Read One Bright Morning for Free Online Page A

wiped her hands on her apron.
    “ Mr. Blue Gully?”
    He turned to look at her and nodded
slightly.
    “ Would you mind leaving
another one or two of those bark pieces with me? Usually those
headaches come in twos and threes, and if you wouldn’t mind, I’d
surely appreciate it, if you have enough to spare.”
    “ Oh, sure, ma’am,” Dan said.
“Should have thought of that myself. Guess I was too worried about
Jubal to think about anything else. Here you go, ma’am.” He handed
her a little bundle of bark in a leather pouch.
    Maggie shook her head in solemn gratitude.
“I don’t quite know how to thank you, Mr. Blue Gully. You don’t
know what this means to me,” she said softly.
    The thought of actually receiving relief
from the agony she suffered two or three times a month was almost
overwhelming. There were tears in her eyes when she lifted her gaze
to Dan’s face and she felt a little silly.
    He shuffled in embarrassment. “Shucks,
ma’am, it’s nothing. My aunt, she give ‘em to me. I can get more
for if you need ‘em later. Hell, them trees grow right there in
Arizona.”
    A tear slipped out of Maggie’s eye, and then
she really felt silly. “It’s not nothing to me, Mr. Blue Gully. You
don’t know what this means to me.”
    “ Well, ma’am, if you take
good care of Jubal for me, I’ll make sure you have all the bark you
need for the rest of your life.” He grinned a little bit to let her
know how much he appreciated her help.
    “ Oh, I’ll take care of him.
Can’t do anything else. After all, he’s in my bed.”
    Maggie gave him a little smile after her
small show of levity. Dan only looked a bit puzzled.
    “ Well, guess I’ll be off
now, ma’am. I’ll be back soon.”
    Although Maggie wondered what “soon” was,
she didn’t ask. Instead, she turned to Ozzie who still clutched the
edge of the kitchen table with quivering fingers.
    “ Get on out and chop some
wood Ozzie. You haven’t chopped wood for days, and we’re almost
out. What do I pay you for, anyway?”
    Ozzie started to whine a protest, glanced up
to see the squat but intimidating form of Dan Blue Gully standing
next to Maggie, and his words died unspoken.
    “ Yes’m,” was all he uttered
as he scrambled to his feet.
    “ I’ll call you in when
breakfast is ready,” she hollered after him.
    “ Yes’m,” he said
again.
    “ You stay for breakfast, Mr.
Blue Gully. With so much going on in here, food’s real late in
getting prepared this morning.”
    “ Better not stay, ma’am. Got
to catch French Jack’s trail, if it’s not too late
already.”
    “ Don’t want him to get
away?”
    “ No, it ain’t that so much,
ma’am. French Jack ain’t goin’ nowhere until me and Jubal’s dead or
he is. I just want to know where he is so he can’t sneak up on
us.”
    Maggie looked a little sick. “Oh,” she
whispered.
    She glanced toward the bedroom and decided
she didn’t particularly want French Jack to sneak up on Jubal Green
right now, either, since he was lying unconscious in her bedroom
and the only way to him was through her.
    “ That’s a good idea,” she
added in a somewhat strangled voice.
    Dan Blue Gully touched her arm. “Don’t
worry, ma’am. I won’t let him hurt you or your little girl.”
    Maggie looked up at him with worried eyes.
“Thank you,” she said, and there was uncertainty in the words.
    Dan shook his head at her a little sadly and
seemed to take note of those exhausted blue eyes, rimmed now with
tired purple circles, set into a face with cheeks sunken from not
enough food, too much work, and too little sleep.
    “ You need some rest, ma’am,”
he stated flatly.
    Maggie sighed and turned toward her stove.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
    Dan shook his head again, and took his
leave.
    Sadie took Annie to her house to stay for a
couple of days since it looked as though Maggie was going to be
occupied as a full-time nurse for a while. Maggie felt a little
disgruntled when her little girl