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bandage on his thigh. Reed's gaze snapped to hers, and Chastity felt her color rise. She was somehow unable to move as Dr. Carr continued in a more serious tone, "I wonder if you're fully aware how dangerous your condition was, Reed. I heard part of your conversation with Chastity as I entered. I can understand that you were disturbed at the thought of possibly losing your leg, but I'm not pleased by your attitude. Of course, since we were able to draw much of the poison from the wound, there's not much chance of such drastic measures being necessary now."
        He paused, his gaze narrowing as he looked up. "That is, unless you do something stupid, like trying to be up and around before you're ready." Dr. Carr's gray brows knit as he posed a question he had asked several times before. "How did a parson manage to get a bullet wound, anyway?"
        "I made the mistake of getting in the middle of a gunfight."
        Dr. Carr frowned. "You should've had more sense." He turned toward Chastity. "Why did you let him do such a crazy thing?"
        Reed replied sharply in her stead. "What I did had nothing to do with her."
        "That's enough of that talk!" Chastity jumped at the unexpected harshness of Dr. Carr's response. Her eyes widened as the gray-haired doctor continued with no lessening of fervor, "I won't have you talking to this woman that way!
       You don't seem to realize what you owe her. To my mind, Chastity accomplished something just short of a miracle in managing to get you from the train station to Main Street all by herself. And I have no doubt at all that if Tom Wright and Jerry Potter hadn't helped her out, she would've gotten you the rest of the way to my office by herself, too."
        Dr. Carr glanced back at Chastity where she still stood frozen to the spot. "I have to admit I wasn't too easy on her at first, blaming her the way I did for letting your wound fester. But she redeemed herself in my eyes that first night, and it's pretty obvious to me now that you're a hard case and probably not easy to live with, even if you do wear a parson's collar. A fact you might try to keep in mind while you're lying there is that I worked on you for three hours straight after Chastity got you into my office, and she worked right beside me. She took my orders without complaint until I was too tired to go on. After we brought you here, she stayed with you and watched over you while I went to get some rest. You couldn't ask much more than that from any woman! So, I expect you to keep a civil tongue in your mouth with Chastity while I'm present, or I just might forget how sick you are."
        Appearing unfazed by the doctor's rebuke, Reed replied tersely, "I'm not sick."
        "You are, too, dammit! I'll be the one to tell you when you're not! And don't you forget it!"
        Uncovering the wound at last, Dr. Carr nodded. "All right, take a look at that, and then tell me you didn't have a close call."
        Chastity caught her breath. The exposed wound was red and swollen. Pus oozed from a small, round point of puncture made by a single bullet. Somehow more affected at that moment than she had been the first time she saw it, she felt herself sway. She caught herself as Reed glanced sharply in her direction.
        Dr. Carr continued, "As bad as it still looks, it's much improved. But we're going to have to keep drawing out the poison." He looked at Chastity. "Your job isn't over yet, dear."
        Dr. Carr looked back at his patient. When Reed stared emotionlessly at him, he stated flatly, "You're a strange fellow, for a parson. If I hadn't seen how you really feel about this woman when you were fevered and unable to hide it, I'd think you were as cold as ice. As it is, all I can say is that anybody but a fool would realize that you're a lucky man to have a woman like Chastity for a wife."
        … a wife…
        Dr. Carr had said it.
        Chastity closed her eyes, silently groaning