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the barn. We’ll make sure you have nice clean hay and a blanket to put on top of it.”
    â€œI’ve slept under far worse conditions,” Lloyd answered. “For the last three weeks, I’ve been sleeping on the ground most of the time.”
    â€œAnd always havin’ to look out for dangerous men and wild Indians to boot,” Pat added. “We worry about you and Jake both, Lloyd. My Katie there, she worries too.”
    â€œFather!” Katie scolded, looking embarrassed. She turned to set a kettle on the cookstove. “It’s just because Mama and Lloyd’s mother have become good friends that I worry,” she added. She cast her father a chiding look, though she was obviously blushing again—something a woman of her complexion could not hide.
    Pat grinned. “Finish that coffee, son,” he told Lloyd. “I’ve got a couple of horses I’d like to show you. Maybe the government would buy them for you and Jake. Nice big geldings, they are. Men your size need good, sturdy horses, that’s sure.”
    â€œI’d be glad to take a look at them.” Lloyd finished his coffee. “Great pie,” he told Clara. He glanced at Katie. “I, uh, I’d like to talk to you alone after I look at those horses, Katie, if you don’t mind.”
    Katie’s cheeks flushed again, and Lloyd wondered if she blushed like that when a man was making love to her…a not unpleasant thought at all.
    â€œOf course,” she answered. “I have to wash up and change, so take your time with the horses.”
    Lloyd nodded, then put on his hat and turned to go out. Pat and Tommy followed, and Katie watched the screen door close.
    â€œHe’s a lonely young man, that one,” Clara told her daughter. “I am thinking it’s a good sign that he wants to talk to you alone, darlin’.”
    â€œOh, Mother, I don’t think he’s ready to change his situation just yet. And I wish you and Father wouldn’t keep pushing the issue. It’s embarrassing.”
    Clara shrugged. “Some men need a little push. And that one…well, girl, could you ask for a more handsome and able man?”
    Katie sighed. “I can’t argue with that.”
    â€œYeah, well, his father is awful handsome too. Lloyd is a fine mixture of Jake and that lovely Miranda, but mostly his pa, with that tall, strong build of his and those dark eyes.”
    Katie looked at her mother. “And he leads a very dangerous life. I’ve already lost one husband, Mother. I’m not sure I want to end up with a man who could be shot in the back the day after he marries me.”
    â€œHe’s an able man, Katie, and isn’t sharing a man’s bed again, even if it’s for just a little while, better than never sharin’ that bed at all?”
    â€œMother, sometimes I can’t believe the way you talk!”
    â€œJust don’t be forgettin’ there isn’t one thing about that young man that wouldn’t make a good husband. Sure ’n’ I wish he would cut that hair, though.”
    Katie watched Lloyd head for the barn with her father and Tommy. “I like it long,” she said softly.

Four
    Jeff Trubridge waited just outside the jail door while Dr. Brian Stewart tended to the prisoners’ wounds. Jeff heard one of them yell that he didn’t want to be touched by “that sonofabitch lawman’s son-in-law.”
    â€œSuit yourself,” Stewart answered. “I guess that means you don’t even want anything for the pain?”
    â€œHell, yes. Give me some laudanum or somethin’.”
    â€œI won’t give you anything until I check your wounds,” the doctor answered.
    â€œIt’s your damn father-in-law who should be layin’ out there in the street wounded or dead,” another grumbled.
    â€œShut up and let the man clean up your wound,” Sheriff Sparks yelled.
    Jeff