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Sweetbriar Page 14
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Linnet lifted her eyes from her sleeping daughter. “Devon?” she asked quietly.
“I guess so. He’s the new man just come to town and the one that run through the fire. He was goin’ to his horse, and I saw him fall down.”
“Did he get back up?” Nettie asked.
“No, he was just layin’ there when I left.”
“Show me,” Linnet said, Miranda clutched tightly to her breast.
Rebekah led her mother and her teacher through the woods to an old sycamore tree.
“How’d you ever find him?” Nettie asked.
“I followed him. He sure walks quiet. See! There he is.”
The women paused for a moment because even at a distance, with only the light of the moon, they could see the horror that had once been Devon’s smooth, clean back. Nettie took Miranda as Linnet walked forward. He was unconscious, the reins in one blistered hand. Most of the beautiful black hair was burned from the back of his head, and his back, shoulders and upper arms were a mass of large, oozing, hideous blisters.
His heavy pants had protected the lower half of his body somewhat but they were burned away in patches, showing red, raw skin beneath. The soles of his moccasins were gone and his feet were burned.
“Devon,” she whispered as she touched the side of his face, the cheek unhurt and still beautiful. “Devon, can you hear me?”
“Linnet.” Nettie put her hand on her friend’s arm. “He can’t hear you. Linnet, you’re gonna have to face it sometime, but he can’t live long with a burn like that.”
“Can’t live long?” she asked stupidly.
“Yes. Look at him. There’s places where there ain’t even skin left on him.”
Linnet touched his ear. Devon’s beautiful, smooth skin, she thought. “He can’t die, Nettie, not after saving Miranda.”
“It’s not a matter of wishin’, it’s a matter of what happens. I ain’t never heard of nobody livin’ after a burn like that.”
“Well, I have.”
The women turned to look up at the Squire.
“When I was a young’un, a woman was burned worse than that and she lived. In fact, she still is livin’.”
“Could she help?” Linnet asked. “Could she help with Devon?”
The Squire didn’t like the tone of Linnet’s voice. “Phetna doesn’t like people much and won’t come near if she doesn’t have to. She—”
Linnet stood. “You will get this woman for me,” she said. “I would like for you to leave now and return as soon as possible. I will pay her whatever she wants for coming but she must come.”
The Squire frowned, but he did as he was told.
When he was gone, Linnet took Miranda from Nettie. “Go to my cabin and get some blankets. We’ll put them under him, and I think that will be the best way to carry him,” she said to Rebekah. “Nettie, go get four men and come back quickly.”
“Yes, Linnet.” She smiled. “I’ll do that.”
Chapter Sixteen
“LORD, WHAT DO YOU DO WITH HIM? TO THINK he used to be a good-lookin’ man,” Butch Gather said as he stared down across the great bulk of his stomach at the blistered body of Devon Macalister. “Don’t seem no use to try and help him. We ought to just leave him where he is. It’d be the merciful thing to do.”
“That is wholly your opinion, Mr. Gather,” Linnet said firmly. “And I might add that I do not share your opinion. Now if you men would please help me, I’d like to take him to my cabin.”
Butch and Mooner Yarnall exchanged looks, eyebrows raised. Butch spoke again. “Now I don’t know if that’s right, takin’ him to your cabin and all, you and him not bein’ married.” He gave a sly smile, little eyes glistening over enormous cheeks. “Course we all know what he’s been to you.” The fat man looked from one person to another to make sure they shared in his secret. “Other towns might allow such goin’s, on but we’re decent people here in Spring Lick and we don’t hold with such things.”
Linnet’s eyes flashed brilliant glass splinters of red light that included each of the four men. “Decency is something I doubt this town even understands. Whatever you think you know or whatever you think you have a right to judge, now is not the time. Either you help him or I’ll move him myself.”
Butch smiled. “If you’re aimin’ to scare us, you ain’t succeedin’. Anyhow, I’d like to know how come the schoolhouse got burned down just now. Maybe you and him set it so’s you’d have more time to…” His little pig eyes swept her slight form, “—to do what you obviously done so much before.”
“As for me,” Mooner stepped forward, “I don’t know as I like a schoolteacher what flaunts her lover afore ever’body. Look at her now, demandin’ us to take him to her cabin so’s they can keep on where they left off.”
The woods were dark, the still-burning building heard in the distance, and Linnet could feel the menace of the men. Devon needed help, and they were not going to allow her to help him.
“You know, Butch, I think she’s been askin’ for it since she come here.” Mooner took another step forward and Linnet held her ground, not allowing herself to give way to the fear she was beginning to feel. Devon’s welfare was more important than some overexcited men.
“Yeah,” Butch said, walking close to her. “I been thinkin’ the same thing.”
“What’s goin’ on here?” Nettie’s voice broke the ugly spell. Her arms were full of blankets, and she looked with hatred from one man to the next. “I sent you men out here to help, and looks to me like you’re causin’ more trouble.”
Neither Butch nor Mooner moved, the other two men looking defiant.
“Why should we help her?” Butch demanded. “What kind of woman is she anyhow? What’s she been teachin’ our kids when she’s no better’n a bought woman? You know who that man is?” He rolled his little head in the direction of Devon’s unconscious body.
“I know very well who he is,” Nettie answered. “And I know a lot more, too, only not about Linnet. I know about that woman out in the holler.”
The four men stared, then looked away.
“He who is without sin may cast the first stone,” Nettie quoted. “Now we need some help gettin’ him onto these here blankets and up to Linnet’s cabin.”
Butch stepped away from Linnet and sneered down at Devon. “I ain’t helpin’ him. For all I know he’s the one set the school on fire.”
“With his own daughter inside!” Linnet fairly screamed.
Butch chuckled. “You just told us what we only guessed at before. As for me, I ain’t doin’ no extra work when I know there ain’t no need to it. You can just look at him and see he’s a dead man.”
Nettie answered before Linnet could speak. “I see no such thing, and as for him settin’ the school on fire, I think you ought to count your lanterns and find out where all your children were about the time the fire started.”
“You accusin’ my young’uns of that fire?” he sneered at Nettie.
“Probably. I wouldn’t put it past ’em to set it a’purpose. Now I’m tired of you talkin’ while a sick man’s needin’ help. If you ain’t gonna help, then get out of here.”
Linnet knelt by Devon’s side, relieved that the men were gone. “Do you think we can carry him, Nettie?” she asked quietly.
“Yes. I sent Rebekah for Ottis and Vaida. We’ll be able to move him, don’t you worry. Let’s get him on top of these blankets first.”
Gazing down at Devon, Linnet began to wonder at her own folly. The blisters on his body were increasing in number and already some of them had broken and the thin yellow water was making little rivulets across the tortured skin. What did one do with such severe burns? She had no idea and was afraid that whatever she tried would be wrong. If only the Squire would return with Phetna, the woman who knew how to treat burns. Should she try to wash the burned area or would the soap cause an infection? All the blisters were full of water. Should she try to make Devon drink something?
He had not moved nor made any sound when Ne