Page 23 of In Honor’s Defense

“Damaris?” Luke craned his neck around, searching each corner of the room for her. Agonizing shards knifed through his head at the movement, but he clenched his teeth and kept looking.

“She ain’t here.” Nate stepped through the open doorway, worry and guilt softening his normally hostile features.

The kid came in and dropped into the chair Damaris had vacated. It seemed wrong for him to be there, slouching in her chair. Arms crossed defensively over his chest. Eyes not quite meeting Luke’s gaze.

Damaris had filled the room with kindness and concern. Her positive spirit made the atmosphere feel lighter as she instilled hope and banished fear. Even the pain seemed less when she was near. Without her, the room felt darker, heavier, despite the morning sunlight streaming between the window curtains.

Nate shifted in his seat, his gaze flicking toward Luke’s face before darting up to the wall. “She went to see Grimes. To let him know ’bout you bein’ here.” His jaw tightened. “I told her not to. Grimes can’t be trusted. She shouldn’t be goin’ there alone.”

“You shoulda gone with her.”

The kid jerked to his feet. “Someone had to stay here with you.”

“Then you shoulda gone in her stead.”

Nate’s arms unfolded and flopped against his sides. “But I . . .”

Didn’t want to explain what he’d been doing on Grimes’s property.

Luke skewered Nate with a look. They both knew he’d shirked his duty in order to save his own skin.

Nate ducked his head and kicked at the chair leg. “She should’ve just waited for Grimes to figure things out for himself and come lookin’,” he blustered. “He would’ve found ya soon enough.”

“Your aunt’s not the kind of woman to choose what’s easy over what’s right,” Luke said. “If she were, I’d probably be dead by now.”

He’d lost consciousness after the first couple of stitches she’d made in his arm, but he remembered the green cast to her features as she’d set needle to flesh. She’d looked on the verge of losing her supper. But she hadn’t backed away from what needed doing. She made one stitch after another. And the next time he stirred, he’d felt the tug of her sutures on all three of the gashes the rustlers had inflicted.

She might have a quiet manner, but she wasn’t short on grit.

Nor was she short on wits, he discovered a few minutes later, when the front door opened and she called into the house. “Nathaniel? Mr. Grimes has come to check on Mr. Davenport. Are you here?”

The kid jumped from his chair, his eyes wide and desperate.

“He’s probably out roaming somewhere,” she said with a little laugh, her voice still raised enough to carry through the house. “I usually only see him at mealtimes. It wouldn’t surprise me if he slipped out the back door the moment I left the house.”

Nate took a step toward the door, then stopped as the sound of the front door shutting echoed down the hall.

“Can I take your coat, Mr. Grimes?”

Luke made a clicking noise with his tongue to gain Nate’s attention, then darted his gaze toward the curtain. “Window.”

The kid nearly knocked the chair over in his hurry to make his escape. He slid up the sash, climbed through the opening with the ease of one well used to exiting through unconventional portals, then dropped to the ground and pulled the window closed from the outside.

Nate needed to face up to his deeds one day, but Luke would rather he do so when he was up to the task of watching the kid’s back. Right now, Luke could barely manage wiggling his big toe without passing out. He’d be no use to Nate if Grimes wasn’t the upstanding citizen Luke had been led to believe.

“He’s this way.”

Strange how Damaris’s voice filled him with anticipation even when addressed to someone else. Maybe it was because he sensed her words were intended for him as much as they were for Grimes. Of course, she might have been aiming them solely at her nephew. However, when she walked into the bedroom, her gaze caught his first before making a quick circle about the room. When Luke gave her a tiny dip of his chin to confirm the boy was safe, she understood his silent message and visibly relaxed.

Grimes strode into the room and crossed in front of Damaris, cutting off Luke’s view of her. “Good grief, man. You look like my entire herd trampled you.”

“I feel like it, too.” Luke tried to lift his head to get a better view of Grimes, but a sledgehammer banged on the back of his skull, so he stopped.

Grimes must have noticed the failed action, for he dropped onto the edge of the chair, propped his forearms on his legs, and dangled his hat between his knees as he bent his face closer to Luke’s. “I’m right sorry this happened to you, Davenport.” He blew out a breath. Fiddled with his hat brim. “Buck found Titan in the northeast pasture this mornin’. Saw evidence of your scuffle. I was rounding up the boys into a search party when Miss Baxter showed up.” Grimes glanced over his shoulder at Damaris but made no effort to invite her into the conversation. “Quincy’s takin’ care of yer mount. Titan’s welcome to stay with us as long as you need.”

“Thanks.” Luke was finding it hard to keep his eyes open. As much as he hated to demonstrate weakness, his energy was completely sapped.

“It was them lousy rustlers, wasn’t it?” Grimes batted his knee with his hat, then lurched to his feet and started pacing in front of the bed, the back-and-forth making Luke dizzy. “Dirty thieves.” He stopped pacing and made a sharp pivot, leaning over the bed. “Did you recognize any of ’em?” His eyes lit. “This could be the break we need. Now we got a witness. You did see them takin’ a steer, didn’t you? Maybe we’ll finally get them sidewinders in jail.”