I learned to always have a copy of the copy.

” Caleb just looked at her, stunned.

“You have another set somewhere safe.

Before I even left Missouri, I sent a package to the one person I trust in this whole territory.

She glanced at Ruth and then met Caleb’s eyes again.

Her name is Hannah Price, a doctor up in Montana.

That name hung in the air like lightning was about to strike the little kitchen.

Ruth eased back down into her chair.

Caleb’s jaw worked, but no words came out.

Hannah Price, he finally managed to say, the very same doctor I sent Tom to go and get.

You have met her.

Maggie’s good eye grew wide.

She is the doctor for our town.

She’s on her way to this house as we speak.

For a second, the room was completely silent.

Then Maggie’s legs gave out from under her.

Caleb was there to grab her before she could fall, and for the very first time she did not pull away from his touch.

Instead, she latched onto his shirt with her broken fingers, ignoring the hurt, and stared up at him with a look he could not decipher.

It was part relief, part wonder.

And maybe it was the tiny beginning of a hope she had not let herself feel for a long, long while.

Maybe the good Lord has not forgotten about me after all, she breathed.

Caleb guided her to a chair while Ruth hurried to get her a glass of water.

Outside, the morning sun was just starting to crest the Montana Peaks.

And out on a trail somewhere between that house and Helena, Tom Whitfield was pushing his horse hard, riding toward a doctor who had no idea she held papers that could either save a woman’s life or be the death of them all.

Tom Whitfield came through the gate around midday the following day, caked in trail dust and looking worn to the bone from an allnight ride.

Dr.

Hannah Price was right there with him on a dusty gray horse, her doctor’s bag tied down behind her.

Her face had the steady calm of a woman who knew that getting flustered never helped anyone.

Caleb was waiting for them in the yard.

I appreciate you coming, Hannah.

Tom told me it was not good.

Hannah swung down from her horse, already untying her bag.

Tell me how not good.

Tell me how not.

Four cracked ribs, three fingers busted, and her left eye is swelled up tight.

Ruth has done what she was able to, but let me see her.

Caleb showed her the way inside.

He paused when they reached the bedroom door.

Hannah, hold on a minute.

There is something I have to tell you.

It will keep.

No, it will not.

He dropped his voice to a whisper.

Her name is Maggie Coloulton.

She told me she sent you a package of papers before she rode out of Missouri.

Hannah’s hand stopped dead on the doororknob.

All the color drained from her face so quickly that Caleb thought she was about to collapse.

“That package,” she said in a low voice.

“It came from her.

” “Yes, I figured it was some kind of error.

Mail sent to the wrong place.

I have not even cracked it open.

” “Well, I reckon you will want to read it, but you need to patch her up first.

” Hannah looked at him for a long moment before she pushed her way into the room.

Maggie was propped up in the bed, bolstered by a stack of pillows Ruth had put behind her.

In the full light of day, the injuries looked a sight worse than they had in the dim light of the lamp.

Her face was a terrible map of purple and yellow bruises.

Her broken fingers were bound up in splints made from little bits of wood and torn cloth, all Ruth’s doing.

Maggie.

Hannah put her bag on the floor and drew the chair nearer.

I am Dr.

Price.

I am here to take a look at you.

Can you tell me what hurts the most? All of it.

Maggie’s tone was empty, but it is mainly the ribs on my left side.

Hannah’s hands moved with a practiced gentleness.

She went about her work without a word for a while, carefully pressing and feeling and checking how Maggie responded.

Maggie took it all with a set jaw, letting out a sharp breath only one time when Hannah checked her broken fingers.

“Ruth did a fine job,” Hannah finally said.

“The ribs are cracked clean, not splintered.

You got lucky there.

” “Your fingers, though, they need to be set again.

Two of them have already started to heal crooked, which tells me they were broken long before this last time.

” “6 weeks back,” Maggie answered softly.

Hannah stopped what she was doing.

Your husband did this? It was a statement, not a question.

Maggie’s eyes shot to her.

How did you know? Because I have cared for other women in your same situation, and their injuries always tell the same tale.

Hannah opened her bag and began laying out her tools, calm and orderly.

I am going to have to reset those fingers.

It is going to hurt like hell.

Would you like something to dull the pain? No.

I need to feel it.

That is not courage.

That is you punishing yourself, perhaps.

But I have to keep my wits about me.

I cannot allow my head to get cloudy.

Hannah watched her for a second, then gave a slow nod.

Put this between your teeth.

She gave Maggie a thick piece of folded leather.

Yell if you feel the need.

There is no shame in it.

The noise that carried through the door made Caleb’s hands tighten into fists on the porch rail.

Ruth, who was beside him, laid a hand on his arm.

“That one is tough,” Ruth said.

“She should not have to be.

No, she should not, but she is, and at this moment it is the only thing keeping her going.

” A second scream, more piercing than the last, was followed by quiet.

Then they heard Hannah’s voice, muffled, but calm.

About 10 minutes passed before Hannah came out, drying her hands on a towel.

Her fingers are set correctly this time.

I wrapped her ribs up tighter.

Her eye, she paused.

I believe her vision will be all right, but there could be some permanent trouble.

She needs a good two weeks of doing nothing before she is in any shape to go anywhere.

She does not have two weeks, Caleb stated flatly.

Then she is going to have to find the time because if those ribs move out of place, one of them could pierce a lung and it will not make a bit of difference who is after her.

Then Ruth came forward.

I will stay here.

I will watch over her.

There is something else, Hannah added.

She looked around to make sure no one else could hear.

That package she talked about.

It is in my office back in Helena.

I came close to tossing it out.

It had no name of who sent it, only mine.

It just did not feel right.

So, I held on to it.

Can you fetch it? Caleb asked.

I can have it sent.

My helper can ride it out, but that is two full days of riding coming and going.

That is two days Maggie cannot spare if her husband’s men are already out searching.

They are searching.

The voice came from down the hall.

Maggie was standing there once more, holding on to the door for support, her face ashen from the pain it took just to walk.

Virgil Cain is not a man who quits.

If they let me live, even if it was a mistake, Douglas will have Virgil come back to finish the job.

You belong in that bed, Hannah told her sternly.

I belong in this discussion.

It is my own life y’all are mapping out.

Caleb watched her, pale and unsteady, kept on her feet by nothing but pure grit and anger.

He grabbed a chair from the kitchen.

Sit down and talk.

Then you go back to bed.

Maggie let herself down into the chair, and this time she took Ruth’s helping hand.

Caleb noticed that small act, her allowing Ruth to assist her.

She was starting to trust the women.

The men, well, that would take more time.

Tell us who this Virgil Cain is, Caleb said.

He was in the army, but they kicked him out for been put out of the service for being too rough on prisoners.

Douglas brought him on three years back to be a security man.

He takes care of the whiskey runs.

He takes care of anybody who starts asking too many questions.

He took care of me.

He’s the one who laid into you.

He’s the one who liked doing it.

Maggie’s good eye was as hard as a riverstone.

The other fellow, I don’t know his name, he tried to get him to stop.

He said Douglas didn’t want me dead.

Virgil told him that Douglas didn’t get a vote anymore.

So Virgil’s acting on his own hook, Caleb said half to himself.

Douglas just wants me quiet.

Virgil wants me in the ground.

There’s a difference, but it all ends the same if he gets a hold of me.

Ruth poured some coffee and pushed a cup into Maggie’s good hand.

How could they possibly track you here? You were left for dead on an empty trail.

Virgil will ride that trail backwards.

He will find the place and see that I am not there anymore.

Then he will ask around in every town inside of 50 miles.

A woman showing up beaten half to death.

That is not the kind of thing folks forget.

The kitchen fell silent.

She was right.

Caleb had brought a woman who was barely breathing through his own front door in the middle of the day.

Tom had seen it.

Ruth had seen it.

It was not exactly a well-kept secret.

Elk Bend is small, Ruth said with a slow draw.

News gets around.

Has anyone in town laid eyes on her? Hannah asked.

No, she has not set foot off the ranch.

Caleb rubbed at the back of his neck.

But Tom rode straight through town to get to you, Hannah.

What if somebody asked him where he was heading in such a rush? Tom knows how to keep his mouth shut, Ruth said with certainty.

Tom is 22, and his idea of keeping a secret is to holler it in a whisper.

Caleb got up and started pacing.

All right, this is what we are going to do.

Hannah, you send for that packet.

Use the fastest rider you can find.

Ruth, you are staying here with Maggie.

I will ride into Elk Bend, listen to what folks are saying, and find out if anyone has been through asking about a woman.

And if they have, Maggie asked, then we will handle it.

That is not a plan.

That is a prayer.

Sometimes a prayer is all you have.

Maggie watched him with that same searching look she had since that first evening.

You were a law man before you had this ranch.

Caleb froze.

Who told you that? Nobody did.

It is the way you walk the floor when you are thinking.

The way you put yourself between me and the doorway without even knowing it.

The way you size up a threat.

She tilted her head.

You have done this work before.

Deputy sheriff in Kansas a long time ago.

Why did you leave the badge behind? I told you before.

That is a story for another time.

It is another time now.

Ruth and Hannah looked at each other.

Ruth cleared her throat.

I’m going to go check on something.

Hannah, you come help me check on that something.

What something? Ruth took hold of Hannah’s arm and pulled her toward the door.

The something that is out in the barn and needs both of us to look at it this very minute.

After they had left, Caleb took a seat across the table from Maggie.

The kitchen was quiet except for the tick- tock of the clock on the mantle and the faint sounds of Tom working out in the yard.

There was a family, he said.

The Dawsons, they were homesteaders just outside of Dodge City.

They had been getting trouble from a big cattle company that was after their land.

The usual kind of pushin, cut fences, their livestock runoff.

A couple of shots fired in the dark.

He paused.

Maggie just waited.

They came to me and asked for my help.

I said I would ride out there the next morning to see about it.

His voice got lower.

I should have gone that night, but I was worn out and I figured one more night would not make a difference.

The cattle company was not about to do anything too serious.

Caleb, I rode out at first light and I found the house burned to the ground.

Thomas Dawson was shot dead in the yard.

His wife Sarah was in the doorway of the kitchen.

their son.

He stopped talking again, and this time the silence stretched on longer.

Their boy, Billy, was seven years old.

He had hidden himself down in the root cellar.

He was alive, but he had heard the whole thing.

That was not your fault.

I could have been there, and you might have ended up dead, too.

Then who would have saved the boy? He looked right at her with something wounded in his eyes.

That is what everybody told me.

It did not make it any better.

I know.

When Douglas hit me the first time, everyone told me I ought to leave him.

That is easy advice to give.

It is a whole lot harder to take when you are the one standing in the middle of the storm.

She reached out with her good hand across the table.

She did not quite touch his hand.

Just let it rest close by.

You came along when Maggie Colton was lying in the dirt.

You did not just ride on by.

You did not wait for the morning.

It was not the same situation.

It was exactly the same.

And this time you were there.

He looked down at her hand just inches from his own.

He did not take it, but he did not draw his own hand back either.

I am going to make sure you stay safe, Maggie.

I need you to understand that.

I believe you are going to try.

That is not the same as believing I can do it.

No, it is not.

But it is more trust than I have given any other person in three years.

So take it.

He almost let a smile show.

Almost.

Fair enough.

The moment was shattered by the sound of hoof beatats coming up the path.

Fast ones.

Fast.

Caleb was up in a flash, his hand reaching for the revolver he kept on the kitchen shelf.

He moved over to the window.

Tom was running from the barn and a horseman was coming up the road at a full gallop.

It was not anyone Caleb knew.

“Get yourself back in the bedroom,” he said to Maggie.

“Who is that?” “I do not know.

Go on now.

” For the first time, she did what she was told without a word.

“She disappeared down the hall, and he heard the bedroom door shut.

Ruth came out from the barn.

Hannah was right beside her, and both of them were watching the rider get closer.

The man rained in his horse at the gate.

He was young, covered in dust, and riding a horse that looked like it had been run hard.

He was wearing a deputy star pinned to his chest.

“I am looking for Caleb Mercer,” the man shouted.

“Well, you found him.

” Caleb came out onto the porch, his hand resting near his hip close to his holster.

“Is there something I can do for you, Deputy Willis?” from Sheriff Yates’s office in Elkben.

the sheriff sent me.

The deputy swung down from his horse, taking a folded piece of paper from his pocket.

There was a man who came through town this morning dressed real fine, riding with two other men, asking questions about a woman, said she was his wife, said she had wandered off, and he was mighty worried about her.

Caleb’s blood turned to ice, but his face did not change.

Is that a fact? He described her as having dark hair in her late 20s might be hurt.

said she got confused sometimes and was given to hysterics.

The deputy shifted his weight, looking uncomfortable.

The sheriff thought you ought to know, seeing as how you have the only ranch on the north trail, and you were in town just a few days ago, buying up extra supplies, medical ones.

Ruth stepped up.

I have been feeling under the weather.

Those supplies were for me.

The deputy looked over at her.

Ruth Callaway stared right back at him with the power of a woman who had run off drunks and bullies from her saloon for 30 years.

The deputy was the first to look away.

Yes, ma’am.

I am certain that is right.

What did Sheriff Yates say to this man? Caleb asked.

He told him he had not heard a thing.

Pointed him down the South Road.

The South Road does not lead anywhere for 60 mi.

I reckon the sheriff is aware of that.

The deputy tucked the paper back inside his pocket.

The sheriff also wanted me to tell you, and these are his exact words.

If a man has got something that is worth protecting, now would be a real good time to see to it.

Caleb gave a slow nod.

Tell EMTT I am much obliged for the heads up.

He said one last thing.

The well-dressed man said his name was Douglas Coloulton, a merchant from Missouri.

The deputy got back on his horse and the man with him, a big fellow with a scar across his neck.

He never gave his name at all, just sat on his horse and smiled at folks.

“Virgil, thank you, deputy.

You watch your step, Mr.

Mercer.

” Willis tipped his hat and rode away.

The four of them, Caleb, Ruth, Hannah, and Tom, just stood there in the yard.

No one said anything for a bit.

Then Ruth finally said what they were all thinking.

He is right here in Elkbend today.

Caleb turned to Tom.

How long ago did you ride through town? It was early this morning before the sun was up.

Did anybody see you? Tom’s face just fell.

I made a stop at the general store.

Miller was just opening the doors.

I He swallowed hard.

I told him I was going to fetch the doctor for a woman Caleb had found hurt out on the trail.

Ruth just closed her eyes.

Tom, Caleb started.

I know.

I know it.

I’m sorry, boss.

I just was not thinking.

Miller talks to everybody,” Ruth said, her voice flat.

“If Douglas Colton asks the right person the right question, he will hear all about a beaten woman at the Pineriidge Ranch before the sun goes down.

Then we have until sundown.

” Caleb’s voice changed.

It was not any louder or any faster, but something in it had turned to steel.

The rancher was gone.

The deputy sheriff was standing there instead.

“Hannah, how quick can your assistant get here with that packet? Two days if he pushes it.

That is too long.

Can you ride back and get it yourself? I just got here.

My patient needs Your patient needs to still be breathing in two days.

Right now, that evidence is the only thing that is standing between Maggie and a bullet.

Hannah pressed her lips together, thinking, “If I leave this minute and ride all through the night, I can make it back by tomorrow evening.

” “Do it,” Caleb said.

“She needs a doctor.

If those ribs Ruth and I will manage, we do not have another choice.

Hannah glanced towards the house, then looked back at Caleb.

If I do this and something happens to her while I’m away, nothing is going to happen to her.

Hannah met his gaze for a long moment, and she saw something in his face that made her believe him.

Then she gave one sharp nod, turned around, and started to resaddle her horse.

Ruth put a hand on Caleb’s arm.

I will go tell Maggie what is happening.

No, I will do it.

He found her sitting on the edge of the bed, her hands clutching the mattress, her whole body drawn tight as a wire.

She had heard the hoof beatats and the voices.

And she had been sitting in this room imagining the worst, the worst news.

Is it Douglas? Not yet, but he is in Elkbend.

Him and that Virgil cane are sniffing around asking questions about you.

All the color drained from her face.

Her knuckles went white as she held on to the mattress.

Sheriff Yates pointed them in the wrong direction, which bought us a little time, but there is a chance they will circle back.

Maggie, I need you to look at me.

She slowly lifted her tired eyes to meet his.

Hannah is riding to get your papers.

She should be here by tomorrow evening.

Between right now and then, I need you to put your faith in me.

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