Marked For Marriage

Maddie was in shock. She could handle a broken hand, but abrasions from her forehead to the middle of her calf? That, of course, was where her leg started being protected by her sturdy riding boot. “My God,” she whispered. Was she going to be disfigured?

Maddie clenched her good fist and told herself differently. Dr. Upton hadn’t even hinted at disfigurement, and she was not going to lie in this bed and imagine the worst.

But she was going to be laid up and useless for a month. “No!” she whispered. A whole month of doing nothing? She’d go nuts!

A dinner tray was brought in then, and Maddie looked at the cup of bouillon, the small bowl of green gelatin and another cup containing hot water for tea with very little interest. In the first place she wasn’t hungry, and if she were, it wouldn’t be for bouillon.

If she were a weepy type of woman, she’d lie there and bawl.

But she wasn’t a crybaby, she was a doer, and she was not going to be an invalid for four miserable weeks, she simply wasn’t!

The few times Maddie woke up in the night, she worried about her horse. When she came wide awake at six, she figured out that her pain medication must have been reduced during the night, because her head was clearer than it had been since the accident. Instantly, although in severe physical discomfort, she again worried about Fanny. Was a responsible person feeding her? Making sure she had fresh water? Taking her outside for exercise?

Barrel racing demanded total unity between horse and rider, and Maddie had no doubt that Fanchon was the deciding factor in her success in the arena. Without Fanny, Maddie knew she would be just another rodeo hopeful. Along with loving Fanny with all her heart, the quarter horse was extremely valuable monetarily, and what if someone should steal her from the rodeo grounds?

Maddie shuddered. She had to get out of this hospital today. Dr. Upton had said that if all went well he would release her tomorrow morning. That wasn’t good enough for Maddie. She was not going to lie here all day and worry.

And so, when breakfast was delivered—solid food this morning—Maddie forced every bite of a bowl of sticky oatmeal down her throat and drank her glass of orange juice like a good little girl. When a nurse asked how she was feeling—it had been a long time since her last pain shot—Maddie lied and said, “Much, much better, thank you.”

The nurse unhooked her IV and then brought in some pills. Maddie asked what they were and the nurse replied, “The blue one is an antibiotic, the white one is for pain.”

“I’m only going to take the antibiotic,” Maddie said with a hopeful little smile. “Is that all right? If I was in pain…but I’m not…and…”

The nurse frowned. “No pain at all?”

“Very mild discomfort. Not nearly enough to knock myself out with pain medication, and even if the pill isn’t that strong, I really detest that fuzzy-headed feeling I get from sedatives.”

“Well…all right, but you are to ring at once if you start hurting.”

“Oh, I will.”

The charade was more difficult when bath time rolled around. “I can do it myself, really,” Maddie told the young woman who came in to give her a bed bath. The woman finally believed her and left, and Maddie soon learned how inept she was with her left hand. She hurt so badly that she nearly rang for that pill a dozen times. Gritting her teeth throughout the ordeal, she bathed herself and struggled into a fresh nightgown. Exhausted and not daring to show it, she waited for the young nurse to return and check her abrasions.

This time Maddie asked for a mirror, which was brought to her. “Oh, my God,” she whispered when she saw the right side of her face.

“It looks worse than it is because it was painted with red antiseptic,” the young nurse told her. “It’s all up and down your right side. See?”

Maggie saw all right, and her heart felt heavy as lead. “Will…it wear off?”

“Of course it will. When you’re strong enough to take showers, it will disappear in a few days. You’re healing nicely, Maddie. My orders for this morning are to apply antibiotic cream to your abrasions but to leave them uncovered.”

“There’s no sign of infection, then?”

“None at all.” The young nurse was finishing up. “Dr. Upton will be in to see you, probably within the hour.” She left the room.

Maddie closed her eyes. Weepy type of woman or not, she truly felt like bawling. She looked like a character in a horror movie!

Even terribly uncomfortable she dozed. She opened her eyes when Dr. Upton said, “No pain medication today, Maddie?”

“Hello,” she said with as much normalcy as she could muster. “Should I take a drug I don’t need?”

“No, you shouldn’t, but I have to question why you don’t need it.” He checked her chart for another minute or so, then set it down on the foot of the bed and bent over her. “Look at the far corner of the room,” he instructed and then beamed light into her eyes with what appeared to Maddie as a slender little flashlight.

“What’s that for?” she asked.

“Just a precaution. I’m glad to see that there’s still no sign of concussion. You were very fortunate, young woman.”

He’d said that before, Maddie thought somewhat resentfully. Would he think himself fortunate if it were he lying in this bed with more bruises than a map had roads, hurting something awful and not daring to show it because he had to convince a doctor that he was well enough to get out of here today, instead of tomorrow?

He was writing on the chart, and she knew it was a forerunner to his leaving. Panic assailed her, but before she could ask for an early release, he said, “You’re doing remarkably well. Keep this up and you’ll be going home in the morning.”

She cleared her throat. “Dr. Upton, I’d like to go home today.”

He looked at her sharply from under a dubiously arched eyebrow. “I would say that’s pushing it, Maddie.”

“I feel fine, and I have responsibilities.”

“We all do, but an accident such as yours really puts everything else on hold. Or, it should. You haven’t had a lot of visitors. Don’t you have family or friends living in the vicinity?”

“I’m from Montana, and my friends go where the rodeos take them. Doctor, I’ve been completely self-sufficient for years, and I’m perfectly capable of applying antibiotic creams or salves to my scrapes and bruises, and taking pills on a timed schedule. I can’t just lie here and wish for a miracle. I want to go home today. Right now, in fact, or as soon as I can be checked out. Please release me, Dr. Upton. Please.”

The doctor studied her chart. “Well, your vitals have been stable for more than twenty-four hours,” he murmured, and appeared to be thinking for several moments. Then his gaze lifted. “How would you get home? Is there someone you could call to come and pick you up? I don’t want you driving today, Maddie.”

Her pulse quickened because he hadn’t immediately refused her request. “I would call a taxi,” she said honestly. “I don’t have a vehicle here if I wanted to drive home, which I don’t.”

“Okay, tell you what. Let me see you get out of bed and walk around. I’ll release you today if I see that you are truly mobile.”

Maddie gulped, but she forced herself to sit up, shove her sheet aside and then cautiously slide off the bed to put her feet on the floor. There were hospital slippers down there somewhere, but she was afraid that if she bent over to look for them she might pass out. So she held the back of her gown shut with her left hand and took a barefoot stroll around the room, fighting nausea and dizziness every step of the way.

“Okay, you’ve convinced me,” Dr. Upton declared. “It will take about two hours to check you out. You’ll be taking prescriptions for antibiotics and painkillers with you. Get them filled right here in the hospital pharmacy or on your way home, whichever you prefer. I’d like to see you in my office in a week. Call for an appointment and tell the receptionist to fit you in. I’ll try to remember to tell her your name and to expect your call.”

“Thank you,” Maddie said with her very last ounce of strength. She was so glad that Dr. Upton left right away that she could have cheered. Instead, she stumbled to the bed and groaned under her breath while struggling to get herself back on it. Finally prone and covered with the sheet again, with her heart beating overly fast from the exertion, she shut her eyes and suffered in silence.

But the pain didn’t matter. She was going to be free to check on Fanny in a matter of hours. For that privilege she could stand anything.

Maddie had managed to relax some when a nurse came in and stated cheerfully, “So, you’re leaving us already.” The woman took Maddie’s wrist and checked her pulse.

“Yes, I’ll be leaving as soon as…” It hit her suddenly and hard enough to make her groan.

“You’re in pain again?” the nurse asked with a concerned expression.

“No, I just realized that I have nothing here…no money, no credit cards, not my insurance card. How can I check out without my insurance information?”

“Aren’t those things in your purse?”

“That’s exactly where they are, but my purse is in my trailer.” Maddie really did feel like bawling then. This brick wall she didn’t need!

“Maddie, your purse is in the closet with your clothes. Don’t you remember? A very nice young woman brought your purse…she said that you’d probably need it…and it was put with your other things.”

Maddie’s head swam in a concerted effort to figure out who the “nice young woman” was. For one thing, her purse was—or had been—in her locked trailer and she was the only one with a key. She took nothing with her to a contest, which was fairly common practice amongst rodeo contestants. Even loose change in a pocket could cause injury during a fall, so everyone pretty much did his or her thing with empty pockets.

Given the circumstances she could only conclude that what had been delivered by visitors she had absolutely no recollection of seeing was something other than her purse.

But she was curious about it, all the same. “Would you mind getting it for me?”

“Wouldn’t mind at all.” The nurse went to the closet and returned with…Maddie’s purse!

“How…who…for goodness sake,” she sputtered. “It is my purse, but how did someone go into my trailer to get it?”

“Wouldn’t know, honey. See you later.” The nurse departed.

Maddie opened her purse and saw, with relief, her wallet. She also saw a rosy pink piece of paper, which she knew for a fact hadn’t been in there the last time she’d looked. She took it out and unfolded it. It was a handwritten note and Maddie quickly read it.

Maddie,

I’m terribly sorry about your accident. Most of us in rodeo are not happy to win by default, which is what happened today. This is one trophy for which I feel no pride. At any rate, after they took you away in the ambulance I got to worrying about you being so alone in Austin. It also occurred to me that you didn’t have anything important with you, such as your wallet. So here it is.

I’m sure you’re wondering by now how I got into your trailer to get your purse. Don’t worry, I didn’t break in. It was only logical that you would have a door key hidden on or near the trailer, so I went hunting for it. Obviously I found it or you wouldn’t be reading this note but it took me a while.

I’m off to Abilene and then Laredo—you have the schedule—and since I feel certain that you’ll hit the circuit as soon as you’re able, we’ll be seeing each other again. I hope it will be very soon.

Janie Weston

Maddie almost couldn’t believe what she’d just read. It was so nice of Janie to go out of her way like this that Maddie was truly stunned. While she and Janie were friendly to each other, they’d never really been buddies. Frowning slightly, Maddie couldn’t elude the fact that she had very few close friends. In fact, she was hard-pressed to come up with even one. It was the lifestyle, the endless traveling, the moving on to one rodeo while a person who might have become a good friend went in another direction to the rodeo of her or his choice. For that same reason and the fact that followers of rodeo usually hung out in groups, it had been ages since Maddie had done more than drink a beer or have a dance with a man.

Sighing heavily, Maddie took out her wallet and flipped it open. The very first thing she saw was the snapshot of her brother. “Mark,” she whispered, and studied the handsome features of her older brother. With their parents gone, Mark was all she had. Oh, there were plenty of Kincaids living in the Whitehorn, Montana area, but none of them meant to her what Mark did.

Loneliness suddenly beset her. She needed to talk to Mark. Maybe she needed to hear him say something sympathetic, something kind and loving that would bring tears to her eyes and joy to her heart.

No, she didn’t want sympathy, not even from Mark. But she really would like to talk to him, and years ago he’d made her promise that if she was ever ill or injured she would let him know. He didn’t entirely approve of her unsettled lifestyle, and no doubt she’d get a brotherly lecture on the dangers inherent in her chosen career. But he’d be sweet, too, once she told him about the accident.

There was a telephone on the bedstand, and she tried not to jostle her sore and aching body while reaching for it. She needed a pain pill badly and knew that she should have taken the one offered by the nurse this morning, even though her own sheer bravado had convinced everyone that she was ready to go home. Truth was, if she knew for a fact that Fanny was being properly cared for, she would gladly stay in this bed for another night.

After dialing Mark’s home and getting no answer, Maddie looked up his work number in the little address book she carried in her purse. Mark was a detective for the Whitehorn police department, and Maddie doubted that he’d be sitting at a desk hoping the phone would ring. To her surprise—which was accompanied by a sudden attack of nerves—the man who answered her call asked for her name and then told her to hang on a minute. Raising his voice, he said, “Hey, Mark, your sister’s on line three.”

Almost at once Mark’s voice was in Maddie’s ear. “Hey, this is a nice surprise. Where’re you calling from?”

“Austin, Texas. How are you?”

“Couldn’t be better.”

“Marriage agrees with you then.” Mark could still measure his marriage to Darcy Montague in weeks, and Maddie was extremely happy that he’d fallen head over heels for a woman who seemed so perfect for him.

“More than I ever thought possible. So, what’s up with you?”

“Uh, I had a little accident,” Maddie stammered, suddenly very uncertain about the wisdom of this call. “In the arena.”

The tenor of Mark’s voice instantly changed, from that of a glad-you-called-just-to-say-hi brother to that of the protector he’d been to his baby sister all her life. Mark was thirty, seven years older than Maddie, and from the day of her birth he’d watched over her. That protective side of him was undoubtedly the reason he didn’t like her driving her truck all over the country, pulling her trailer and happily heading for the next rodeo.

“How little is ‘little’?” he asked suspiciously.

“Um…no major bone breaks…just a couple of tiny bones in my right hand.”

“And that’s all?”

“No,” she said weakly. “I’m pretty badly bruised. The doctor wants me to take it easy and to stay away from rodeo for a month, which is rather extreme, I believe, and—”

“And nothing! Maddie, you do exactly as that doctor says, do you hear me? In fact, if you have to take it easy for a whole month, I want you to come home and do your recuperating in Darcy’s and my guest room.”

“Well, of course,” Maddie drawled. “That’s exactly what newlyweds need, to share their little love nest with the groom’s sister. Mark—”

“Stop right there! You’re at least fifteen hundred miles away and alone. Damn it, Maddie, if it were the other way around and it was me laid up and alone, you’d be here so fast my head would spin. Hey, I just thought of something. Are you calling on your cell phone from your trailer? We’ve got a really clear connection, which doesn’t usually happen when you call on your cell.”

Maddie rolled her eyes. Mark was a natural born detective. She should have known he’d recognize the difference between her cellular calls and this one. She’d had no intention of telling him everything, but now she had no choice.

“I’m not using my cellular phone,” she said quietly. “I’m…calling from the hospital.”

“You’re in the hospital! Maddie, you said a ‘little’ accident. What really happened?”

After a heavy sigh, Maddie related the fall she and Fanny had taken. “I have no idea what caused it, but there it is. Apparently Fanny wasn’t injured, but the medics took me to the hospital. I can’t be too bad off because I’m being discharged sometime today. That’s the whole truth.”

“Except for what the doctor told you to do.”

“Mark, I can’t do nothing for a whole month!”

“You could if you were under my roof. Look, why don’t you put Fanny in a good stable, leave your truck and trailer in a safe place—I’m sure a city the size of Austin has rental spaces available for RVs and such—and fly home? I hate the thought of you limping around that little trailer you live in and trying to fix yourself something to eat. With one hand yet. And surely you’re not thinking of taking care of Fanny yourself. Maddie, it’s just not sensible for you to stay in Texas.”

He was making sense, and Maddie’s resolve to take care of herself was weakening. But fly to Montana and leave Fanny in Texas? No way, Maddie thought, and avoided that topic entirely by asking, “Mark, are you sure Darcy wouldn’t mind? You have to think of her first now, you know.”

“I know Darcy wouldn’t mind. She’s a very special lady, Maddie. So, have I convinced you? Are you coming home?”

“I…guess so.”

“Great! Phone me with your flight schedule.”

“It’ll probably be a few days before you hear from me. It will take, uh, some time to do everything here that will need, uh, doing before I can leave.” She wasn’t exactly lying to the brother she adored, she told herself. She simply wasn’t telling him everything she was thinking and planning.

“That’s fine. Just call when you know something.”

“Bye, Mark.”

“Bye, Maddie. Take care.”

Maddie hung up and, completely done in, she closed her eyes and wished with all her heart that she would fall asleep in spite of the pain racking her body.

She really shouldn’t have phoned Mark, she thought hazily, because now she had to go home to Montana, and she was not going by herself. She wouldn’t leave Fanny behind for all the oil in Texas, which Mark would have thought of if he hadn’t immediately started worrying about Maddie’s condition instead of looking at the whole picture.

“The hits just keep on coming,” Maddie whispered while wondering how on earth she was going to manage to drive fifteen hundred miles when she could just barely move without pain medication, which she certainly couldn’t take and then do any driving.

Chapter Two

Checking out of the hospital took hours, most of that time spent in waiting. Maddie waited for someone from administration to do the paperwork, then waited for her prescriptions to be filled by the hospital pharmacy. Her final wait was for a nurse to come to her room to instruct her on home care of her abrasions.

By then Maddie was hurting so much that when a runner delivered her prescriptions in the middle of the nurse’s instructions, Maddie immediately tried to get a pain pill from its container. She couldn’t use her right hand, of course, and she simply wasn’t adept with her left, especially when it was trembling from the burning, stinging pain raging all along her right side.

The nurse took the bottle from her, opened it and shook out one pill into Maddie’s outstretched hand. “Let me tell you something about pain,” the woman said while Maddie swallowed the pill with a drink of water.

“You refused pain medication much too soon and you are suffering unnecessarily. I know many people do not like some of the side effects of painkillers, but believe me, Maddie, it’s far better for you to rest and recover than to spend your time gritting your teeth in a futile attempt to will yourself well. Take these as prescribed, properly tend to your scrapes and abrasions, drink at least eight glasses of water a day to keep your system flushed and, while you must do some walking to keep your muscles toned and supple, you also should rest as much as possible. Finally, of course, be sure to make that appointment with Dr. Upton.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Maddie said softly. She was only going to follow some of this pleasant woman’s advice, and she truly hated deceiving her. But she had no choice. It wasn’t as though she was going home to a family that would cook her food and pamper her, after all; she was all she had in Texas. When she got hungry, she’d have to order in or cook. Thank God for cell phones, she thought, because it would be her one connection with the world beyond her trailer, once she got there.

In truth, she couldn’t even pamper herself when she got home. At least, she couldn’t until she checked on Fanny. Maddie didn’t dare let herself wonder if she could manage to do what needed doing because there simply was no one to do it for her. She had to take care of Fanny, and she had to take care of herself. Last but far from least, she had to drive fifteen hundred miles.

Thinking of that long, long drive caused Maddie’s breath to stop in her throat, but only for a second. The pain pill was beginning to work its magic, and along with the sharp edges of her physical anguish floating away, she felt light-headed and much less stressed. She listened to the nurse repeat instructions about applying antibiotic ointment to her abrasions—apparently a crucial step in the healing process—and then talk about tub baths versus showers, and how Maddie mustn’t let her soft cast get wet whichever way she bathed.

By the time the woman left, Maddie was pain-free and woozy. She closed her eyes and dozed off thinking of Montana and home. It was where she truly wanted to be, and it would happen. She would make it happen, the same way she had made everything else that was good and productive in her life happen since she’d been old enough to understand that a teenage marriage, babies and tying herself to Whitehorn, Montana, would, at the very least, stifle the best part of her. At fifteen she’d won her first rodeo-queen crown and barrel-racing trophy. It had been a small local event, but it had been big for her, big enough that she’d felt refreshingly reborn, and the new Maddie Kincaid was determined to make a splash in the world of rodeo. Shortly after that contest she had acquired Fanny, and all of her spare time had gone into working with the young mare. Now, years later and drifting off with loving thoughts of Fanny, Maddie decided, without too much concern, that Mark might yell at her for driving home instead of flying, but Fanny went where she did, and in the end he would be glad to see her.

She was sleeping soundly when a cheerful young male aide with a wheelchair sailed into the room and said, “Wake up, princess. It’s time to move out.”

Maddie opened her eyes. “Wha-what?”

The young man grinned. “Don’t you want to go home?”

“Yes…yes, of course. But my clothes…I haven’t gotten dressed.”

“You are one of the privileged few who get to go home in a hospital gown, robe and slippers.” The young man sobered some. “Your clothes were pretty much ruined in the accident, Maddie, but even if they weren’t, you couldn’t be pulling close-fitting garments over your—” he grinned again and said “—ouchies.”

Maddie appreciated his sense of humor and smiled. “You’re right. My ouchies would scream bloody murder if I put on something tight.”

The aide went to the closet and took out a bag. “Everything you had on is in this bag.”

“Great. I’m sure my boots are still all right.”