She no longer heard Davy and Emily crying in her arms.
She no longer saw the ashen faces of Molly and Charles underneath the table, or Andreas kneeling down to try and comfort Anita, or Seth crouched near the dining room entrance with his gun poised at the ready, or Kari with tears streaming down her face as she stared, stricken, at her husband.
All she heard ringing in her ears and her heart was her fervent whispered prayer repeating over and over, “Please, Lord, protect him.Please, Lord…”
She jumped at the sound of the hotel door kicked open and slamming against the wall.
She bit her lip, drawing blood, at the deafening report from a revolver, followed almost instantly by another, the two shots reverberating all around them.
Then she heard shouting from the street as if townspeople were running to the scene from every direction.
No, no, no, not to look at Joshua lying dead just outside the hotel doors,please, God, no!
“It’s over!” came Seth’s cry as he ran back to the table to sweep his sobbing wife into his arms. “It’s safe to stand up!”
Safe? That must mean Joshua…! Swept by overwhelming relief, Ingrid struggled to move with the children still clinging to her. At once Molly rose and came running around the table to take Emily into her arms while her husband hastened over to assist Ingrid with Davy.
Caleb returned, too, looking grim as he holstered a small pistol inside his coat.
“Everyone, the danger’s past, go back to your meal,” he announced to the shaken patrons in the dining room who climbed out from under tables and chairs and stood straightening their coats and bonnets. “Cormac Sutherland won’t cause us any more trouble.”
“Cormac…” Ingrid murmured, shuddering at the memory of those leering men at the jail, two of them the man’s brothers. He had clearly come to town gunning for Joshua…and anyone else who stood in his way. If she hadn’t understood before the mortal danger he faced every day as sheriff of Walker Creek, now her knees suddenly felt weak and she grabbed for the back of a chair.
“Easy, Ingrid, everything’s all right. I’m here.”
She looked up into Joshua’s grim face at the same moment her legs buckled, but he caught her and pulled her against him to steady her. She didn’t say anything…couldn’t say anything as he held her close, the steady thud of his heartbeat drumming in her ear.
He was safe…he was safe, intoned over and over in her head, yet somewhere in town his poor deputy lay dead in the dirt.
“I can’t stay, Ingrid,” she heard Joshua say as his arms, so strong, so reassuring, tightened around her for a brief moment before he set her away from him to look into her eyes. “I need you to take my children home and to stay with them until our housekeeper, Inez, returns from her Sunday visit to her mother. The Davises will have to accompany me.”
“Yes, Joshua, of course.” Saying his name like an affirmation that he lived and breathed, Ingrid glanced over to where Molly still consoled Emily and Charles had his arm around Davy’s shoulders. “Seth and Kari will help me.”
“Certainly we will,” Seth affirmed, Kari tucked protectively under his arm.
“So will I,” Caleb interjected. “With my carriage and theirs, we’ll have room for everyone. I’ll come find you afterward.”
“Good. Doc, we’d better go. I heard Billy Braun’s the one shot. Molly, his wife surely knows by now, so she’ll be needing your comfort.”
As Molly nodded sadly, leading Emily over to Ingrid while Seth tended to Davy, Ingrid could only imagine the painful task that lay ahead for Seth’s parents. Joshua didn’t say anything more, but hugged Emily first, his eyes holding Ingrid’s, and then his son before he strode out of the dining room with Charles and Molly following him.
“Andreas, will you take Anita home?” Ingrid asked, so overwhelmed by everything that had happened that she still found it difficult to speak. As her brother nodded, shepherding Anita toward the entryway as other patrons abandoned their dinners, Ingrid felt her heart go out to Joshua’s children, who looked more than ready to go home, too.
How many times had they experienced such distress in the past from their father’s dangerous occupation? A sudden intuition struck her that their unfortunate mother must have suffered, too, though Ingrid still did not know the full story.
Yet now wasn’t the time to think about anything else than that Joshua’s children needed to be comforted and cared for. Joshua was counting on her and she would not disappoint him. She gave Emily’s small hand a squeeze.
“Come on, sweetheart, let’s get you home.”
* * *
“Are you sure we can’t give you a ride to your house?”
Ingrid nodded at Seth and Kari, who stood with her in the small foyer of Joshua’s home. “It’s getting late. You’ve been wonderful to keep me company and to help with the children, but you’d best head out to the ranch. I’m sure Joshua will return soon.”
“But Inez is back now from visiting her mother,” Kari said gently. “He won’t be expecting you to still be here.”
“Perhaps not, but Emily asked if I’d stay until her father gets home and I can’t say no. Not after what happened today.”
