To Honor and Cherish Read Online Free PDF

was, she was worth it. By the way, you can call me Gus. When you get your legs back under you, that is.”
    ~~~
    Meg heard a carriage approaching. She grabbed her lantern and ran out, holding it high to cast light for her father. She’d been worried. Jax had been gone all afternoon. He’d gone into town, but he should’ve been home by dinner. When he wasn’t, she’d begun to worry if he was in danger or had just left her to find other employment. For some reason, when he went missing, it sparked more worry in her than it should’ve after knowing the man one day.
    “Father, is everything all right? What’re you doing out here?”
    “Evening Meg. I found someone in town. Says he belongs out here.”
    “Jax?” She walked up to the carriage, holding up her lantern to see under the awning. Meg put her hand to her mouth when she saw what state he was in. “My word. What happened?” she gasped. Jax was almost unrecognizable with the swelling and bruising.
    She watched as her father helped him out of the carriage and up to the house. Opening the door, she directed her father back to the room Jax had stayed in the night before. A bucket of cold water would be needed for the swelling and she went out back to pump it. Returning in a rush, she used cloths to put the cool water on his various bruises.
    Gus helped Jax get out of his shirt and Meg used her fingers to probe for broken bones like her father and Dr. Johnson had taught her. Her touch was light and gentle, only touching hard enough to hurt when she thought a problem lay beneath them. Her father had wanted her to be as close to a nurse as possible and she’d spent many hours with the doctor in her younger years learning the basics of care.
    “I’m going to have to wrap his ribs. I can’t tell if they’re broken, but he’s so beat up, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
    “All right Meg, you grab the wraps. I’ll help Jax stay upright.” This wasn’t her father’s first time helping, either. Sometimes horses kick and he’d had plenty of ranch hands over the years for her to practice on.
    “I don’t know what possessed you to get in some brawl, but I won’t abide that here.” She wasn’t rough with him, but her eyes and voice showed she was serious. “I expect you to make sure your men behave themselves, too. If I can’t trust you, you’re gone,” she hissed. He noticed her eyes got a shade darker when she was angry.
    For the next half hour, Jax winced, groaned, and let her wrap him tight, He fell asleep the moment they left him alone. She went to make some soup for him and Gus followed her.
    ~~~
    “So, where’d you find him?” Gus asked.
    “I could ask you the same question.” She looked at him anger emblazoned on her face, and sighed. “He rode up here last night. He’d apparently read your ad in the paper,” she replied, stirring the dinner leftovers with fierce strokes, threatening to spill it.
    “Do you think he’s trustworthy?” he asked, trying to push her for her thoughts. Jax hadn’t been able to tell him much and he wanted to trust Meg’s choice.
    “I thought so, until this. He had to stay in the house last night and he did nothing untoward. He got right to work this morning.” She shrugged.
    “Good, I don’t know why he was there, or what made those men angry enough to beat the tar out of him. But if you considered him trustworthy before this fight, then I wouldn’t let this affect your opinion. I don’t think he had much choice in being there, if you catch my meaning. How’re you doing, girl?”
    Meg stopped stirring and relaxed. “I’m getting by, thank you for asking.”
    “I better not stay out all night or your mother will never let me hear the end of it. She won’t believe you, either. She’ll say you were only siding with me,” he said with a sigh of pure fatigue. Mention of his wife brought him back to today and the moment evaporated.
    “All right, Father, thank you for finding him and bringing him back. Are