“I wasn’t expectingyouto come after me” were the first words out of Norma Jean’s mouth. “It normally takes you a good month or so to recover from your many illnesses, and you just got out of your bed after suffering from that scurvy episode.”
Louisa smiled. “I’m sure you’ll be delighted to learn that I’m feeling fit as a fiddle these days, although do know that even if I was still suffering from scurvy, I would have still come after you, but...” She cocked her head to the side, eliciting a “Zut” from Pierre in return. “Do you really believe I’ve been suffering from scurvy?”
Norma Jean cocked her head as well before she shrugged. “Since you don’t spend time on the high seas where fruits and vegetables are in short supply, no, nor do I think you ever had the plague.”
“And you never called me out on my supposed illnesses because ...?” Louisa pressed.
“You might have started keeping a closer eye on me.”
Louisa inclined her head. “A fair point, and one I can’t blame you for as I was rather adventurous at your age as well, although my mother kept a close eye on me and hired a chaperone who would instill terror in anyone, hence the reason I was never able to give her the slip.” She turned to Paulie. “My daughter’s adventurous spirit aside, though, to return to this particular adventure, one I’m not enjoying in the least—shall I cut that rope for you now, dear? I’m sure you’re anxious to get your hands on Norma Jean’s loot—or rather, her brother’s loot since Norma Jean stole it from him—but my daughter’s a stubborn sort and I know she won’t hand over her bag until you set Miranda free.”
“I ain’t stupid enough to let a knife-wielding mother nearme,” Paulie growled. “You’ll try to gut me, and I ain’t feelin’ like suffering a knife wound. You just stay where you are.”
“Suit yourself,” Louisa said as Paulie fished a knife he’d claimed not to have out of his pocket with his free hand. A blink of an eye later, the rope dropped away from Miranda, but instead of letting her go free, Paulie took to pressing the knife against Miranda’s side.
“Now that’s not playing very nice,” Norma Jean said. “Besides, how are you going to catch my bag while keeping hold of that knife?”
“You can just toss it by my feet.”
“If you insist.”
The second Norma Jean’s pink reticule went airborne, Seth realized what his sister was doing even before she yelled, “Run!”
The smell of skunk became overwhelming a heartbeat after Norma Jean’s bag hit the ground, Paulie dropping his knife and jumping backward as essence of skunk seeped through the pink fabric of the bag. A second later, Paulie grabbed hold of Miranda’s arm and began dragging her for the back door.
“Mother, throw me the knife,” Norma Jean called, a request Louisa ignored as she took off after Paulie, as did Flick, who already had the automatic nail gun in his hand.
Annaliese grabbed hold of Seth’s hand as she ran past and tugged him through the saloon behind her, her pace increasing the second a shot split the air.
After stumbling through the back door, Annaliese came to an abrupt stop when she caught sight of Paulie writhing on the ground. Concerningly enough, blood was leaving a stain as it spread over his shoulder, not that Louisa, who was standing over Paulie, holding Seth’s pocketknife/gun invention, seemed concerned about that.
“How delightful to learn this little gadget actually works, darling,” Louisa began, nodding toward the gadget in a hand that wasn’t shaking in the least. “I must admit, though, that I wasn’t intending on shooting the man. I simply mistook what turned out to be a trigger for what I thought was the thingamajig that caused a blade to pop out.”
Flick took a step forward and sent Louisa a small smile. “It might have been a mistake, Mrs. McCormick, but it definitely earned you the title of heroine of this particular adventure.”
As Louisa took to beaming in delight, while Norma Jean began looking grumpy, Flick moved closer to Paulie, then pinched his nose, undoubtedly because Paulie now reeked of skunk. After taking hold of the rope that was still tied around Paulie’s beefy arm, Flick wrapped it around both of Paulie’s hands, then the hitching post before taking a good few steps away from the man in order to draw in a gulp of air. He then moved back to the hitching post, using Seth’s automatic nail gun to nail the rope to the boards even after he’d knotted it more than a few times.
“I think that’ll hold you until the authorities get here,” Flick said before he tore off a piece of his shirt and began using it to blot the blood dripping from Paulie’s bullet wound, having to stop mid-blot to walk away to get more air.
After drawing in a few more breaths, Flick headed Paulie’s way again, returned to mopping up blood, then took to examining the wound before he pressed the bloody bit of his shirt against the hole in Paulie’s shoulder and retreated, evidently having run out of air.
“You’re not in danger of bleeding to death because the bullet was small, but a doctor’s going to need to dig that out,” Flick said a good five breaths later. “Not to worry, though. I doubt it’ll take the authorities long to get here since the train depot already sent them a telegram explaining about the train robbery.”
“Ain’t no way those authorities will know where to find me,” Paulie grunted.
“We found you and we’re not exactly Pinkertons,” Flick countered. “Everyone knows Pinkertons always become involved when there’s a train robbery. I don’t think they’ll have any trouble finding you since we didn’t, something that suggests you shouldn’t have stopped off at the closest town from the tracks you ran across.”
“Couldn’t very well not stop after Miranda said she was starving.”
Miranda didn’t bother to respond to that as she walked up to join Flick, smiling a smile Annaliese could only pray she hadn’t taught Norma Jean how to do because the last thing the Merriweather Academy for Young Ladies needed was for all the students to begin smiling in what could only be described as a coquettish fashion.
“I cannot tell you how tickled I am that you came to my rescue, Flick,” Miranda said, batting her lashes at a furious rate as her smile widened, something that left the strongman rather red in the face.
“See?” Norma Jean said to no one in particular as she nodded toward Miranda. “That type of look right there is what I want Miranda to continue teaching me because I definitely don’t have that particular expression down to perfection just yet.” She turned to Louisa. “We’ll have to keep her on as my chaperone since she still has so much to share with me.”
Amusement flickered through Louisa’s eyes. “Chaperones, if you’re unaware, don’t usually make it a habit to teach their charges flirtatious behavior.”
“But that behavior came in handy when I decided to use the one skunk vial I’d stashed in a pocket of my chemise and needed a distraction so Paulie wouldn’t see me retrieve it,” Norma Jean argued. “All it took was for Miranda to start fluttering her lashes, paired with this cooing sound she’s yet to teach me, and Paulie didn’t even remember I was in their company.” Norma Jean’s brow furrowed. “It’s just too bad I couldn’t get to myreticule earlier because we would have been free ages ago, what with how I’d stashed all the remaining skunk vials in there.”
