Kiowa's Oath Read online

  Kiowa’s Oath

  Grooms with Honor Series, Book 12

  Copyright © 2018 by Linda K. Hubalek

  Published by Butterfield Books Inc.

  Printed Book ISBN—978-1791537401

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2018914719

  Kindle Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the retailer and buy your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Except for the history of Kansas mentioned in the book, the names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  A sweet romance set in 1892.

  Kiowa Jones, Clear Creek, Kansas, blacksmith, keeps to himself most of the time to avoid people who didn’t care for his Native American background. And it’s a good cover for who he really is.

  Widower Mary Jenkins moved home to Clear Creek from Chicago with her two children after her husband died. She owns and manages a dress shop, living upstairs with her children.

  But a fall down a steep stairs changes their lives instantly and forever. The secret Kiowa and Mary have been keeping to themselves is exposed as they need help from the townspeople, some who clearly are against acknowledging Kiowa and Mary as a couple.

  The “sickness and in health” part of their wedding vows test Kiowa and Mary as they work through the crisis. Will the town tear them apart or make them stronger?

  Kiowa and Mary

  I always picture my characters, either imaginary or from real images, when I write my books. For the Grooms with Honor series I’m using couples I found in my great-grandparents’ photo album, dating back to the early 1880s to early 1900s period. My great-grandparents were born in Sweden, moved to Kansas, and married in 1892.

  There are no names written on the back of these photographs, and I don’t recognize them as any of my relatives.

  Unfortunately, there wasn’t a couple in the album that would suggest Kiowa and Mary’s wedding photograph, so please consider the man on the book cover as Kiowa, and the photo I have featured as his wife, Mary.

  These couples don’t look like our modern-day cover models (men with rippling muscles and women with flawless makeup), but they show real couples starting their new life together as husband and wife during the same period as the couples in my Grooms with Honor series.

  While you’re reading Kiowa’s Oath, you can pretend this portrait is of Kiowa Jones’ wife, Mary. Hopefully, I’ve given her and Kiowa a good start in their married life.

  Chapter 1

  May 1892

  Clear Creek, Kansas

  “Kiowa! Kiowa! Come quick!” Kiowa Jones heard ten-year-old Nolie Jenkins scream at the top of his lungs in panic as he ran toward Kiowa’s blacksmith shop.

  Kiowa had never heard the boy in such a panicked state. Kiowa dropped his heavy hammer and the hand tongs holding the red-hot iron on top of the anvil.

  The forge fire was going full blast, but Kiowa ignored it as he ran to meet the boy.

  “What’s wrong?” Kiowa called out as they raced toward each other.

  “They fell down the stairs! Ma’s not moving and Burdette’s screaming because her right leg is stickin’ out at a funny angle!” Nolie yelled as he ran backward a second until Kiowa was by his side and they both raced toward the apartment stairs above Mary Jenkin’s dress shop, not dodging the water puddles from this morning’s downpour.

  Panic pumped Kiowa’s legs and arms as he ran the block. His thick black braid flying free behind him when he lost the leather cap he wore when he worked in the shop. Kiowa yanked off his thick leather gloves as he ran, dropping them on the muddy ground without a second thought. He was covered with sweat and soot, but there was no time to wash up.

  “Did you go to Dr. Pansy’s office first?” Kiowa shouted between puffs of air.

  “No! I thought I should get you—”

  “Go now! And if you can’t find the doctor, get her husband, Mack Reagan, to find her!” Kiowa yelled and ran on as Nolie veered off to run to the doctor’s office.

  Kiowa skidded to a stop as he reached the enclosed stairway as the boardwalk was slick from the rain. The outside door to the stairway leading up to the apartment was open. Mother and daughter were both unconscious, lying a few steps apart halfway down the steep steps. Kiowa broke into a cold sweat seeing twelve-year-old Burdette’s leg broken halfway between her knee and thigh, jutting out at an odd angle and bleeding through her dress. It would be a blessing if she fainted from the pain, rather than also having a head injury.

  Mary was on her back, sprawled down the steps, her head resting on a step below her body. Had she fallen head first? Dear God, Mary’s not moving. Had she broken her neck?

  Kiowa hesitated a moment. How did he move them without causing more injuries?

  “Kiowa! Don’t move them yet! “We’re coming!” Mack Reagan bellowed, racing with a longboard under his arm beside his wife, Doctor Pansy. The woman was six foot tall and kept up with her husband, even clutching her doctor’s bag to her chest.

  Kiowa stepped back, trying to breathe in his panic. What if Mary and Burdette both died in this freak accident? He caught Nolie around the waist as the boy tried to run up the stairs to his family.

  “Nolie, stop,” Kiowa commanded as the boy fought Kiowa’s hold. “Let the doctor do her job.”

  Nolie’s tears dripped on Kiowa’s forearms. Or maybe the tears were his own because his vision was blurring.

  Storekeepers and customers quickly clambered down the boardwalk because they heard the yelling outside.

  Fergus Reagan, the photographer, stepped up to help his brother, Mack, with the transfer of Burdette since the girl was closest to the outside door.

  “Carefully slide the board under Burdette, trying to keep her back straight,” Doctor Pansy commanded to Mack and Fergus as she held the girl’s leg steady in the position it was in. The stairwell was a tight fit with three extra people trying to slowly move the two-foot-by-six-foot board under the girl.

  “We got her,” Mack took a breath and slowly leveled the board between him and his brother and carefully stepped backward out of the stairwell.

  “Careful! Don’t move too fast. Cullen! Step up here and hold Burdette’s leg in place as the men walk her to my office!” Doctor Pansy directed to the postmaster, another Reagan brother. ”Somebody, run ahead and open the door for them!”

  Jasper Kerns, Mack’s construction partner came puffing up to the group. “Here’s another board for Mary. Want us to move her now?”

  Kiowa held his breath as Doctor Pansy felt for Mary’s pulse on her neck. What if—?

  “She’s alive!” Doctor Pansy announced as if it surprised her. She ran her hands up and down Mary’s limbs checking for breaks. “Her arms and legs seem okay, but I’m worried about her neck and back.”

  Doctor Pansy sat back on the step, leaning against the wall of the stairwell, her right hand rubbing her jaw as she thought what to do.

  “Before we slide the board under her, someone get towels or something I can pack around her neck to hold it steady.

  “Here’s my shawl,” Iris Reagan, Fergus’ wife spoke as bystanders passed it up to Doctor Pansy.

  Doctor Pansy carefully threaded the end of the material under Mary’s neck as it lay at an awkward back angle against the wooden s
tep.

  “I bet their shoes were slick from the rain,” Kiowa heard someone murmur behind him as he stared in shock at Mary. He squeezed Nolie tighter against his front as the boy tried to step away again.

  “Jasper. Get below me as I slide Mary down onto the board.” She looked back at the people crowded behind her. “Elof. Be ready to hold her head still as she slides forward,” Doctor Pansy barked orders as the two men moved forward and others moved back to give them space. Elof Lundahl was the farrier who Kiowa made horseshoes for.

  “Easy, keep her sliding onto the board in a fluid motion. We don’t want to pull or twist her spine.”

  Spine. Paralysis.

  Kiowa’s thoughts hitched his breath, seeing fresh blood on the step where Mary’s head had lain as they moved her body onto the board.

  “Kiowa. Step up here to carry the back of the board but watch your step. Don’t slip on the blood on the stairs,” Doctor Pansy commanded, but Kiowa couldn’t move.

  Blood? Kiowa breath hitched seeing the smear of blood.

  “Kiowa! Get up here, now! She lost a little bit of blood, but her head isn’t bleeding now,” Doctor Pansy barked as she picked up the board herself, causing Kiowa to jump forward as she commanded.

  Doctor Pansy was almost as tall as him, and probably weighed more than him, but she needed to be in charge instead of carrying her patient.

  Someone else had passed a jacket forward, and Doctor Pansy wrapped the article of clothing around the board and tied the sleeves together around Mary’s legs, so she wouldn’t slide off the board.

  “I need another jacket or shawl to wrap around her chest,” Doctor Pansy called, not taking her eyes off her patient. A dark blue knit shawl appeared and was wrapped around Mary’s chest, securing her to the board.

  “Okay, go slow and watch your step. Put Mary in the back exam room. I’ll work on Burdette first before she wakes up,” she said as she ran toward her office, leaving Jasper, Elof, and himself to transport Mary to the doctor’s office.

  Nolie grabbed the right side of the board and walked with the trio. “Ma! Wake up! Please, wake up!”

  “I bet she just hit her head and blacked out a minute, Nolie. Stay calm. She’ll wake up soon,” Elof calmly talked to the boy. Kiowa wished he could comfort Nolie, but the blood and the angle of Mary’s neck frightened Kiowa.

  “Ease the board down on the exam table. Don’t take her off the board yet,” Doctor Pansy yelled as the men walked by transporting Mary. Kiowa’s arms trembled, not with Mary’s weight, but with the effort to keep the board as steady as possible given his turbulent emotions.

  “I wanna stay with Ma!” Nolie protested as Jasper tried to pull the boy from the room.

  Nolie looked up at Kiowa, begging him to intervene.

  “I’ll stay here with Nolie and keep Mary steady on the table until Doctor Pansy can get to her,” Kiowa nodded.

  “All right. I’ll go back and take care of the forge for you,” Elof said. In Kiowa’s panic, he’d forgotten the blazing fire he’d run away from with Nolie’s distress call.

  “Thanks,” Kiowa said with a nod while keeping a hand on the board to keep it steady, although Mary didn’t look like she’d wake up and struggle to sit up.

  Elof and Jasper each glanced at Mary before leaving the room. Elof quietly shutting the door as he left last.

  “Kiowa, I’m scared,” Nolie whispered, staring at his mother’s pale face.

  Kiowa had the same thoughts, but he couldn’t say them out loud to the distraught child.

  “Doctor Pansy will set Burdette’s leg, then check on your Ma. They’ll both be fine, but it might take them a while to mend,” Kiowa tried to believe the words he was saying to Nolie.

  “But I can’t take care of them by myself,” Nolie whispered, all of a sudden worried about becoming the man of the house?

  “You got your Uncle Gabe and Aunt Iva Mae, besides your Shepard grandparents to help out. Let alone every woman in town will bring enough food to feed an army while your ma and sister are on the mend.”

  Nolie let that sink in, but then he looked up at Kiowa. “And you?”

  Kiowa’s lungs seized with Nolie’s question, stalling his answer. After a second, he breathed deep to fill his lungs.

  “Yes. I’m here for you too,” Kiowa said as he looked at his dirty, calloused hands, then at Mary’s delicate fingers lying limp, tied to her side by the shawl on the board.

  How he wanted to touch her, but he didn’t dare, not knowing what was wrong with her. But he could be here to comfort Mary’s son.

  Burdette’s blood-curdling scream caused him and Nolie to jump, but not Mary. Her daughter’s cry didn’t penetrate her unconsciousness and wake her.

  “Burdette must have woken up when Doctor Pansy put her leg back in place,” Kiowa said as he gripped Nolie’s shoulder. “That means the worst is over for your sister and her leg can start to heal.”

  Kiowa didn’t say anything about the blood he saw on the girl’s dress. Hopefully it was from a scrape on her skin instead of indicating the bone had broken through the skin. Kiowa’s stomach curdled at the damage Doctor Pansy might be working on to save the girl’s leg, let alone her life. If the injury became infected…Kiowa stiffened as panic hit him again, but he had to stay strong for Nolie.

  “You want to run over to your grandparents to be sure they know about the accident? I bet your sister would like Grandma Darcie to sit with her, and then go to the saddle shop. Your Grandpa Reuben, Uncle Gabe, or Uncle Tate are bound to be there. You can come back later after your ma and sister are awake to talk to them. Okay?”

  Nolie took a shuddering breath, probably relieved at the suggestion, but at the same time scared to leave his mother.

  “I promise I won’t leave your ma, Nolie, and you know why,” Kiowa said slowly, looking Nolie in the eye. Nolie stared at Kiowa a moment, then nodded his head.

  “Go through the front waiting room to check, but I bet we’d hear your grandma if she were already there.”

  “Yes, sir,” Nolie whispered before he touched his mother’s shoulder, then walked to the door. One more glance toward Kiowa, then Nolie slipped through the door, leaving Kiowa alone with Mary.

  “Dear Lord, please let Mary be all right. I can’t stand it if…” Kiowa started to pray but stopped, not able to continue his thoughts out loud.

  Kiowa hesitantly smoothed Mary’s hair from her forehead. The woman hated having messy hair or wrinkled clothes. She’d be appalled at her appearance, and Kiowa wished she’d wake up to complain about it.

  The exam room burst open, Doctor Pansy and her assistant, Avalee Paulson, moved to take charge of Mary. “Let’s get Mary off the board and on the table, then you can leave Kiowa.”

  “But—,” Kiowa protested as the woman quickly untied the restraints and held Mary still.

  “Slowly pull the board out from under her, Kiowa,” Doctor Pansy instructed, holding on to Mary’s head.

  Kiowa did so, wishing the jarring would wake Mary, but she remained limp on the table.

  “Thank you for your help, Kiowa. I’m sure Mary would have appreciated it. You can go back to work now,” Doctor Pansy said as she felt along the back of Mary’s neck.

  “I don’t feel any vertabrae out of place, but we don’t know—,” Mary told Avalee, then stopped as she noticed Kiowa was still standing by the door. “Please leave, Kiowa. I’ll let Mary’s family know her injuries and prognosis when I figure out what all is wrong.”

  Kiowa took one last long look at Mary then left, wishing she’d open her eyes to meet his. He took a deep breath when he stepped outside the doctor’s office. If Mary survived her fall, he was going to make some changes in his life, and hers.

  Chapter 2

  Mary slowly awoke, noting the room didn’t smell like her floral-scented bedroom. She was partial to rose bath soap and toilet water, but now the air’s odor was more like alcohol…and a commode that should have been emptied a few days ago.

  The lig
ht and feel in the room weren’t right for early morning either. Being May, she’d opened the bedroom window ajar to let in the spring air overnight, and the filmy curtains usually made a pattern of its lace dance across her light blue blanket which lay on her body and her bed.

  She heard murmuring voices from another part of the apartment, but they didn’t sound like her children’s voices. And why were they awake before her anyway? Mary was always up first and usually had breakfast on the table by the time they were dressed for school.

  Was it Saturday and she’d slept in? She turned her head toward the bedroom door and quickly squeezed her eyes shut when a piercing pain shot through her skull. The back of her head throbbed as if it had its own pulse, and she felt queasy. Was she still in bed because she was ill?

  Mary tried to turn onto her side, hoping to slowly ease her way to sit on the edge of the bed. She needed to get up to see her children. Had they peeked in on her and decided she needed to sleep? Burdette was capable of preparing meals, but it wasn’t something her daughter usually had to do for herself and her brother, Nolie.

  Was she tangled up in the sheet and blanket? Mary couldn’t get her legs out from under the bedding. She tried kicking the covers off…but something was holding her legs perfectly still.

  Mary spread her arms out to her side and realized the bed she was on was narrower than her own. Trying to push off the covers, she thought she might be tied onto the small…surface. She wasn’t laying on her mattress, but something hard and narrow.

  Mary slowly slit her eyes open, waiting for the room to come into focus as she opened her eyelids, trying to slow down the panic building in her chest.

  Why couldn’t she move?

  “Burdette?”

  She paused, thinking she’d hear her daughter’s footsteps on the hardwood floor hallway of their apartment.

  “Burdette? Nolie?” She tried to raise her voice so they could hear her if they were in the kitchen.