Page 104 of Texas Glory
The man leaned forward. “Do you know who I am?”
Rawley nodded. “Yes, sir. You belong to the pretty lady.”
A corner of the man’s mustache lifted as he smiled slightly. “I reckon I do at that. My name is Dallas Leigh. The pretty lady is Mrs. Leigh.” His smile quickly disappeared, leaving his mouth looking hard. “She got hurt a few nights back.”
Rawley’s heart started pounding so fast he thought it might escape through his chest. “Did she die?”
“No, but she’s hurt … bad. She said someone pushed her. Do you know who pushed her?”
Rawley shook his head quickly and dropped his gaze to the floor so Dallas Leigh couldn’t see that he was lying. Silence stretched out between them. Rawley heard the logs crackle as the flames devoured them. Soon they’d be nothing but ashes. He wished something would turn him into ashes.
“Would you like to see her?”
His gaze shot up. Dallas Leigh was looking at him like he could see right through him. He figured anyone who lied to Mr. Leigh came away with a blistered backside.
He nodded hesitantly, wondering what it would cost him to see the pretty lady, hoping she wasn’t hurt so badly that she wouldn’t be able to smile at him. He dearly loved her smiles. Her smiles weren’t like the smiles most people gave him, smiles that hid something ugly behind them.
Mr. Leigh came to his feet and looked at Austin. “Dr. Freeman is getting a bite to eat in the kitchen. Fetch him upstairs.”
Austin walked out of the room with his arms swinging. Mr. Leigh put his hand on Rawley’s shoulder. Rawley shrank back.
Mr. Leigh studied him for a minute, his brown eyes penetrating. Rawley figured he could see clear through to his backbone.
“Follow me,” Mr. Leigh said and walked in long strides toward the door.
Rawley would have swallowed if he’d had any spit, but his mouth had gone dryer than the cotton he’d picked one summer.
He followed Mr. Leigh into the hallway. He’d never seen a house so big nor stairs so wide. He figured ten men could walk side by side down those stairs without bumping into each other. At the top of the stairs, he wanted to take a moment to look down, to pretend he was the king of the world, but he didn’t dare. He didn’t think Mr. Leigh was a man of patience and would understand his desire to look down at a world that always looked down on him.
Mr. Leigh opened a door. “In here.”
Rawley’s heart jumped into a rapid-fire beat. The pretty lady would smile at him, maybe hold his hand, and talk to him in a voice that sounded as soft as the wind. He wiped his hands on his britches, not wanting her to feel his sweat, and stepped into the room.
His heart dropped to the floor.
His gaze darted around the room, searching for a sign that he hadn’t been tricked, but with a knowledge a boy his age shouldn’t possess, he understood all too well the truth of his situation.
He knew better than to trust, better than to hope, better than to want.
He heard a shuffling and turned. A man who looked like he ought to be lying in a coffin stood in the doorway.
“This is Dr. Freeman,” Mr. Leigh said. “He’s gonna have a look at you.”
Rawley swallowed the bile burning his throat. “The pretty lady—”
“You can see her as soon as Dr. Freeman is done with you.”
“Does she want me to do this?” he asked.
“Yep.” Mr. Leigh nodded slightly at the doctor and stepped into the hallway, closing the door.
Rawley fought off the bitter disappointment of betrayal and began to carry himself away to a place where the sun kept him warm, the grass was soft beneath his feet, and the breeze always smelled like flowers.
Dallas had little doubt that the boy knew who had pushed Dee, who was responsible for the harm that had taken away their child.
But he’d also seen what he was too familiar with plunge more deeply into the boy’s eyes: fear.
The boy wouldn’t tell Dallas what he wanted to know because the boy feared whoever had been behind the hotel more than he feared Dallas.
