Page 52 of Taming Lady Temperance

She nodded, her gaze meeting his for the first time since she’d asked him to leave. “Thank you, Deputy.”

He nodded, wishing he could do more.

Noreen sat on a hard, ladder-back chair in Dr. Perry’s clinic, next to the cot where Luella rested. The doctor had wrapped the girl’s ribs, Martha said she hadn’t found any open wounds. Maybe she couldn’t see the gash because of how Luella was lying on the floor? where she’d hit a table on the way to the floor, and treated her smaller cuts and scrapes with iodine. Now he was in his workroom, preparing plaster of paris bandages to serve as a cast for Luella’s recently set arm while Martha gently applied a cool compress to the swelling around Luella’s eyes.

This never should have happened. It wouldn’t have happened if Claude Templeton had been in his right mind. She swore she could hear the demons cackling over their victory. Another child forced to pay the price for an intemperate man’s weakness.

The sound of the clinic door opening drew Noreen’s attention to the hall.

“Luella? Are you here?”

“Mama?” Luella batted away the compress with her uninjured arm and tried to sit up, but Martha pressed her back against the pillows propping her up in bed.

“Stay still, Lu. She’ll come to you.”

Noreen made sure of it, jumping to her feet and hurrying out to the waiting area to fetch Trudy Templeton. “In here.” She ushered Trudy down the hall to the small room where Luella waited.

The moment Trudy saw Luella, a sob broke from her chest. “Oh, my baby!” She ran forward and fell into the chair Noreen had vacated.

“Mama?” Tears clogged Luella’s voice, too. “Are you all right?” Luella turned her head, searching her mother’s face through her painfully swollen eyes.

Trudy wiped her eyes ruthlessly, then gripped her daughter’s hand. “I’m fine, sweetheart. Don’t you worry about me.”

The woman was definitely in better shape than her daughter, but Noreen saw evidence of reddened bruising developing along her jaw and under her right eye. Her own jaw clenched in response.

Luella lowered her voice, but it still carried through the quiet room. “Did Deputy Paxton arrest Papa?”

Trudy shook her head, and the dam holding back Noreen’s anger cracked.

“No, I’d already sent him away. We’ll stay with Miss Lockwood for a day or two until you feel up to a train ride, then we’ll go visit your brother for a few weeks. How does that sound?”

It sounded like Trudy was finally taking steps to protect her daughter, praise the Lord. Claude still needed to answer for his crime, though. To be held accountable for the pain he’d caused. To face the truth of the damage his drinking had wrought. Otherwise, nothing would change.

“But who will take care of Papa?” Luella asked. “You know how he forgets to eat when he gets to drinking.”

“He’s a grown man. He can take care of himself. And if we’re lucky, maybe he’ll remember there are other people he should be taking care of, too.”

Oh, how Noreen prayed that would happen. Luella deserved a father who loved her and took care of her. But as long as he poisoned himself with liquor, Claude Templeton would never be anything more than a selfish, abusive thug.

“I don’t want to leave him, Mama.” Luella’s tone turned pleading. “He needs us.”

No! Noreen fisted her hands with such force, her nails dug painfully into her palms. Luella couldn’t put herself back in that man’s path. The next time he came after her, she might not survive.

Martha leaned down and stroked Luella’s hair. “He needs your prayers, Lu. That’s what will help him the most.”

“What he needs,” Noreen said between clenched teeth, “is to be cut off from the poison that’s rotting his soul.”

Spotting a broom standing in the corner, Noreen snatched it up and marched out of the clinic, not hesitating for even a heartbeat when Martha called out for her to stop.

There’d be no stopping this time. This was war, and there were about to be some casualties.

Chapter

24

Noreen shoved through the batwing doors of the Salt Fork Saloon without a single twinge of discomfiture. Society might deem this place forbidden for decent women, but she wasn’t a decent woman at the moment. She was a warrior ready to strike at the enemy’s heart.

A quick scan of the dim interior showed only a handful of patrons. A foursome played cards at a back table while two others sat at the bar. Gambling and drinking on the Lord’s Day. Disgraceful. Yet she wasn’t here for them.