* * *
Aaron skipped breakfast in the morning. Instead, he rummaged though his goods until he found a specific package, and then he carried it to the doctor's. Four minutes of hard knocking passed before the door opened. Blinking sleepily, Mistress Alda Gunther's brows creased with worry.
"Mister Turner. What is it?"
Aaron turned to look at the barely visible sun with his burning eyes and saw that it only peeked over the horizon. Maybe he had come a bit early. "Is the doctor available, Mistress Gunther? I need to speak with him."
"Is this important? He was up late last night. He really needs to--"
"I really need to see Mister Turner." Hair uncombed, shirt buttoned unevenly, Doctor Gunther looked over her shoulder. "A bad case you dropped in my lap, sir. The girl will not respond to anything. At the moment she is unconscious, breathing very shallow, and cold. What can you tell me about her condition that might help with her treatment?"
"She's addicted to drugs," Aaron said. "I don't know what kind. Right now her body is protesting because she quit taking them. Maybe I can help you out, Mister Gunther. I'm told that everyone has a Talent. Is this true in your case? Could you tell me what it is?"
The doctor looked at Aaron speculatively. "There must be a reason behind your request, Mister Turner. The direction of a person's Talents is usually considered too personal for idle conversation. Mine, naturally, is healing. Though not an especially strong Talent, it was strong enough to lead me to this career. I'm afraid that I barely get any help out of it at all--but sometimes--sometimes it gives me a hint or a hunch. To be honest, if not for my Talent I would have become a bricklayer like all three of my mothers and both my wives." He smiled ruefully. "I probably should have anyway. There is more honest labor in bricklaying, and bricklayers get paid for every job they do."
Aaron handed him the package. "Please open this when you are alone. Don't let anyone else touch it"
Missy waited for him at the store.
"Mister Turner, I haven't seen Cathy since yesterday. Did you see her? Was she here last night?"
Opening the store's door, Aaron guided her in. "Yes, I saw her. No, she was not here all night." He moved behind the counter and checked the cash box. It was full. "Aren't you supposed to be working?"
"Mistress Halfax doesn't want me or Ann working mornings or nights now that the Guard is here. She says our ears are too young to listen to them." Missy drew a deep breath. "Mister Turner, I'm so sorry about Cathy. I've told her that I think she's stupid. We've argued almost every night for weeks, but she insists that she loves him. How could she love him after she's been leading you along all this time? You are so good and strong and kind that I would never let you get away if you cared for me like you do her."
Aaron sighed sadly. The ache in his breast would not go away. "Sometimes people are just not right for each other, Missy. I wasn't sure how I truly felt about her until last night. I knew I liked her. I was infatuated with her, but I wasn't sure I loved her until it was too late. Can I blame her for being confused about her emotions when I had no idea what my own were? Missy, I am twenty-five. She is still a young girl."
"Well!" Missy stamped her foot. "She could have remembered that we would have starved last winter if not for you. She could have remembered that much!"
"I'm sure she does," Aaron said. "However, gratitude is nothing to base a relationship on. Look, I won't lie to you. This hurts. It hurts a lot, but I will get over the hurt, and I will still care for her."
Clapping sounded from the doorway.
"How noble," Perk said dryly. She moved into the store. "Now get your head out of your butt and smell the roses. The girl did you dirty. Did you know she is already married? She got married the day after you left. I heard that one while Sarah was treating me to breakfast. It's all the morning gossip along with the latest news on the war. Aaron, I want you to remember that some friends stay loyal, and I'm one of them. You want some butt kicked? I'll do it for you once we find out who the fellow is."
Astonished, Missy stared at Perk's piercings. "How do you get those stones to stay on the side of your nose?"
Perk ignored her. "Well?"
"Don't kick any butt for me," Aaron begged, "and don't go looking for a name. I don't want to know who she married. Not yet. Not until I'm ready. Until then, just stay my friend."
"Easy enough to do."
"Sure is," Missy agreed, "but I know who Cathy married, and if you ask me..."
"I don't want to know," Aaron repeated. He gave her a thin smile while jealousy clawed relentlessly at his gut. "Missy, as a favor to a friend, could you talk to Mister Sever for me? Tell him I want this connecting door removed and the wall put back up."
"Of course."
Missy left on the run, and then Aaron convinced Perk to watch the store for him while he visited the bank. Remembering his earlier visit, he slipped on an apron and put a revolver into its front pocket.
Mistress Banks was glad to see him and astounded by his requests. She readily searched her records for a medium sized home that was for sale, and she even knew of an empty, overlarge farmhouse just outside of town that had plenty of rooms, though it needed plenty of work too. Afterward, she drew up the papers he requested and redrafted his will while he looked over the notes on the farmhouse.
He bought the farmhouse as well as a smaller, seven-room home on the north edge of Last Chance because it was more than past time he moved out of his loft. Finished, he left the bank and returned to the store.
When he walked through the door he found Perk trying to intimidate Cathy by her very physical presence while Kit exuded a wave of intense, disapproving cold over the girl. Mister Sever stood by, looking nervous.
Cathy was having none of it. Though younger and slighter than the weight lifter, she stood up to Perk with a defiant pride. Back straight, chin lifted, there was no give in her toward either of the women.
Aaron gestured to Sever. "Can you have that doorway sealed today?"
Sever nodded uncomfortably. "I can set one of my men onto it before the day is over. Don't see why he can't have a wall up for you by dark, although it will be a day or two before he can fix the seam so it won't show."
"That doesn't matter," Aaron said. "After he is done send him out to the old Dunham farm. I want the place put to rights, never mind the cost. I'll need four bunks set up in every bedroom except for the three smaller rooms where I want only a single double bed. Twenty-eight bunks altogether. Make sure there are dressers and closets to match. Sturdy furniture for the rest of the house."
Sever whistled. "That's a lot of work. I'll have to pull people off other projects. May I ask what is going on? The information might help me decide how to go about this."
Aaron walked over to him. "You may. I intend to open a house for homeless children. I will provide funds for their clothing and food as well as wages for four adults to care for them. While they are in my care they can plant crops and learn the benefits of work on a farm." He looked at the others in the room. "A lot of people have suffered because of me. It's time I made amends."
Sever grinned hugely. "Mister Turner, I would be glad to do that for you and at little more than cost, too. A grand undertaking it is and one I have never heard the likes of before." He left with a swing in his step.
"Mister Turner," Cathy asked, "may I speak with you in private?"
Appearing hesitant and nervous, her attitude was a huge change from the defiant woman who had faced Perk. She wrung her hands, and her left eyelid twitched.
Aaron looked to Perk and Kit. "These are my friends. You can talk in front of them."
Cathy swallowed nervously and straightened bravely. "Okay. I--I never wanted to hurt you. I still admire you, Mister Turner. Revere you even, only those feelings could have been the problem between us. You seem so much bigger than ordinary people. I thought I could love you as more than a friend. In time I would have." She bit her lip. "I'm not saying this very well. I'm sorry. The thing is, I really
would have learned to love you, but I started talking to someone else, and I found I did love him."
"Does he love you back?" Aaron asked. His voice somehow came out normal despite the large knot closing off his throat.
She shook her head no. "But he will love me eventually, and he does respect me. After all, everyone knows that a man doesn't need to love all his wives so long as he respects them, but a woman has to love her husband because she only gets the one." Biting her upper lip again, Cathy looked at him beseechingly. "I know that you'll hate me forever. I won't make this harder on you so I'm going to quit working in the store. You don't have to fire me."
Aaron's face felt like stone. "You are sensible, Miss Bayne. I will not allow you to work in the store." Reaching in his pocket he pulled out a piece of folded paper. Stepping forward, he handed it to her. "This transfers ownership of the Emporium into your name. Consider it a wedding present. The building and all its contents are now yours to do with as you desire. I ask only that you return some of the gift back to the community in the next few years."
"You are right," Kit said quietly to Perk. "He is a noble fool."
"Told you. Could tell the first time I met him that he's the sucker type."