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water. on the wound. She idly wondered where Charlie had gotten the rags until she recognized the modest lace trim of her nightgown. Shaking her head, she continued until she felt she had drawn out as much infection as she could for the time being. After pouring Charlie’s whiskey over the wound she sat back to view her handiwork.
    The injury did look better. Jed, however, looked pale. She decided it was the pain she had had to inflict that had made him look so bad.
    “The knife, ma’am.”
    Sighing, Leanne placed the knife in Charlie’s outstretched hand. “Better scrub it off first.”
    “You just gonna leave it open like that?” Jed asked as Charlie washed off his knife.
    “For now. I intend to treat it once more. Perhaps twice more.”
    “You ain’t going to be hacking at it with Charlie’s knife again, are you?”
    “I did not hack at it. I lanced the wound. And, no, I won’t. I’ll just do the hot water again.” She looked at Charlie. “You had best get some more water heated, Charles.”
    It was mildly amusing when Charlie scurried off to the nearby creek in meek obedience. He had clearly forgotten that he was supposed to be guarding her. Jed was useless as a guard. It was the perfect opportunity to escape, but she could not take it. Jed’s wound still needed work and a half-finished treatment was almost as bad as none.
    Twice more she treated Jed’s wound. It was only then that she felt confident she had gotten out the poisons. She stitched the wound, then wrapped it in a clean bandage. When Charlie moved to put Jed’s socks back on, she stopped him.
    “Those are filthy. Doesn’t he have a clean pair?”
    “These’re clean. Washed them when we had a bath.”
    “You’ll wash them out, Charles, before you put them on his feet.”
    “You can wear things out washin’ ’em too much, you know,” Charlie grumbled even as he moved to wash Jed’s socks.
    Once the socks were scrubbed, Leanne draped them over a stick and held them over the fire to dry. She instructed Charlie to strip Jed and scrub him down. She ignored their grumbling, a grumbling that grew louder when Charlie was done washing Jed and she told him he now had to scrub out the man’s clothes.
    “I ain’t been this clean in a dog’s age.”
    Glancing at Jed and almost smiling at the way he clutched his blanket around him like some modest maiden, she drawled, “No doubt—and that’s why your foot went bad so fast.”
    “You learn doctoring at that school back East that Hunter says you been to?” Charlie began to drape Jed’s wet clothes on the tree.
    “No, but I assisted a doctor back there for a while. When he came to tend one of the teachers, I helped, and he noticed I had some aptitude for the work. Since he was very short of help, he asked the headmistress if I might assist him from time to time. The headmistress always stressed the importance of good works so she was quick to agree.”
    Seeing that Charlie was finished with the washing, she mused aloud about how nice it would be to have some fresh meat to cook. It did not take many such hints before the man slipped away. The only thing that surprised her was the speed with which he returned with two gutted and skinned rabbits for her to cook.
     
    Hunter frowned as he neared the camp. Something smelled suspiciously good. However it was not what was cooking that immediately grabbed his attention when the camp came into view. Dismounting, he wondered crossly where Tom and Luke had disappeared to. With only Jed and Charlie for guards, he was very surprised to see Leanne still in camp. He found it hard to believe that she had not seen what useless guards the pair were.
    “Where the hell are Luke and Tom?” He strode up to the fire and tossed down the supplies he had brought.
    “They went to town, Hunter,” Charlie replied.
    “Why? They knew I was getting supplies.”
    Recalling the crude remarks she had overheard Jed and Charlie making concerning what Luke and Tom had