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one, and show me how to shoot it. They’re back. Oh, God, they’re back!” She was almost incoherent with fear, and he didn’t even ask who was back.
    “They are loaded. Watch.” He took the rifle from her and worked the lever, then demonstrated squeezing the trigger without actually touching it. “Let them get close and aim at the middle of the body. Keep your back to a wall.”
    Anne ran for the front door with the rifle. A cautious peek outside showed Samuels emerging from the carriage shed, O’Brien waiting for him in the middle of the yard, and the Meeks brothers coming together from the main barn. They were probably looking for things to steal she thought venomously. Laughing and joking, they were now walking toward the house.
    Anne slipped out the front door, put her back firmly to the outside wall and raised the rifle. Spotting her, the men halted halfway across the yard. On each side of Charlie Meeks, his brother, Samuels and O’Brien began to move sideways, putting distance between themselves. Charlie gave her the obscene grin she knew only too well.
    “Hey, now, what are you still doing here? How about we take you home? You can ride with me.”
    Anne didn’t waste breath answering him.
    “So, your daddy don’t want you no more? We’ll take you. It’ll be a treat for you, honey. Four white men ought to seem like a treat after that Injun.”
    Anne still said nothing, didn’t move.
    “Come on now. That thing probably ain’t even loaded, and shooting a man isn’t something a lady can do. Why don’t you just put that down and let’s do this friendly like.”
    Anne had never been as sure of anything as that she could shoot Charlie Meeks, would in fact love to see that disgusting, mocking grin disappear in a spray of blood. She just hoped for the luck to send one of the four to hell before the others got to her. She could not possibly get more than one when she had never even fired a gun before, but that wouldn’t stop her trying.
    Slight thumping noises were coming from the house, but she didn’t turn to look. If more men were coming up behind her, her cause was lost anyway, no use taking her eyes off Charlie and his friends.
    All four men began walking toward her again, Charlie still leering at her. “Aw, honey, you can’t shoot me.”
    Anne heard another louder thump, and then a deep rasping, “I can,” as Cord lurched into the doorway, naked except for the white strapping on his ribs, leaning against the frame for support, and bringing the pistol to bear.
    His first shot took Charlie Meeks in the shoulder, the second brought a yelp of pain from Lem Samuels. He doubled over, but Anne wasn’t sure where he had been hit. Neither man went off his feet, and all four were now running for their horses. Cord began to slump down the door frame, and she hurried to ease his fall.
    Just before he became dead weight, she heard him mutter, “Keep shooting.” So she did. The recoil frightened her but didn’t stop her. She emptied the rifle, then the pistol at the retreating figures, hoping they could not tell it was only her wild firing. The horses kept running.
    When she dropped the empty pistol, Cord was on the floor, unconscious, shivering and covered with gooseflesh from the cold fall air, bleeding from one nostril again. She dragged him out of the doorway and ran to the bedroom, returning with a pillow and blankets and wrapping him where he lay. Sinking down beside him, unable to face dragging him back into the bedroom, she sat with her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them and began to rock back and forth, her mind refusing to function.
     
    * * *
     

Chapter 5
     
    SHERIFF NOAH REYNOLDS DROVE A borrowed buggy through the crisp, clear air of a day so beautiful he would usually have been lost in admiration. Today, though, he hunched in thought, paying only the automatic attention to his surroundings that years of law enforcement in rough country had ingrained.
    Noah was