Tuesday Teaser, 8/12/14: Wolf’s Lady Part 30

Here is the 30th installment on Sand and Amanda’s story.  I think when I do my revisions I’m going to make some changes to this, as it’s a bit drawn out and boring. It ends with a bag though, and that’s good. So, here you go: Wolf’s Lady!

Amanda leapt up every time someone walked past the waiting room. Sky sat in a chair nearby, his head in his hands, but when the tears she’d held back for so long spilled, he was up immediately and at her side.

“Amanda,” he said soothingly. He pulled her to his chest and held her there. “It will be alright.”

She wiped the tears away angrily. “It better be. If anything happens to Sand, I’ll kill him!”

Sky smiled a little. “You’ll kill your husband?”

“No.” Mindful of the City Guardsman sitting in the corner, she dropped her voice to a hiss. “Askup.”

Tension tightened the muscles in Sky’s chest. She felt him grow very still against her. “Do you know it was him?”

She shrugged, a quick jerk of her shoulders. “Those goons were paid to kill Sand and take me. Who else would have done that?”

“Do you have any proof?”

“No. Do you think I’m wrong?”

Sky tightened his arm around her shoulders with a small shake of his head. “I think you’re exactly right. What did you tell the Guards?”

She wiped away the last evidence of tears. “Nothing. Even with proof I couldn’t accuse one of Tim McGrath’s best friends.”

“No.” Sky’s voice was as cold and flat as she felt. “But he will pay. Not now, but someday, he will pay for what he’s done to you and Sand.”

Another hour crawled by, while Amanda went from staring a hole in the waiting room door to wearing a path in the floor. She was sitting when the door opened to allow Snow and Sara to enter. She sprang up and rushed to Sara.

“Amanda!” Sara gave her a fierce hug. “This is terrible! How is Sand?”

“I don’t know!” she burst out. “No one has told us a thing.”

Sara squared her shoulders in the prim gray cotton uniform. “I’ll find out. They’ll talk to me.”

Only a few inches over five feet tall, and not quite sixteen years old, some try might brush the girl in the novice uniform off. But Sara’s expression said they wouldn’t have any luck with it. Amanda felt a swell of relief crash over her. Sara would find out.

Snow stood close  to Sky, speaking quietly into his ear. Sky nodded from time to time, face expressionless. Amanda barely noticed them because the waiting room door opened, and Sara came back, her hand firmly clamped around the arm of a man wearing a blood smeared white apron over his clothes. With them walked elderly Sister Roberta, wrinkled face set in its usual stern expression.

“Cousin,” Sara said in voice like a general giving orders on the battlefield. “This is Dr. Rogers. Stan, this is my cousin, Amanda Wolfe.”

The doctor looked tired. He shook Amanda’s hand, and nodded at Sky and Snow who came forward. “Your husband is out of surgery. We’ve removed the bullet fragments and done as much repair as we could.”

Amanda clenched her hands together to control the tremble. “They said before that his lung was hit?”

“His lung hasn’t collapsed. It is a concern, however. We don’t know if our repairs will be enough for him to fully recover.”

Sky put a hand on her shoulder. “Mandy,” he said, and for once she didn’t hate the nickname. “He’ll recover. I told you, we’re strong.”

“You must trust in God,” the nun told her. “Pray to Our Lady for your husband’s recovery.”

Amanda was saved from making a very impious retort by the door opening yet again. Her mouth fell open when Judge John Case walked in, followed by Lieutenant Dean Erikson.

“I understand someone attempted to murder Sand Wolfe tonight,” Johnnie boomed. “And I think I know who. I warned that foo not to meddle with the Wolfe marriage. I’m here to write an arrest warrant for Terry Askup.”