The Legend of Black Wolf - Sully's Journey Home

Chapter Forty Seven

  When last we left Sully, he was stuck with a decision and a note in his hand.  The post that the new Dr. Quinn had put up in Bray's Mercantile  wasn't the only thing confusing our dear Sully, however.  A pair of blue-green eyes had just shocked him and thrown his heart for a loop.  Did he hear Chief Black Kettle's sage advice?   Or was his attention turning from the treaty talks and locking onto this new woman's undeniable energy?

 

 

 

    Ducking down a side alley, Sully thought perhaps he could catch sight of Charlotte and Doctor Quinn as they continued down the street before they passed the livery.  As he got nearer to the back corner of the boarding house, however, he stopped himself and hesitated.  Leaning up against the stone wall of the building, Sully heaved a sigh and bit his lip.  Looking down at the notice he had snatched off of Loren's board, he closed his eyes a moment. 

     'What am I doing?'  He asked himself.  'I'm just gonna walk up to her and tell her that she's too good to...'  His mind went blank.  He had no idea what he might say to her.  Too good to post in Loren's store?  Too good to dirty another dress in a small town like this?  He didn't know.  There was a curious feeling that had crept over him when he had snatched her paper off of the board and walked out with it.  Was it...interest?  A willingness to protect her?  From who?  Loren?

     Sully knocked the back of his head against the stone, admonishing himself for doing such a thing.  No doubt, Loren would have run over to Jake's by now and told him all about it.  He would certainly be the talk of the saloon tonight.  But what in the heck was the reasoning behind her writing that she needed somewhere suitable for a medical practice?  Did she just come off the train to start up a medical practice in town out of the clear blue sky? Had the town advertised to hire a doctor and then rejected her - that would at least make sense as to why she was there.  Could they have changed their mind just because she was a woman?  He didn't doubt that.

      Slowly opening his eyes, he watched the street from the alley.  Men were leaving the saloon, horses were going through the mud clogged street, pulling tired looking wagons.  Colorado Springs certainly wasn't the place where one saw many ladies as fine as Dr. Quinn.  Ladies like her sure didn't leave all that city life for the hard life of the west.  Yet, there was the notice in his hand, in her own writing, advertising for somewhere to live.  It didn't make sense.

      Finally peeking around the corner towards the livery, Sully spied Charlotte talking to Robert E.  There was an old horse standing between them with Dr. Quinn standing off to the side, primly clutching her small black medical bag in both hands.  She proudly handed over money to Robert E., who looked quite puzzled.  Mustering up his courage at seeing that she hadn't gotten as far down the street as he had thought, Sully decided to walk over and apologize for his actions in the mercantile while suggesting she talk to Horace at the telegraph office and see if he might know of something by way of an incoming notice about available buildings for rent.  Though it was his intention, he doubted whether he would be able to say either of those things out loud to her.

      His Cheyenne moccasins, light on the ground, led him to come upon the livery from the far side of town as if he had walked clear back to the meadow.  He didn't want either of them to see him walking from the alley, where he had been spying on them.  As he approached, skirts and hooves were dancing curiously as Robert E. stood by, shaking his head.  The doctor was spinning the horse in an attempt to get her foot in the stirrup of the saddle.  It struck him that only one as inexperienced as himself would be making such a spectacle.  Robert E. looked at Sully and shook his head in a very disgusted way.  Charlotte caught sight of Sully out of the corner of her eye and gave him a pleading look that he could not ignore.