The links were too thick to cut, but where they attached to the iron cuff around her ankle, there was a bolt rusted from creek water.

He wedged the knife blade under it and pried.

Once, twice.

On the third try, the bolt snapped.

The girl’s eyes fluttered open as he lifted her.

dark brown, nearly black, unfocused with fever.

She made a sound, something between a whimper and a growl, and tried weakly to push him away.

“Shh,” Gideon breathed so quietly it was barely sound at all.

Not a word, just air.

He carried her out of the creek.

She weighed almost nothing, all bone and fever heat.

As he passed the dead soldier, he paused long enough to close the man’s eyes.

a small mercy, the only one he could offer.

Ash stood where Gideon had left him, patient as stone.

Gideon settled the girl across the saddle, then mounted behind her, holding her upright with one arm.

She had lost consciousness again, her head lolling against his chest.

He turned the horse toward home.

What he did not see, what the camera lingered on after he rode away, was the figure watching from the ridge above the creek.

A man in a dark coat, face obscured by shadow and distance, holding a pair of binoculars.

The figure watched Gideon ride north, then lowered the binoculars and pulled a small telegraph message pad from his coat pocket.

He wrote quickly in neat, precise letters.

Package located.

Hart has her.

Proceed as planned.

He signed it with a single letter, T.

The camera held on that letter, then cut to Tobias, back at the ranch, tying his horse to the corral fence.

The brand on his saddle caught the light.

The letter T burned into the leather.

The stone cabin sat 200 yd from the main ranch house, built into the hillside like it had grown there.

Gideon had built it himself 5 years ago when he and Margaret first claimed this land.

It was meant to be temporary, a place to live while they constructed the larger house.

But after Margaret died, Gideon had moved back into the cabin and left the main house empty.

Smaller space, fewer ghosts.

He carried the girl inside and laid her on the bed, the only bed, a simple frame with a corn husk mattress.

The cabin was one room, maybe 15 feet square.

A stone fireplace took up most of one wall.

A rough wooden table and two chairs, shelves holding tin plates, a coffee pot, canned goods, a rifle leaning in the corner by the door.

Gideon built a fire, though the day was warm because he knew fever and he knew shock, and he knew the cold that comes from blood loss.

While the kindling caught, he fetched water from the pump outside, filled a basin, and found the cleanest cloth he had.

The girl had not moved.

Her breathing was shallow, rapid, her skin ashen beneath the brown.

The gunshot wound in her shoulder had stopped bleeding.

But infection had set in.

He could smell it, sweet and rotten.

He cut away the makeshift bandage and the ruined dress beneath.

Working with the clinical detachment of someone who had dressed wounds before.

The bullet had gone through.

Entry and exit both visible.

That was good.

nothing to dig out, but the edges were angry red, hot to the touch.

He cleaned the wound with water, boiled and cooled, then packed it with clean cloth soaked in whiskey.

The girl’s eyes flew open when the alcohol hit the raw flesh, and she screamed or tried to.

What came out was a thin, broken sound, barely human.

She tried to sit up to fight, her good arm flailing weakly.

Gideon caught her wrist, held it gently but firmly.

Easy, he said, and the word cost him.

His voice was barely a whisper, rough as gravel, each syllable scraping his throat raw.

Easy.

The girl stared at him, her eyes wide with terror and confusion.

She said something in Apache, the words flowing like water, too fast for Gideon to catch individual meaning, though he recognized the language.

Then, in broken English, heavily accented, “No, no, please, no more.

” Gideon released her wrist and stepped back, hands raised, palms out.

Universal language.

I mean, no harm.

He pointed to the bowl of water, to the clean cloth, then to her shoulder.

Slowly, deliberately, he placed his hand over his own heart and shook his head.

The girl watched him, breathing hard.

Her body coiled tight as a spring, but she did not try to run.

Perhaps she knew she lacked the strength.

Perhaps she saw something in his face, in his eyes, that told her this man was not like the others who had hurt her.

Gideon moved to the table and picked up his slate.

He wrote, then held it up so she could see, “You are safe.

I will not hurt you.

” She stared at the words, her expression unreadable.

Then slowly her eyes moved from the slate to his face to the rifle in the corner.

The rifle was close to her, closer than to him.

He had placed it there deliberately, a gesture of trust or a test.

Who? She whispered, her English halting.

Who are you? Gideon wrote again.

My name is Gideon Hart.

This is my land.

You are safe here.

Safe? She repeated as if testing the word, seeing if it fit in her mouth.

Safe.

Then her eyes rolled back and she collapsed against the pillow, consciousness leaving her like water draining from a basin.

Gideon covered her with a blanket, then sat in the chair by the window, his rifle across his knees, and waited for her to wake.

She slept through the afternoon and into the night, fever dreams making her thrash and cry out.

Twice she spoke, her voice rising in panic.

The first time she cried Aayita over and over like a prayer or a curse.

The second time later, deeper in the fever, she said a different name.

Maria.

My name is Maria.

At that second name, Gideon went very still.

He stood and walked to the bedside, looking down at the girl’s face, slack with unconsciousness.

His hand trembled slightly as he reached for the silver cross necklace she wore, half hidden beneath the blanket.

He had noticed it earlier, but had not examined it.

Now he lifted it, careful not to wake her, and turned it in the firelight.

It was small, delicate, real silver tarnished gray.

And on the back, engraved in tiny precise letters, he read to Maria with love.

MH1 1870.

MH Margaret Hart, his wife’s initials.

The cross slipped from his fingers as if it had burned him.

He stepped back, his face gone white, and walked outside into the night, leaving the door open behind him.

The moon was a thin crescent, brilli crescent, barely enough light to see by.

Gideon walked 50 yards from the cabin and stopped, his hands braced on his knees, breathing hard like he had been running.

The camera stayed inside with the sleeping girl for a moment, then cut back to him, alone in the darkness.

When he finally straightened, he looked older, tired.

He pulled the slate from his belt, though there was no one to show it to, and wrote four words.

His hand shook so badly the letters were barely legible.

How is this possible? He stood there motionless, watching the words fade, staring at those words before he erased them and walked back inside.

Morning came cold and clear, the sun turning the eastern sky the color of old blood.

The girl woke before Gideon, who had dozed in the chair, his rifle still across his lap.

She was sitting up when he opened his eyes, the blanket pulled around her shoulders, watching him with the weary intensity of a wild animal.

“Water,” she said.

“Just that one word.

” Gideon rose, his back stiff from the awkward position, and poured water from the pitcher into a tin cup.

He handed it to her to her and stepped back, giving her space.

She drank it all in four long swallows, then held the cup out for more.

He refilled it twice before she was satisfied.

“Thank you,” she said, her English careful, formal, as if she had learned it from a book rather than conversation.

Gideon nodded.

He took up his slate and wrote, “Can you tell me your name?” She looked at the question for a long moment, and something complicated moved across her face.

pain, confusion, something like grief.

Aayita, she said finally.

It means first to dance in my mother’s tongue.

Apache, Gideon wrote, and the name Maria.

Her eyes went wide.

How do you know that name? He pointed to the cross at her throat.

She touched it reflexively, protectively.

I, she hesitated, her brow furrowing.

I don’t remember.

Sometimes I think my name is Maria.

Sometimes Aayita.

Pike.

He made me forget.

He said Maria was dead.

He said I was only Aayita now.

Gideon’s hand froze on the slate.

He wrote slowly.

Who is Pike? Reverend Pike, she said, and her voice went flat, all emotion draining from it.

He runs the mission.

San Miguel.

He takes children, Apache children, Mexican children.

says he saves them, teaches them God and English and how to work.

Her hands clenched in the blanket, but he doesn’t save.

He sells like cattle.

Gideon wrote, “How long were you with him?” “I don’t know.

Long time.

Since I was small, maybe 8 years old.

I don’t remember before.

Only pieces.

A woman, red hair.

She sang to me.

She gave me this.

She touched the cross again.

Then Pike’s men came.

They killed her.

They took me.

Gideon’s breathing had gone shallow.

His hand shook as he wrote the next question, but he had to know what was the woman’s name.

Aayita closed her eyes, searching for the memory, like a woman searching for something lost in dark water.

I don’t remember, but the name on the cross, MH.

She said those were her letters.

Her name began with M.

Gideon stood abruptly, the chair scraping loud against the floor.

He walked to the far side of the cabin, his back to her, his shoulders rigid.

After a long silence, he turned.

He wrote on the slate, each word deliberate, then held it up so she could read, “Her name was Margaret.

She was my wife.

” The silence that followed, was absolute.

Aayita stared at the words, her lips moving as if repeating them soundlessly, trying to make them make sense.

Your wife, she whispered.

The woman with red hair was your wife.

Gideon nodded.

She died.

Pike’s men killed her.

He nodded again.

Aayita looked down at the cross, then back at Gideon.

Why? she asked.

And it was not clear if she was asking why Margaret died or why Margaret had given her the cross or why Gideon had saved her or all of these things at once.

Gideon wrote, “She was helping Apache families, children, trying to get them away from Pike.

” He found out.

The girl absorbed this, her face very still.

Then softly, I remember now.

Not all of it, but some.

She was taking us somewhere.

Five of us, children, to the border, Mexico.

She said we would be safe there.

Then men came, men with guns.

She told us to run.

I ran.

I hid in the rocks.

I heard shooting.

I heard her scream.

A pause.

I heard a man scream too, screaming her name.

Margaret.

Over and over until the screaming stopped.

Gideon turned away again, his hand pressed flat against the stone wall.

That was you, Aayita said.

You were the man screaming.

He did not answer.

Could not answer.

The memory was too large, too sharp, still capable of cutting him even after 3 years.

After a long moment, Aayita spoke again, her voice gentler.

Pike found me 3 days later.

He said Margaret was dead.

He said if I told anyone what happened, he would kill the other children.

So I stayed silent.

I became Aayita.

I forgot Maria.

Gideon wrote his letters hard and angry on the slate.

How did you escape? A soldier, Corporal Wade.

He was new.

He saw what Pike was doing.

He said it was wrong.

Illegal.

He said he would help me get away.

That he had proof that he would take it to the marshall.

She looked down at her hands.

Three nights ago, we ran.

Pike’s men came after us.

They shot Wade.

He made me keep running.

I got to the creek before they caught me.

They chained me there.

Said Pike would come for me in the morning, but Wade must have shot one of them before he died because they left.

Maybe to get help.

Maybe just scared.

She looked up at Gideon.

Then you came.

He wrote the soldier Wade.

He is dead.

I know, she said softly.

I felt it when you found me.

He was holding my hand.

Then his hand went cold.

They sat in silence as the morning light grew stronger, filling the cabin with gold.

Two people bound by the ghost of a woman who had tried to save children and paid for it with her life.

Finally, Gideon wrote, “You cannot go back to Pike.

I know you cannot stay here.

If Pike knows I have you, he will come.

I know that, too.

” Then, after a pause, what will you do? Haya met his eyes and in them Gideon saw something he recognized the look of someone who had lost everything and found in that loss a terrible freedom.

I will find out who I am.

She said Maria or Aayita or something else and then I will make Pike answer for what he did to me to the others to your wife.

Gideon stared at her unmoving.

this girl who was barely more than a child who spoke of vengeance with the calm certainty of someone twice her age.

Then he nodded once slowly.

He wrote, “Then we find the truth together.

” That afternoon Gideon rode into town.

Red Creek was barely large enough to call a town.

One main street, dirt and ruted, lined with false front buildings that looked like stage sets.

general store, saloon, livery stable, assayers’s office, and a small sheriff’s station with a wooden sign that read Sheriff D.

Web in faded black paint.

Gideon had left Aayita at the cabin with the rifle and instructions written on his slate.

Trust no one.

If anyone comes, hide.

She had nodded, her face serious, understanding the gravity.

He tied ash to the hitching post outside the general store and went inside.

The store was dim after the bright sunlight, smelling of coffee and leather and pickles.

The proprietor, a round man named Hoskins, looked up from his ledger, and his smile died.

“Mr.

Hart,” he said, his tone careful, neutral.

“What can I do for you?” Gideon handed him a list written on paper.

Bandages, whiskey for medicine, not drinking, the note specified.

Lodinum if you have it, tinned food, coffee, salt, pork.

Hoskins read the list, his eyebrows climbing.

That’s a lot of medical supplies you hurt.

Gideon shook his head.

He wrote on his slate, “Ranch hand cut himself badly.

It was a lie, but a plausible one.

” Hoskins nodded and began gathering the items.

While he worked, Gideon walked to the back of the store where newspapers from Santa Fe and Denver were stacked.

He scanned the front pages looking for any mention of a missing soldier, a dead corporal, anything about Pike, or the mission.

Nothing, as if Wade had never existed.

He was about to leave when the door opened and Sheriff Dalton Webb walked in.

Webb was 55, his face weathered to the texture of old saddle leather, gray stubble on his jaw.

He wore a star pinned to a vest that had seen better days, and his gun belt rode low on his hips, the holster worn smooth from years of draw practice that had never been needed in a town as quiet as Red Creek.

Webb saw Gideon and stopped.

For a moment, neither man moved.

Then Webb nodded a small tight gesture and walked to the counter.

“Hart,” he said.

“Not friendly, but not hostile either.

Complicated.

” Gideon nodded back.

Webb pulled a piece of paper from his vest pocket and handed it to Hoskins.

“Need to post this official notice from the territorial marshall’s office.

” Hoskins took it and pinned it to the board by the door where wanted posters and sale notices hung.

Gideon glanced at it.

missing person reward and beneath a description, female, approximately 17 years of age.

Apache, possibly using the name Maria Cortez, last seen in the vicinity of Mission San Miguel.

Information leading to recovery should be reported to Reverend J.

Pike.

Gideon’s jaw tightened.

He looked at Web.

The sheriff was watching him, his expression unreadable.

Webb stepped closer, his voice dropping low.

Hart, I need to talk to you.

Private.

Gideon gestured to the door.

They walked outside together, leaving Hoskins to finish gathering supplies.

Once they were on the boardwalk out of earshot, Webb pulled out a small notebook and pencil and wrote, “Is she at your place?” Gideon stared at the question.

Then slowly he took the pencil and wrote beneath it.

How do you know? Webb wrote, “Because I was there the night Margaret died.

I know what she was doing.

I know why.

” He looked up, meeting Gideon’s eyes.

In them, Gideon saw guilt, old and deep, and never quite healed.

Webb wrote again.

Pike sent that notice this morning.

He claims the girl is his legal ward.

Says she ran away with a soldier who kidnapped her.

Says the soldier is dead, shot trying to escape.

He’s got federal papers, guardianship, signed by a judge.

Gideon’s hand shook as he wrote, “She is not his.

He bought her, sold others.

She was one of the children Margaret tried to save.

” Webb read this and closed his eyes briefly.

When he opened them, he wrote, “I believe you, but believing and proving are different.

If Pike comes with federal papers, I can’t stop him.

Not legally.

” Gideon grabbed the pencil and wrote hard, the lead nearly breaking.

Then illegally, Webb looked at him for a long moment.

Then he wrote, “3 years ago, I made a choice.

I let Pike go.

I let him buy his way out.

I took his money.

Every day since, I’ve regretted it.

I won’t make that mistake again.

But we need proof.

Real proof.

Documents.

Witnesses.

something that will make a federal judge listen.

Gideon wrote, “Where do we find it?” Webb wrote, “Pike’s office.

” At the mission, he keeps records.

He’s too arrogant not to.

But the mission is 50 mi south.

Well-guarded.

We’d need help.

Before Gideon could respond, “The door to the saloon across the street opened, and a woman stepped out.

She was 42, though hard living made her look older.

Her hair was black, stre with silver, pulled back severe.

A scar ran from her left eyebrow to her cheekbone, white against brown skin.

Mexican or Spanish, Gideon thought.

She wore a simple dress, dark blue, and an apron stained with what might have been wine or blood.

She saw them and went very still, her eyes locked on Gideon, then dropped to the silver cross visible at his throat, where he wore it on a leather cord, having taken it from Aayita that morning to examine it more closely in the light.

The woman crossed the street, moving fast, her skirts kicking up dust.

She stopped in front of Gideon and stared at the cross, her face gone pale beneath the brown.

“Where did you get that?” she demanded, her accent thick.

“That was Margaret’s.

I would know it anywhere.

” Gideon and Webb exchanged a glance.

Webb wrote quickly.

“This is Rosa Marine.

She owns the saloon.

She and Margaret were close.

Rosa reached out and touched the cross with one finger.

Reverent.

Diosmo Mio.

She wore this everyday.

Where did you find it? Gideon hesitated, then wrote on Web’s notebook.

A girl, a patchy.

Margaret gave it to her before she died.

Rosa’s eyes filled with tears.

The children, the ones Margaret was trying to save.

Is she Is one of them still alive? Gideon nodded.

Continue reading….
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