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empty. She was just as shocked as he.
    “ Katihkaash ?” he asked where he had gone. Annabelle shrugged her shoulders. Red Sun marched into the other room and searched.
    “Stop it, he left already!” Annabelle grabbed his big arm and pulled him from the room before he flipped her bed. “He left lass night,” Annabelle confessed.
    Red Sun eyed her suspiciously. “You should not have brought a man in here. You should not!”
    “I couldn’t let him die out there. As soon as he was well he took his things and left. That’s it. Nuthin’ more. He paid me with a horse. He left on foot. Felt he’d find his way without the hunters easier.”
    “Horse?” Red Sun asked.
    “Yep. It’s out back. That’s why I didn’t tell ya. I thought you might take it from me.”
    “Don’t let me catch him!” Red Sun yelled and stormed back out.
    Jessiemae stood there puzzled. She didn’t speak Chickasaw so she didn’t understand Red Sun’s warning. She looked around the cabin as if she didn’t believe Annabelle’s story. “I seen him. He was weak with fever. Now he gone? Don’t believe it,” Jessiemae said.
    “I’ll neva trust you again. Go!” Before Jessie could object Annabelle shoved her to the door.
    “Tonight Ms. Kitty wants you at work. The Buffalo Soldiers are here for another day. You gots to sing for them,” Jessiemae warned.
    “Out!” Annabelle slammed the door on her before she was barely through it. She glanced around the cabin. “Where you?” She didn’t think he was well enough to get off the cot. This development troubled her. She went for her Colt and turned when she heard him stumble from out of her bedroom. He wheezed, leaning against the wall. Annabelle put down the gun and hurried over.
    “You shouldn’t have gotten out of bed. Glads ya did though.” She helped him back over to the cot.
    “Where’s my things? I have to leave,” he pleaded.
    “I’m fixin you. You ain’t ready.”
    He grabbed her arm. “I’m not your pet. I need to get the fuck out of here. Do you understand, little girl!”
    Annabelle snatched away. “I’m no little girl. I’m a woman. The woman who saved yo no-account life. So you are my pet.” She huffed and walked off. She came back over with her salve and clean cloths. “Now lie back and let me see if you tore at my stitching.”
     
    He did as he was told. What choice did he have? Annabelle re-examined his wound with interest.
    “Are you a nurse?” he asked.
    “Yes!” she said proudly. “My pa was a Negro shaman, the only one in the Chickasaw tribe. It’s in my blood.”
    “You part Indian?” Jeremiah scoffed.
    Annabelle’s eyes lifted to him and then back down to his wound as she smoothed on the salve and layered it with fresh alfalfa leaves out of her garden. He winced and she covered it back. “You have ta stop looking like an outlaw,” she said. “Thank God you don’t smell like one anymore.”
    “You and your baths, remember?”
    She glanced up; his brow was arched with interest.
    “I’m a nurse. It’s my duty. Cleaned your pecker because I had to,” she gave him a sly smile.
    He laughed. “Well, Nurse Annabelle, I can’t help my face,” Jeremiah replied.
    “Sure ya can. You white men get all hairy and stringy when you’re up to no good. Then all clean and shaven when you want to be respectable,” she laughed. Her laughter was almost as beautiful as her face.
    Jeremiah smiled. “You have a point.”
    She stopped laughing and shared his smile. “Don’cha know if you leave here like this they’ll know youse runnin’?” She sat up, proud of her work. “That there is gonna be all done healing in a few days. Then you can be out there again robbing banks. What’s your name by the way?” she asked.
    “I’m Jeremiah Polk ma’am,” he said. “They call me Jeremy.”
    “Unh-huh, they call you ‘One-Finger’.” She reached back for the wanted flyer and handed it over to him. Jeremiah read the bounty on his head. It was