Lawman in Disguise by Laurie Kingery Page B

the end of the cot. “What...what’s Billy Joe doing?” she said. “I expected to find him in here with you. I hope he hasn’t been plaguing you with his chatter.”
    â€œNot a bit,” Thorn assured her. “He brought me my breakfast just as you instructed, then went back in the house when the sheriff and the doc came. You might find he’s gone back for more shut-eye. Growing boys like him need their sleep.”
    Her patient was probably right, Daisy realized. Billy Joe seemed able to stay awake all night if one of his pals loaned him a penny dreadful to read, but he could be almost impossible to wake up in the morning. Some days when she had to go to work before it was time to get him out of bed, she’d awakened him, only to learn later that he’d fallen back to sleep after she’d left, and was tardy to class. At least school was out for the summer and she didn’t have to worry about that problem right now.
    Thorn gestured toward her little paper-wrapped plate. “Come on, open that up and eat your meal. As a mother of a boy like Billy Joe, you’ve got to keep up your strength.”
    The truth of that made her smile, and she obediently unwrapped the chicken and dumplings. “All right, then.” She hoped he wouldn’t just silently watch her eat—she couldn’t imagine swallowing a bite under his dark-eyed regard.
    â€œWhy don’t you tell me some more about yourself?” she asked him, to turn the focus away from herself.
    He smiled as if he sensed her need for diversion, and was willing to indulge her. “What would you like to know?”
    â€œWell...” she said, searching for something to ask. “Start at the beginning. Where are you from?”
    His smile tightened a bit, as if this was a painful subject, but he answered readily enough. “My sisters and I were raised on a hardscrabble ranch near Mason, Texas.”
    â€œSisters?”
    At that, he relaxed a bit. “Yes, ma’am—a whole passel of them. I have five sisters.”
    â€œNo brothers?
    â€œNo, I’m the only boy.”
    â€œAre your sisters older or younger than you?”
    â€œAll older. My parents kept trying for a boy, you see, and finally they got me. But my ma, she passed on when I was young. My sisters were the ones to raise me, really.” He kept her entertained for the next bit with stories about his antics as a child, and the struggles his sisters had getting him to behave. “As soon as I was old enough, my pa was putting me to work. I learned responsibility and hard work early, but that just meant that any little bit of time that I had free, I was looking to find some mischief to get myself into. I’m sure I was quite a trial to my sisters, but they were always very good to me, all the same.”
    â€œIs your family still there out by Mason?”
    â€œThey sure are, though they’re not still on the ranch itself. All my sisters married, and that meant they had to go where their husbands could find work, or where they could acquire some land. I’m just thankful that none of them had to go too far. There wasn’t enough of our ranch to split it between all of us, so my father left the whole property to me. He passed on some years ago, so one of my sisters, Ellanora and her husband, Hap, are living on the ranch now. They’re holding it until the day I return to live there.”
    â€œAnd that’s what you plan to do when you’re—” Daisy tried to find a delicate way to bring up the outlawing that was occupying him and keeping him from his ranch for now “—through with the gang?” she concluded.
    â€œThat’s been the plan,” he agreed. “Ellanora always said the house was mine whenever I wanted it, but I’ll probably just build another house either for them and their young’uns or a smaller house just for me. Either way, I reckon I’ll add their