Promising Hearts

Occasionally, Kate would ask a question which Vance answered thoroughly and unhurriedly.

"Here," Vance said, reaching for Kate's hand. She drew it to Lettie's belly and covered Kate's fingers with hers. Pressing lightly on Kate's fingers she said, "Feel here. That's the head."

Kate held her breath, trying to see through her fingertips as Vance slowly moved her hand over Lettie's pregnant abdomen.

"And here, that's probably the baby's rump."

"Oh," Kate gasped, amazed. She jumped when she felt a thump under her fingers. Eyes wide, she stared at Vance. "She moved."

Vance grinned. "She, or he, did indeed. At this stage, which I judge to be a little over seven months, the baby's very active." Vance looked up at Lettie. "Isn't that true?"

Lettie nodded vigorously, unused to having anyone pay her quite so much attention. "Sometimes it keeps me awake at night."

"How can you tell how far along she is?" Kate didn't think she'd ever felt anything quite as miraculous and, at that moment, didn't think she'd ever met anyone, other than Jessie, quite as thrilling as Vance Phelps.

"There are number of things," Vance said, standing. "If you'd like, I'll go over them with you once we're finished here."

"Yes," Kate said instantly. "Yes. I'd like that very much."

Delicately, Vance covered Lettie with the sheet. "You're doing fine. Another day or two, and if there's no more bleeding, you can start moving around again. But no lifting. All right?"

"Yes. You'll come back again?" Lettie asked.

"I will, in two days' time." She turned, surprised to find Kate holding out her coat. She slid her arm into the sleeve and waited, a bit self-consciously, as Kate drew it up her shoulders and settled it into place. "Thank you."

"It is I who should thank you," Kate said as they walked to the door. "That was the most exciting, wonderful, amazing--" She broke off, laughing. "You must think me ridiculous."

"Not at all." Vance smiled herself. "I remember just how excited I was the first time I felt something like that. I--" She stopped abruptly at the sound of hurried footsteps ascending the stairs at the far end of the hall. Mae suddenly appeared, her skirts held up in both hands as she rushed toward them. Urgently, Vance said, "What is it?"

"The doc..." Mae pressed a hand to her chest, trying to catch her breath. It wasn't the running, but the panic, that had stolen the air from her lungs. "The Doc sent a message for you to come quick. Says he needs you straightaway."

"All right." Vance hesitated only a second. "You're fine?"

"Yes, yes. I'm coming with you. I've helped him with this kind of thing before."

"What kind of thing?" Kate said, hurrying along beside them, a terrible fear rising in her throat. When Mae didn't answer immediately, Kate grasped her arm to slow her headlong rush. "Mae, what kind of thing?"

"Someone's been shot." Mae took Kate's hand. "Someone from the Rising Star. That's all I know, honey."

No. No no no. Not again. This can't be happening again. With fierce determination, Kate ran.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Kate cursed the dark, the uneven rut-strewn street, her shoes with the short square heels as she hurried toward Doc Melbourne's office. A light flickered in the window from the oil lamp, and a shadow passed back and forth within, splintering the shaft of light that escaped. Despite her horribly slow pace, she was well ahead of Mae and Vance when she reached the wooden porch in front of the building. Even as she pushed through the door she was calling Jessie's name.

Jessie turned at the sound of the door slamming open. Blood streaked the right side of her face. Her shirt was soaked with sweat, caked with dirt, and a large stain over her left side looked frighteningly like blood.

Kate flung herself into Jessie's arms. "Oh my darling...are you hurt?" Frantically, she patted Jessie's shoulders, her chest, her face.

"You are. You're hurt. Oh...sit down. Where's the doctor? He must look at you."

"Kate," Jessie said gently, catching her hands, stilling her motion.

"I'm all right. It's nothing. Just some scratches." Then she wrapped her arms around Kate and buried her face against Kate's neck. Her voice was muffled as she choked out, "It's Jed, Kate. Lord. He's been shot."

Vance strode through the door followed immediately by Mae. In her rush toward the closed inner door that led to the treatment room, she spared Kate and Jessie a brief glance. It took a second for her to register that the cowboy holding Kate, or being held by her, was a woman. She put her surprise away and looked at Mae. "Can you help?"

"Yes, of course. I've done it before."

"And so can I, if you need me," Kate said firmly.

"It wouldn't hurt." Vance disappeared through the inner door with Mae.

Tenderly, Kate disengaged from Jessie's embrace and stroked her cheek. "He'll be all right, darling. Sit now. I'll be out very soon."

Not knowing what else to do, Jessie slumped into a chair, her hands dangling uselessly between her legs. "Please, Kate." Her eyes were deep pools of misery. "Please don't let him die."

"Vance and Dr. Melbourne will take care of him." Heart aching, hating to leave her but wanting desperately to do something, Kate kissed Jessie swiftly, then hurried away. Not even thinking about what awaited her, she rushed into the next room, only to halt abruptly just inside the door. Shocked, she stared at the sight of Jed lying facedown on the table. He was shirtless and his back was awash with blood. Doc Melbourne leaned over him, pressing a square of white cloth between his shoulder blades.

"Why, Kate, what are you doing here?" Caleb Melbourne glanced quickly from Kate to Vance.

"I thought we could use the help," Vance said.

"Might be right," he said. "Kate, we won't have time for the smelling salts."

She took two steady steps forward. "I won't faint. Just tell me what to do."

"Get some more of these bandages from the case over there," he said with a tip of his head. Over his shoulder, he said to Vance, "He's got a bullet in his back and he's lost a lot of blood. We need to get it out, and we need to get it out fast. I'd say you'd be the best one to do that."

Vance didn't bother examining Jed but took Caleb at his word.

She shrugged out of her coat and pulled her surgical kit from the closet where she had stored it upon her arrival in New Hope. She hefted it onto a nearby table and jerked open the flaps. It was not the same kit she had used that last morning at Appomattox, but a spare she had brought from home after hers was lost. For one brief second, the shining instruments looked completely foreign. She gripped a gleaming silver probe, and at the first touch of the cold steel against her fingers, everything came back to her. She felt the ground shake with the thunder of the cannons, smelled the cordite and blood in the air, shuddered beneath the weight of the dying.

Mae covered Vance's hand with hers. "Why don't you tell me which ones of these you need, and I'll lay them out while you see to Jed."

Vance stared at Mae's hand, stunned as the warmth cut through the chill that entombed her. Mae's voice was so soft, and yet it penetrated the barrage of sounds that bombarded her. Her voice barely a whisper, she said, "Thank you."

"Nothing to thank me for," Mae said briskly, relieved to see a bit of color return to Vance's face. When she'd reached into the leather satchel, she'd turned chalk white and her eyes had gone flat, as if her body was still there but her soul had disappeared. It was about the most terrifying thing Mae had ever seen. The only thing she could think to do was touch her and try to pull her back from whatever hell she'd slid into. "Which ones, Doc?"

"All of...the probes. And the forceps...those are the clamps...

there." Vance cleared her throat, her voice stronger. "If you could open that canister...Yes, that one...and pour some of the carbolic over my hand. And my sleeve...could you roll it up, please."

Swiftly, Mae took care of Vance's shirt and then unscrewed the metal top from the pint-sized canister. At the first whiff, she drew back in disgust. "Lord. You want that on your skin?"

"It won't hurt me," Vance said, holding her hand over a nearby basin. "Go ahead and pour it."

"Whiskey will do just as good," Caleb remarked.

Vance nodded. "You might be right." She shook her hand free of the liquid and walked up to the table. "Let me see."

Gingerly, Caleb moved the poultice aside, and blood immediately welled up from the hole adjacent to Jed's shoulder blade. He slapped the compress back down, his expression grave. "The bleeding might stop if I hold this on here long enough, but the bullet will still be in there."

Vance and Caleb both knew that leaving the bullet in place would lead to infection and certain death. Unfortunately, at the rate the wound was bleeding, Jed was likely to bleed to death before they could get the bullet out.

"Have you given him anything?" Vance asked.

"I didn't have to. He doesn't know anything that's happening."

Caleb tossed the crimson-soaked bandage aside and held out a bloodied hand to Kate. "Could you hand me another, my dear. Just keep one ready at all times."

"Here you are." Kate extended the cloth, careful not to look at Jed's face. She'd discovered very quickly that if she just concentrated on the injury and what needed to be done, she could keep her fear and horror at bay. If she thought that this helpless man on the table was Jed, the kindhearted and gentle man who had welcomed her to the Rising Star as if she had been family, she thought that she might break down in tears. She couldn't even contemplate the terrible loss it would be for Jessie if Jed died. She could not think of those things and be of any assistance. And she was determined that she would help save this man she cared for and who meant so much to her Jessie.

"Caleb," Vance said, carefully pressing her fingers over the thick muscles along Jed's spine. "If you will steady the probe once I locate the bullet, I'll follow it down with the forceps and extract it."

"You just get me in the right spot," Caleb grunted. "Kate, you be ready to swab the blood, because we're not going to be able to see a damn thing. Mae, you'll be handing us the instruments."

Both women murmured their assent. Mae watched as Vance selected a silver probe ten inches long and as thick around as her small finger. It narrowed into a blunt rounded tip at each end. Vance's hand was steady, her face calm but determined. Despite the terrible circumstances, Mae couldn't help but think how beautiful she was. Her eyes met Vance's and held. "Just tell me what you need."

"This may be too thick. Have the next size down ready."

"Yes." Mae searched it out as Vance leaned over Jed.

"Ready?" Vance said to Caleb.

"Let's get this done."

The instant Caleb removed the bandage, blood gushed forth.

Unperturbed, Vance inserted the end of the probe into the bullet wound, balancing it delicately across her fingers and angling it with slight pressure from her thumb until it naturally found the angle of the bullet track. Then she guided it forward with a gentle massaging motion, avoiding trauma to the surrounding tissues. She was unaware of time passing or of the swift intake of breath beside her. The air grew very still, the sounds of battle receded, and there was only the rush of blood through Jed's body, the pump of his heart, the ebb and flow of his life that rested now in her hands. When the steel probe touched the ball of lead lodged in the paraspinous muscles, she said without looking up, "Caleb, hold this just as it is. Don't push forward or change the angle."

Without looking away from the wound, Vance waited until Caleb placed his fingers next to hers on the probe. She noted absently that his hand was shaking. She repositioned the instrument slightly. "Do you have it?"

"Yes," Caleb said, the tension making his voice thin and tight.

Vance let go of the probe and opened her hand. "Mae. The forceps.

Kate, very gently swab the blood away from the bullet site, but don't move the probe."

The smooth handle fit perfectly in her palm. Without needing to look at it, Vance slid her thumb and fourth finger through the grips. Had she had her left hand, she would be holding the probe and, together, one hand would have guided the other, a delicate danse ŕ deux. She was partially blind because she could not feel the bullet or the probe as she pushed the forceps into the wound. Nevertheless, the track the probe had followed was imprinted on her mind, and she guided the forceps effortlessly. When she judged she was an inch away from the end of the probe, she said, "Now pull it back slowly. Slowly."

As Caleb retracted the probe, Vance opened the jaws of the forceps and pressed deeper into the wound, finally closing the instrument at the point where she knew the bullet to be. With a slight twist to free the surrounding tissue, she extracted the forceps with the bullet held firmly in its jaws. "Kate, press down on the wound now."

It had taken her just over a minute to complete the entire maneuver.

"Never seen it done slicker," Caleb murmured.

Wordlessly, Vance turned away from the table and laid the forceps with the bullet still clamped tightly in the jaws onto the cloth Mae had spread out beneath her other instruments. "I imagine you know what needs to be done, Caleb."

"Yes," Caleb said grimly, swabbing the area around the wound with a whiskey-soaked cloth. "Now we wait."

Vance walked to the sideboard and dunked her bloodied hand into a basin of water. Without bothering to dry it, she crossed the room to a door that led out into the alley behind the building, opened it, and stepped out into the dark.

"Is there anything I can do to help you?" Kate asked quietly.

"Let's turn him over and get him covered. I suspect he'll be as comfortable here as anywhere else for the next few hours." Smiling faintly at the two women, Caleb went on, "This is the part that's so wearing, because we've done all we can really do. I've never seen anyone get a bullet out that was in that deep so fast and with so little damage to all the other structures. No one could have given him a better chance." He slid his arm under Jed. "You two take his arm there and turn him toward you when I lift."

Once Jed was on his back, Mae retrieved a blanket from a cabinet along the wall, and she and Kate spread it over him.

"Jessie's in the other room," Kate said. "She's hurt. Could you look at her now?"

"Of course. Go get her."

When Kate returned to the anteroom, Jessie bolted to her feet, her face pale.

"Kate?"

Putting a smile on her face, Kate hurried to her. "He's alive. The bullet's out."

"Oh Lord," Jessie sighed, closing her eyes. They'd ridden more than twenty-four hours straight without stopping for food or water. The stress and fear made her weak, and she swayed.

"Here now," Kate said quickly, wrapping her arm around Jessie's waist. "You need some looking after. Come in the other room and let Dr. Melbourne check you."

"The horses. I have to see to the horses. They need to be stabled and fed."

"And so do you," Kate said firmly. "Now don't argue. As soon as you're taken care of, I'll make sure your horses get to the livery."

"Charlie. Charlie Baker came down with us. He should be right outside somewhere. He can do it."

Kate briefly recalled passing a man in the dark, slumped in a chair just outside the door, on her wild rush inside. "I'll find him. Now come with me."

Too weary to think anymore, Jessie allowed Kate to lead her by the hand into the back room. When she saw Jed lying so quiet on the table, his eyes shut, his chest just barely moving, she bit her lip to stop the tears and looked quickly away.

"He's tough as one of those wild horses of yours, Montana," Mae said compassionately. "He wouldn't take kindly to you doubting him."

Jessie nodded.

"I don't think you need me any longer, do you, Doc," Mae said as Kate started to gently unbutton Jessie's shirt. There was something so private about the way Jessie kept her eyes fixed on Kate's face, as if Kate were all the strength she'd ever need, that Mae had to turn away.

"No, we'll be fine," Caleb said absently as he rummaged in the cabinet for more supplies. He did not notice as Mae followed the path Vance had taken a few moments before and disappeared through the back door.

Kate opened Jessie's wool shirt, saw the bloody tear in the thin cotton shirt she wore under it, and gasped. "Oh, Jessie."

"I'm okay," Jessie said swiftly, gathering her wits when she realized how frightening this must look to Kate. "It barely touched me."

"It touched you," Kate murmured, cupping Jessie's chin and brushing a thumb over her cheek. "That's all that matters."

"Just don't worry," Jessie said, trying not to grimace when Caleb wiped at the blood caked onto her side with a damp cloth.

"Don't be silly." Kate kept one hand on Jessie's shoulder as she watched the doctor work. She felt Jessie tremble. "I love you. I'm allowed to worry."

If Caleb Melbourne heard, or cared, he gave no sign of it. At length he straightened. "I'm going to tape a clean cloth over this. It should be changed three times a day and the area cleansed." He looked at Kate.

"I'm quite sure you can take care of that."

"Yes," Kate said steadily.

"No riding for a couple of days."

"She won't," Kate answered before Jessie could protest.

Jessie motioned toward Jed. "How long will he need to stay here?"

"He shouldn't be moved very far for at least a week. We'll get him over to the hotel or Mae's place in a day or so."

"I need to go out to the ranch to see to things tomorrow," Jessie said. She swallowed. "The men are going to be pretty stirred up about this."

Caleb frowned. "You'd best see they don't go doing something crazy. I might have a good surgeon here, but that doesn't mean I'm in the market for more patients."

Jessie said nothing.

"Let's go home, Jessie," Kate said gently. She intended to find out exactly what had happened and what Jessie intended to do about it. But for now, all she wanted to do was hold her.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

It had started to rain, and it was so dark in the alley behind Doc Melbourne's that Mae could not see her way around the puddles.

"Lord, could this night get any worse," she muttered, lifting her dress. Her shoes were already a ruin. Her heart lurched when a form materialized from the shadows ahead of her, and she reached into the inner pocket of her dress for her Derringer. As the figure approached, she drew a breath and steadied her hand. She'd not be taken in an alley.

What she did--and with whom--she did by conscious will.

"You shouldn't be out here," Vance said. "It's far too dark and inclement."

"Is there something wrong with your brain?" Mae snapped, her fear overriding her manners. Shaking now, she secured her gun and tucked it away. "I almost shot you."

Vance slid out of her coat and swept it around Mae's shoulders.

"Well, at least I would have been close to treatment if you had. Where's your shawl?"

"I left my room in rather a hurry, if you'll recall." It was difficult for Mae to see Vance's face, as the moon had disappeared behind the storm clouds. Still, she could make out enough to know that Vance had been standing in the rain for a long time. Her hair was plastered to her forehead and neck, and the coat that Vance had covered her with was soaked through. Mae placed her palm against Vance's chest. "You're wet to the skin."

"As you will be, if you stand here much longer." Vance cupped Mae's elbow and guided her down the passageway toward the main street. "You should go straight home and get warm. Have some tea and a fire or--"

"And while I'm getting all comfortable, just what are you planning to do?" Abruptly, Mae halted, jerked her arm away, and faced Vance in the street. "Wander around until you catch your death?"

"I think that unlikely. I've lived outside in weather like this for far longer--"

"I'm sure you have. I'm sure you've seen things that no one else could understand even if you explained them," Mae said sharply, "but you don't have to now." She took Vance's hand and gripped her cold fingers. She didn't need to see her face to know that whatever had plagued her in the doc's office still had a hold on her. Her voice had a hollow ring to it, as if she had to force the words out from some deep place. "Come back with me and let me make us both some tea."

Vance hesitated, still trapped between worlds, part of her reeling from the images of battle, the other drawn to the strength and tenderness in Mae's touch. She sensed Mae shiver with cold, and that made her decision. "If you've whiskey for the tea, I could use some."

Mae wrapped her arm around Vance's waist. "Living where I do, that's one thing I never run out of. Come along, now. The street's turning into a river of mud."

Vance very rarely lamented the loss of her arm, because there were far greater things to mourn. But at that particular moment, she wished she had two just so she could lift Mae in her arms and carry her across the treacherous thoroughfare. She'd never had the desire to do anything of the sort before in her life, but she wanted it now like an ache in her bones. She contented herself with resting her hand in the center of Mae's back to guide her. "I'm sorry for the weather."

Mae laughed as they set out, splashing through the puddles they couldn't see and sliding in inches of deep mud. "Unless you called the rain, you've no need to be."

"A lady shouldn't have to--"

"I know you don't mean yourself, because I'll wager you've tramped through worse than this. And believe me," Mae gasped, hurrying the last few feet down the alley to the stairs, "so have I. I walked behind a wagon most all the way out here."

"Well, you shouldn't have to do anything of the kind now."

"Are you all right?" Mae asked quietly. "I know you were bad there for a little bit."

"I'm recovered, I believe. Thanks to you." Vance leaned against the building, one leg up on the first stair, the other on the ground. Mae stood close to her, one arm still resting on her hip, her body angled between Vance's legs. The eaves sheltered them from the worst of the rain, and the lights in the windows on the second floor provided enough illumination for Vance to see Mae's face. She brushed the wet tendrils of hair away from Mae's throat, allowing her fingers to linger on the sleek column of her neck. Mae's skin was cool but the blood beat hot just beneath her smooth skin. That unmistakable rush of life made her all too aware of the void in her own being, and she realized how easily she could feed off Mae's passion, taking, with nothing to offer in return.

"You should go upstairs now and draw a bath. Get warm."

"I think I might," Mae said, trying to decipher the brooding look on Vance's face. Their bodies nearly touched, and the slow brush of Vance's fingers over her skin stirred heat in places that the far more demanding caresses she endured from others never awakened. She could return to the saloon, back to the noise and press of bodies and mindless coupling, or she could spin out this fragile thread that fluttered between them a little longer. "Join me."

Vance gasped, not at the unexpected invitation but at the image of intimacy that came instantly to her mind. Mae's pale skin shimmering with crystal droplets in the lamplight, her lids languid with heat. She dropped her hand away, but she could not step out of the reach of danger. Mae was so close to her that she could feel the outline of Mae's body curving into her own. "I...can't."

Emboldened by the storm that raged around them and by the terrible tension of what they had just done for Jed, Mae skimmed her mouth over Vance's lips. It was a fleeting kiss, but one that could not be called anything less. "Then come upstairs and have that drink."

When Mae turned and started up the stairs, a chill far colder than the night's enveloped Vance with such swiftness she shook under it.

She looked up the stairs, and when Mae paused on the landing to glance down at her, she followed.

v "I don't want to leave him here alone," Jessie said, standing in the open doorway of the doctor's office and staring out into the rain. Doc Melbourne had sent them out, saying there was nothing anyone could do just now. Charlie had been waiting and, after getting word on Jed's condition, had gone off to deal with the horses. "I'll walk you to your parents' and then come back."

"You'll do nothing of the kind," Kate said, pulling her cloak around her shoulders. Jessie, she noted, seemed oblivious to the weather, but Kate feared it was more shock than toughness. The only time she'd ever seen Jessie so shaken was when she'd been sick with the grippe last winter, and she knew firsthand that Jessie was capable of running herself into the ground from worry. Kate intended to see that did not happen now. "Caleb said he wouldn't wake up until tomorrow at the earliest, but if you're set on staying, we'll both stay."

"We can't do that. Your parents don't know where you are. They'll be beside themselves." Jessie hunched her shoulders and stepped out, pulling the door partly closed to prevent the rain from pouring into the room. Her shirt was immediately soaked but she didn't mind. The biting cold seemed to get her blood going. In between being sick with worry, she'd mostly felt numb. When her father had died in a stampede, it had been over so fast that the pain had been a swift slice to her heart.

This...watching Jed's life seep away, was killing her bit by bit. The only thing she'd ever experienced that had been worse was when Kate had been sick, and that had been as close to dying while still breathing she ever wanted to come. She swept her fingers over Kate's cheek.

"Besides, you should get some rest."

Kate crossed her arms. "Oh, and you don't need any?" Now that the crisis was at least somewhat controlled, her fear was giving way to anger. Anger that it might have been Jessie on that table bleeding to death. Anger that somehow Jessie must have known this kind of danger was possible and hadn't told her. "When is the last time you've slept? Or eaten anything?"

"Kate--after the shootout, with Jed hurt so bad, I couldn't think of anything except getting him here." Jessie passed a weary hand over her face. "All I could think was that this was his only chance."

"I know, darling. I know." Kate couldn't argue with her. She sounded so tired, so fragile. It was so unlike her, and all Kate wanted to do was protect her.

"Maybe I was still too late."

"No. No, you weren't. Mae's right. He's very strong, and Vance did a miraculous job of getting the bullet out. You got him here in time.

I know it."

"I'll feel better if I can keep an eye on him."

Kate smoothed both hands over Jessie's shoulders and down her arms until she clasped her fingers lightly. "Jed was like this when you were shot, too. He didn't want to move from this spot until we knew something." She drew Jessie's hands to her breast and pressed them over her heart. "But he went about taking care of things at the ranch because he knew you would want him to. He would want you to take care of yourself and the Rising Star."

Jessie tugged Kate close and leaned her forehead against Kate's.

They stood in the shadows as the rain beat down around them, the night so black that the few lighted windows along Main Street looked like the disembodied eyes of wild animals lurking in the wilderness. Despite the eerie sense of isolation born of her fear and fatigue, Jessie had never felt so completely anchored to this earth as she did in this moment with Kate in her arms. "If you weren't here with me right now, I don't think I could make it until morning."

Kate kissed the base of her throat, then laid her cheek against Jessie's chest. "You could. But you don't have to. You won't ever have to."

With a sigh, Jessie wrapped her arm around Kate's shoulders.

"Let's go somewhere and get out of this rain. I think I'll feel a whole lot better if I can hold you."

"I know that I will," Kate murmured.

"Lord," Jessie muttered as they left the shelter of the porch and ventured into the street. "I think you better go back inside, and I'll go see if I can find a buckboard to borrow. You can't walk all the way to your parents' house in this."

"Why don't we check the Nugget. There must be someone there we'll know who has a wagon. My father's probably at the newspaper office, but I expect he walked."

"You stay here, then, and I'll go to the saloon."

"It makes more sense for me to come with you, especially if we find someone to give us a ride."

Jessie hesitated for a moment, not wanting to subject Kate to the unsavory atmosphere in the saloon, but she could see the point of Kate's suggestion. "Okay, then." She took off her Stetson and put it on Kate's head. "Might help a little."

Laughing, Kate reached up and held the brim of the unfamiliar headwear. "Now you'll drown instead of me."

"I'm more used to it." Jessie put an arm around Kate and tilted her head down to keep the stinging water out of her eyes. As they set off in the direction of the saloon, she tried to angle her body so that the winds struck her first and not Kate. Raising her voice to be heard over the howling storm, she shouted, "Stay close when we get there."

Unconsciously, Kate gripped her bag more tightly and felt the weight of Mae's recent gift inside. She thought it best to show it to Jessie later, when she could explain how she had come to have it.

Nevertheless, she liked knowing that she could protect them both, if necessary. "Don't worry. I'll be fine."

When they reached the board sidewalk on the opposite side of the street and ducked beneath the short roofs that protected the doorways, they could hear one another without shouting. Jessie wiped a wet sleeve across her face. "If this keeps up, there'll be flooding in the gulches up in the hills." She shook her head. "The foals can get trapped. I'll have to get men up there tomorrow."

"The men, not you," Kate said as they hurried along. "You're exhausted, and I'm not letting you go back out there again so soon."

Jessie clenched her jaws, remembering the sounds of gunshots coming from behind as she and her men had ridden toward one of the line camps. Ambushed on her own land. Bile rose in her throat and fury threatened to burn a hole in her gut. She'd be going back, and soon.

She was the law on the Rising Star, and she intended to send a message that no one could threaten her men or her livestock. But she thought it best to bring that up in the morning, when Kate was more likely to see reason.

"I'm thinking I should stay at the hotel for a few days," Jessie said. "That way, I can ride out to the ranch to see to things and then come back to town in case...in case the Doc needs me for anything."

Kate grasped Jessie's arm and tugged her to a stop just outside the Golden Nugget. "If you want to stay at the hotel and not my mother's, I'll understand. But wherever you're sleeping tonight, so am I."

"Kate," Jessie murmured, drawing her close to the building so they were not visible to anyone passing by. She took Kate in her arms and kissed her, the churning fear that lingered in her stomach making her embrace rough as she gave herself over to the heat of Kate's mouth.

She held her tightly, kissed her fiercely, drawing heart from Kate's supple strength. She drove deeper, drank hungrily, until she heard a faint moan. With a gasp, she pulled her mouth away. "I'm sorry for doing that here. I just--"

"No, don't," Kate whispered, struggling to capture the breath that had fled with the force of Jessie's need. "I need you, too." She leaned away, but kept her arms around Jessie's shoulders, where she had flung them to steady herself beneath Jessie's kiss. "I want to go home and explain to my mother what's happened, but then I think we'd better stay at the hotel. I'm going to want you to do that again."

"Good," Jessie said hoarsely, taking a step back and reluctantly letting Kate loose. "Because I'm going to."