One Bright Morning by Alice Duncan

Naw,” said Four Toes. “But
I scared the hell out of him.” He looked instantly abashed at his
bad language. “I’m sorry, ma’am.”
    “ That’s all right, Mr.
Smith.”
    It suddenly occurred to her that she was
saying those words about a whole lot of things she never would have
anticipated being all right with her. She guessed that’s just the
way life worked. You never knew what was going to happen next. At
least, she decided, this episode was nominally exciting, if she
didn’t get shot to death.
    “ I guess they saw Dan
leaving,” Four Toes continued. “They was sneaking up to the back
porch. They probably won’t do that again.”
    “ The porch?” Maggie was
aghast. That was her worst fear, that their besiegers would sneak
in through the screen.
    “ Don’t worry, ma’am. We
won’t let them hurt you.”
    Although Maggie didn’t say anything, she did
wonder about that. So far, it looked to her as if they had a
stand-off going, and she wondered if Dan and Four Toes were ever
going to try to get rid of French Jack, or if they were planning to
merely hold him at bay for the rest of their natural lives. The
awful thought crossed her mind that the two Indians were waiting
for Jubal Green to get better before they tried to rout the
villains.
    Good Lord, that could take
months , Maggie thought
unhappily.
    She decided to ask Dan Blue Gully about it
when he got back. Right now, she figured she’d better check up on
Jubal. Those gunshots had been loud enough to wake the dead. They
might even have awakened poor, addled, Jubal Green.
    They had.
    When Maggie went back into her bedroom,
Jubal was glaring at her. That made her stop dead in her tracks
momentarily, because he had a powerfully ferocious glare. Then she
decided that it was most probably an impersonal glare and not one
directed specifically at her. After all, he couldn’t have known it
would be she who would walk through the door just then. Could
he?
    She took a deep breath and approached the
bed. Jubal’s scowl didn’t leave his face.
    “ I’m sorry for the noise,
Mr. Green. There’s some trouble outside.” Maggie decided to spare
him the details since she didn’t want him to waste energy worrying
about French Jack.
    The gun battle had awakened Jubal with a
start that set his wounds and inflamed muscles to throbbing
viciously. He was furious that he should be lying in this bed,
helpless, and not know what was going on or be able to help,
whatever it was.
    He hadn’t meant to frown at Maggie, really.
It’s only that he had been staring at the door when she walked in
and got trapped by his scowl. Then, when he saw her, his frown
changed from one of anger into one of concentration as he tried to
figure out who she was.
    Maggie couldn’t tell the difference between
his various frowns, however. He just looked mean mad to her.
    “ Did the gunfire startle
you, Mr. Green?” she asked gently.
    Jubal decided that was too foolish a
question to answer. His brow wrinkled up as he looked at Maggie,
his eyes registering angry bewilderment.
    What he remembered from the last few foggy
days was that he’d been shot all to hell and was now in the home of
a lady named Maggie and his friend Dan Blue Gully. When he added to
that the snippet of memory which told him that Maggie was a bright
angel who slept with him, nothing made any sense at all.
    If Maggie were with Dan, she sure as hell
wouldn’t be sleeping with him, and if she was an angel, she
wouldn’t be here on earth. If this was earth. Besides, if Dan had
got himself a woman, wouldn’t he, Jubal Green, know about it? He
and Dan were like brothers, for God’s sake He couldn’t have been
sick for that long, could he?
    There was also something about gentle,
peaceful hands, but he couldn’t sort that one out at all, so he
gave up.
    “ Who the hell are you?” he
snarled weakly.
    Maggie blinked down at him, distressed at
his tone. She hoped he wasn’t a touchy sort of man.
    Well , she thought, I guess