“Where are the rest of the kids?”
“With your parents. But I’m having this baby now, and for once I want my husband to be around when it happens.”
Katie Ellen could be powerfully stubborn once she set her mind to something.
Betsy gazed at her cot with regret. “Wait here. I’ll find Josiah and Doctor Hopkins. Sissy and Laurel can tend to you while I’m gone.”
“I don’t need a doctor; I need my husband.” Katie Ellen gasped. Her hand tightened over her abdomen, which was bigger than a watermelon and looked ready to burst. “I told him it’d be today, but he wouldn’t stay home, so I just climbed in the wagon with him. If I wasn’t laboring before, that rocky road sure done the trick. My waters broke coming over the hill, but he still found somewhere else to be.”
Betsy would wring his neck. “You’re in no condition to be hunting him down. I’ll have him back—”
“Well, if he ain’t here, then I’m going to find him, even if it means having this baby in the middle of the road.”
“Katie Ellen, you’re distraught. You ain’t thinking straight. You gotta do what’s right for the baby.”
“The baby wants its pa.” Katie Ellen lumbered back to the road and headed toward the square.
“Lands sakes alive,” Betsy murmured. Katie Ellen was going to make a spectacle of herself, and it was Betsy’s job to protect the family honor. Couldn’t have a new nephew or niece making their appearance in the street. She chased after her sister-in-law. “Josiah’s at the sale barn.”
“He’s not. I looked.”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m not thinking. I’m just . . .” Katie Ellen paused, bowing over.
“We have to get Doctor Hopkins.” Betsy scanned the square for the best option for a birthing bed. The jail had a cot. That was all she knew. “Head to the jail.” She took Katie Ellen and dragged her forward. “If Josiah isn’t there, we’ll send the deputy after him.”
When they burst through the door, Joel couldn’t have looked more startled. One glance at Katie Ellen and he started sputtering. “No—no—this isn’t the place . . .”
“You were hunting for Doctor Hopkins,” Betsy said. “He should be at the sale barn. And get that low-down brother of mine while you’re at it. We can’t let him skip out on all the fun.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He spun on his boot.
Leland Moore shook the bars of his cell. “You can’t leave me here. Have mercy.”
Joel grabbed the keys and opened the cell door. “No more whiskey today, you hear? Now get out of here and leave the women to their business.”
Katie Ellen was more than happy to collapse onto the cot. “I wouldn’t enter this building if Sheriff Taney had anything to do with it. That worthless—” She stood again and started pacing.
“I can’t believe my brother’s child is going to be born behind bars,” Betsy said, “but I shouldn’t be surprised.” She needed the doctor, she needed Josiah, she needed linens, and most of all, she needed her sister-in-law to simmer down.
That wasn’t too much to ask, was it?
Chapter 25
He couldn’t keep the criminals in the cells, and he couldn’t keep the women out of them. Joel strode to the sale barn, fully aware of the contemptuous glares thrown his way. He hadn’t given up on catching the culprit, even if it was a Bald Knobber, but they had to give him time. Anyone could hide in the forest for a few days. Sooner or later they would slip up, and when they did, they’d find that they’d messed with the wrong county.
Until then, Joel had to find a reluctant father. He entered the wide doors of the sale barn and marched through the clusters of people into an arena of sorts. With the pen in the middle and the stands around it, it reminded him of a miniature indoor rodeo arena. But no way anyone could race or rope in such a small pen. Isaac Ballentine sat on the platform with an old scale in front of him and a new gavel in his hand. He met Joel’s gaze, then quickly looked away. Guilt, or just disgust that a fine fellow like the doctor had lost his house? Undeterred, Joel waded through the crowd and marched right up to the gate around the arena.
“I’m looking for Josiah Huckabee.” He was speaking to Isaac, but the crowd hushed.
“Is he another dangerous criminal you’re going to arrest?” The anonymous heckler had plenty of admirers, judging from the guffaws.
“First Mr. Pritchard, then Leland Moore. No wonder Josiah’s in trouble, running with such a dangerous crowd.”
Leland stepped inside, grinning drunkenly and waving at the mention of his name.
Isaac’s sad eyes looked troubled. “Josiah should be out back, Deputy. Cut through the door here on the side and you’ll see him.”
Another heckler. “Bet he won’t see him. He couldn’t see a buzzard if it landed square on his nose.”