A Convenient Wife. Carolyn Davidson

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СКАЧАТЬ not going to die.” He hesitated, unwilling to speak further without at least knowing the girl’s name. “You’re George Mitchum’s girl, aren’t you?”

      She nodded. “I’m Ellie. Eleanor, after my mama.”

      “Ellie.” He tasted the name, liking its simplicity. “Do you have any female relatives? An aunt, maybe? Is there a housekeeper at your father’s ranch?” From what he’d heard, Win was certain the man could afford to hire a woman to live in and keep up his ranch house.

      “No, there’s just me,” Ellie said, dashing his hopes. “I do the housework, and wash and cook for my pa and me.”

      Win cleared his throat. This was getting stickier by the minute. “Would you mind coming into my examining room, Ellie? I’d like to take a look at you and listen to your heart.”

      “My heart? What’s that got to do with it?” she asked. “One of these days it’s probably going to stop beating. Right now, it’s doing just fine.” She rose, and Win’s gaze fastened on her slender form.

      “Come along, Ellie,” he said firmly, rising to his feet and grasping her elbow. “I’d like to check you over.”

      She nodded slowly. “All right. If you say so. But I can’t imagine that listening to my heart is going to do much good,” she said glumly.

      Probably not, he agreed silently. But it was a beginning.

      The examining room was small, centered by a black, leather-covered table, which Ellie approached as if she were heading for the gallows. “You want me to sit up on this thing?” she asked hesitantly.

      “No,” he responded. “I’d like you to lie down on it. On your back, please.”

      She took his offered hand and hoisted herself up, stepping onto the small stool, then sitting erect for a moment on the side of the table. “You sure you want me lying down?”

      He nodded, taking his stethoscope from a drawer in his metal cabinet. He turned back to her, watching as she tucked her skirts neatly beneath her legs. “Let me help you,” he offered, easing her head to the pillow he’d provided for his patients’ comfort. “I’m going to unbutton two buttons, Ellie,” he said easily, his fingers loosening the large, black buttons from their holdings. Sliding the bell of his stethoscope inside the bodice, he pressed it to her skin, just left of center, where her heart tones would travel up the rubber tubing he’d attached to his ears.

      Closing his eyes, he listened, aware of her hesitant breathing, as if she must take the smallest breaths possible, making herself shrink into the surface of the table in order to escape the pressure of his hand. Her heart was a bit rapid, but he’d expected that. And, as he’d also expected, it was strong and regular.

      He slid his hand from her dress, noting the flush that tinged her cheeks with color. “I’m going to press against your stomach, Ellie,” he told her, one hand judging the size of the fetus he was sure she carried. Indeed, it was a growth, one she would likely be carrying for a few more months, if he knew anything about it. Both hands measured her belly, pressing firmly against the expanded womb, and he wished he could perform a more accurate examination.

      “You have a problem, Ellie,” he said agreeably, offering a hand to lift her to a sitting position.

      “I told you so,” she muttered. “I knew it.”

      “Have you spoken to your father?” he asked.

      She shook her head. “We don’t talk much.”

      “I think you have something you need to tell him. And if Tommy were handy, you’d be telling him about it, too,” he added.

      Her eyes widened, their brown irises almost obliterated by black pupils. “What’s Tommy got to do with me dying?”

      “Ellie, listen to me,” Win said slowly. “You’re not dying, my dear. Not for many years. The problem you have will be solved in about four months, if my calculations are correct.” He drew in a breath and tilted her chin with one long index finger, in order to look into her eyes. Bewildered eyes, he noted.

      “You’re going to have a baby, Ellie. I would guess that Tommy is the father. Am I correct?”

      “A baby? Tommy told me…” She halted, flushing deeply now. “He said if I loved him, I’d do what he wanted, and he was going to marry me anyway, so it would be all right.” Her eyes squinted shut. “He lied, didn’t he?”

      “Maybe he intended to marry you,” Win told her. “Maybe he would have if his folks hadn’t taken him back East.”

      “Maybe,” she agreed, and her eyes opened, a fierce anger darkening their depths. “I think I was a fool to believe him, Dr. Gray. I just needed somebody to love me.” The words were an anguished whisper, and Win’s heart jolted in his chest.

      “We all need that, Ellie.”

      She lifted her head and turned to look out the window, where white curtains hung to ensure privacy from the outside. Through their gauzy fabric, his backyard offered a bleak landscape. Dried grass and clumps of bedraggled perennials dotted the dry ground, and at the back of the lot an unpainted picket fence delineated his property line. “You need somebody to tend your yard,” Ellie said quietly. “Those flowers could use some watering.”

      “I suppose,” he agreed, aware that she struggled to face her dilemma. “What will you do, Ellie?”

      She slid from the table. “Go home, I suspect.”

      “Will you tell your father right away?” He followed her from the room, through his office and to the waiting room, fortunately empty of patients this late in the afternoon.

      “Maybe. I don’t know. He’ll probably figure it out for himself soon enough.”

      Win was surprised he hadn’t already, given the tight fit of Ellie’s dress. She was carrying high, and her waist had expanded enough to pull the buttons taut. “Will he help you?” Win asked.

      Her shrug expressed doubt. “He don’t much care about me, Dr. Gray. So long as I keep things up, he lets me be. But he’s got a temper. I’ve seen him pretty near kill a horse that made him mad, and one day he beat the bejabbers out of a ranch hand who got drunk and didn’t get out of bed the next morning. Sent him on his way afoot, just carrying his saddle and a bundle of his belongings.”

      “Are you afraid of him?”

      She turned to face him, and Win saw the hesitant working of her mouth. “A little, maybe. Depends on how bad he needs me to work for him, whether or not I need to be dodging his fists.”

      His stomach knotted as Win noted the lack of color in Ellie’s face. “Has your father abused you?” he asked.

      She hesitated. “Not bad, no. He’s smacked me a couple of times, but he pretty much lets me be. I just know he’s going to be awfully upset when he finds out about this.” Her hand touched her abdomen, fingers widespread as if she could somehow protect the child within.

      And wasn’t that a pretty future for a girl to face, he thought with a lump of despair in his throat. “If I can help in any way, Ellie, you know where to find me.”

      He СКАЧАТЬ