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when she felt someone lifting her like a child being carried to bed. She put her arms around his neck and held on tightly.
    The stranger carried her to a horse and sat her gently atop the saddle. For a moment she was cold and alone, then his warm body was behind her, holding her in the saddle—holding her in his arms.
    They rode in a slow, rocking motion for what seemed like hours. His arms were comforting and warm around her, his heartbeat a steady rhythm in her ear, soothing away the cold, blocking out the loneliness.
    As the evening sky turned from soupy gray to deepest black, the horse stopped and the stranger carried her into a warm, dry place filled with shadows and echoes. She wanted to hold onto him, but he pushed her gently away as he whispered words in her ear she didn’t understand. Anna closed her eyes and smelled the woody smoke of a long-burning campfi re. She felt her wet clothes being lifted off her body and then a heated blanket was wrapped around her. When she lay down on a soft bed the stranger’s warm lean body molded her into his own, holding her in his arms until she fell asleep.

    Anna awoke slowly. The heat of a fire warmed her face and she smelled the soft scent of pine. Slowly, like a swimmer coming up from deep water, she took in her surroundings. She was lying on a bed of pine needles and straw, with her carpetbag as her pillow. The dark walls around her were made of rock, and the fire before her blocked most of the entrance of a small cave.
    A hand drifted a few inches down her shoulder and a body moved behind her. Sudden, uncontrollable fear crawled just beneath her flesh. Anna twisted and saw Chance’s sleeping face only inches from hers. His arm lay protectively over her. Except for his gun, which rested on a rock just above his head, he was fully dressed.
    Where was she? Anna searched the shadowy cavity. The place was about ten feet wide and maybe twice that distance long. Chance’s horse was tied up at the highest part of the entrance so that he was out of the way of the campfιre’s smoke as well as the rain. Where they lay, the cave was just high enough to stand up in and wide enough for one bed, and judging from the thick black soot on the ceiling many travelers had used this cave as a lodging. Her clothes had been spread along the jagged edges of the cave’s walls to dry. Anger started to replace her panic.
    Her fingers trembled as they traveled down to feel her cotton camisole and petticoats. Someone had undressed her. She glared at Chance. What else had he done while she was out of her mind with fever?
    Anna slowly raised her hand and gripped the gun’s handle. As she slid the weapon from its holster, she rolled away from Chance. Her sudden movement startled him and with instinct born on the frontier, he reached for his gun. Its absence brought him fully awake, but the alarm passed from his body as he turned and saw her.
    “What have you done?” Anna’s words echoed through the cave.
    Wiping the sleep from his eyes, Chance sat up and ran his long fingers through his damp, black hair. “You’re better. Thank God.”
    Anna pointed the gun directly at his chest. “Where am I? What have you done to me?” She felt her anger slipping into confusion, so Anna gripped the gun more tightly. If this stranger had harmed her, would she have the strength to see him dead, or would she be a coward as she had been before?
    Chance focused on the gun in her hand. In one fluid movement he stood up, bumping his head on the roof of the cave. He cursed colorfully at both the ceiling and at his forgetfulness. For a moment her anger and the gun seemed forgotten.
    Rubbing his scalp, he took a step toward her. Anna jumped back, putting the fire between them. “Tell me where I am! Now! Where are the others?”
    Chance leaned back against the cave wall, looking bone tired. He folded his hands behind his head and closed his eyes, relaxing, but the twitch of a tiny muscle along his jawline signaled his