection. I’m changing your bandage. I’m using a mandrake and willow paste. Mandrake to fight the infection and willow helps with the pain. You should know…”

“Yeah, I figured you’d find out…”

Lita stopped what she’d been doing and held out a hand, palm out. “Wait. I know, yes, but I’m the only one. I took your clothes to wash them. I’ll bring them back in the morning when they’re dry. Your secret is safe with me. No one else knows, or will know unless you tell them.”

“Is this where you tell me that your silence can be bought?”

“Of course not!” Lita was aghast. “Even if I were not an honorable woman, which I am, your secret is protected by doctor/patient confidentiality!” Lita shook her head as she slathered the poultice on and covered it with a clean bandage. “I’m Dr. Lita Knight, by the way. I introduced myself earlier, but you weren’t in much of a social state. What should I call you?”

“Hart.”

“Good to make your acquaintance, Hart. Do you need anything?”

“Is the water here safe?”

“No one has gotten sick from it, if that’s what you mean,” Lita tied a long strip of cloth around Hart’s calf to keep the bandage in place and flipped the quilt back over her patient’s leg. Then she went to the dresser and turned over a glass that rested upside down. She filled it with water from a nearby pitcher, covered that back over with cheesecloth and took Hart the glass.

Hart had struggled to an upright position in the bed and accepted the glass gratefully. “Thank you. You’re the first person I’ve met out here that keeps things so clean.”

Lita sat on the side of the bed. “Well, despite the prevailing beliefs, infections and sickness thrive on unclean things. So I boil bandages, steam clean my instruments and keep a clean clinic. It’s how things were done at school, and it’s how I do them here.”

“You went to school?” Hart sounded almost envious.

“Women’s Medical School of Timmonsmith,” Lita replied proudly. “What about you?”

“Can’t say as I’ve set foot in a school since my younger years,” Hart said as she returned the glass.

“I’ve not seen you around town before.” Lita fished for an explanation without outright asking for one, which would have been rude.

“I live a free life, just my horse and I. We’re passing through. Is he…?”

Lita patted the foot closest to her hand. “He’s fine. My brother Emmett took him to his place to take care of him properly. Once he’s had a few more good meals, a bath and some rest, he’ll be as good as new.”

“I want to get back on the trail as soon as I can.”

“Good luck escaping the notice of Mr. Kennecot,” Lita said as she stood and crossed the room to turn down the wick on the lantern. “Rest. Your body needs to rest to fight off the infection. We’ll talk in the morning.”

“Good night, Dr. Knight. Thanks for keeping me alive.”

“My pleasure, Hart. Get some sleep.”

With the door to the room closed once more, Hart let out a long breath and wondered why she needed to escape Kennecot’s attention.

To Be Continued Next Monday!