«No, thank you. Prettyface, if you snarl again, I’m going to feed you to the crows.»

Prettyface stopped making savage noises and stood quietly by Shannon’s side as Caleb rode up.

«Trouble?» he asked.

«Nothing that can’t be cured,» Shannon said, her voice clipped. «Would you remove the saddlebags for me?»

Caleb gave her a long look. Then he dismounted, went to the mules, and made an admiring sound.

«Nice pair of mules,» he said. «Virginia bred, from the look of them.»

«The Culpeppers favored Virginia mules,» Shannon said, her voice remote.

«Good stamina,» Caleb said.

«They’ll need it,» was Shannon’s only reply.

Caleb started to ask a question, then gave a grunt of surprise as he lifted the saddlebags.

«Judas Priest,» he muttered. «What’s in these? Lead?»

«Whip’s gold,» Shannon said savagely, yanking free the cinch strap on Cully’s saddle.

Willow and Caleb exchanged a swift look.

«It was my understanding,» Caleb said carefully, «that Whip was working for wages rather than for a share ofyourgold.»

«That was my understanding, too,» Shannon said.

She yanked off the saddle with one hand and the blanket with the other. With a few quick motions she saddled the second mule.

«But I was wrong,» Shannon said, mounting the mule. «Murphy told me the gold was wrong, too.»

«You want to chase that by me again?» Caleb asked, puzzled.

Shannon turned and looked at Caleb, making no attempt to hide the cold fury she had felt ever since she realized how little Whip had truly thought of her.

«This gold never was dug in Echo Basin,» Shannon said savagely. «Whip paid me off with his own Spanish gold and then lit out for the far side of the horizon. But he made a little miscalculation.»

«Did he?» Caleb asked warily.

«Once I figured out what had happened, I suspected Whip had paid me too much, but I didn’t know the going rate, so I tracked down Clementine and Betsy and asked.»

Caleb measured the flat rage in Shannon’s eyes and decided not to ask who Clementine and Betsy were, and what they had to do with any of it.

«I was right,» Shannon continued. «Whip paid far too much for what he got from me. So I brought his change. Every damned speck of it.»

«Wait!» Willow called as Shannon picked up the reins. «You’ve had a long ride. At least come in and rest a while before you set out.»

«Thank you, no,» Shannon said. «The passes could close at any moment.»

«But —» Willow began.

«In any case,» Shannon continued with icy pride, «I respect you too much to bring your brother’s whore into your home.»

With that, Shannon spun the mule and kicked it into a long, ground-eating lope. The other mule and Prettyface followed at a rapid clip.

For a time neither Willow nor Caleb spoke. Then Willow let out a long, harsh breath.

«I wish I knew where my dear brother was,» she said. «I would like to see him again.»

«So would Shannon,» Caleb said dryly. «Preferably skinned out and nailed to her cabin wall.»

IT was an icy dusk when Whip rode up to Willow and Caleb’s home, his collar turned up against the wind. Snow flurries gleamed and swirled around him.

«Hello, stranger,» Caleb said, stepping down off the porch. «We thought you were headed for San Francisco and the high seas. I didn’t expect to see you for a year or two.»

There was a question buried beneath Caleb’s words, but Whip didn’t know how to answer it. He was as puzzled as anyone else to find himself on this side of the sunrise.

«Neither did I,» Whip said. «But here I am.»

«And here you’ll stay. The passes are closed every way but the south.»

«I know. I came in that way. Damned cold on the desert now.»

Whip dismounted and shook Caleb’s hand.

«Where have you been for the past three months?» Caleb asked.

«Here and there,» Whip said, shrugging. «I got as far west as that big canyon where the Rio Colorado lies like a silver medicine snake at the bottom of a deep gorge.»

«Hell of a place, from what Wolfe tells me.»

«It will do,» Whip agreed. «I chased sunrise all the way around that canyon’s edge until I found myself back where I started from. Wild, lonely country, every inch of it.»

«Come on,» Caleb said. «Willow should be finished putting Ethan to bed by now.»

Whip hesitated.

«If you’re thinking of riding off to the high country,» Caleb said, «think again. The passes have been closed for months. They won’t open again for months.»

«I know. That’s why …» Whip’s voice died.

«That’s why you came back? You know you can’t get to her?»

Whip grimaced. «Yes.»

«Just as well,» Caleb said. «Last time we saw Shannon, she —»

«You saw her?» Whip interrupted instantly. «When?»

«Just before the passes closed.»

«Did she finally get smart and stay with you?»

«Nope. She wouldn’t even stay for a cup of coffee.»

Whip frowned. «Was she looking for me, then?»

«After a fashion,» Caleb said sardonically.

«What in hell does that mean?»

«I’ll tell him,» Willow said from the doorway. «Come on in, Whip. Shannon left a message for you.»

«Is she —» Whip’s voice dried up. He swallowed visibly. «Is she, uh, all right?»

«‘All right’ as in ‘not pregnant’?» Willow asked with false sweetness.

A red that had nothing to do with the cold wind appeared on Whip’s cheekbones.

Caleb took the reins from Whip’s hand and headed for the barn.

«Don’t take too many chunks out of his hide,» Caleb said to Willow over his shoulder.

«Why not?» Willow retorted.

«Shannon will want some to nail to her cabin wall.»

«Don’t worry.» Willow’s smile was all teeth and not one bit of comfort as she turned away. «Whip is a big boy. There will be plenty of hide to go around. Come inside, brother dear.»

Whip looked at Caleb’s retreating back and then at Willow’s. With swift, hard strides he followed his sister. When they were inside, he shut the door and grabbed her arm.

«Tell me straight up, Willy,» Whip said in a flat tone. «Is Shannon pregnant?»

«If she is, she didn’t mention it to us.»

Whip’s breath came out with a harsh sound.

«I didn’t think Shannon would come here unless she was pregnant,» he admitted.

«Is that why you’re not halfway to China? You were worried that Shannon might be carrying your child?»

«I don’t know why I’m not halfway to China,» Whip said, his eyes bleak, haunted. «I only know that I’m not.»

Compassion softened the angry set of Willow’s face. She could sense her beloved brother’s unhappiness as though it were her own. With a sigh for Whip’s untamed, restless soul, she touched his sleeve gently.

«Come to the kitchen,» she said. «I’ll pour you some coffee. I’ll make up a batch of biscuits, too. You look like you could use a good meal.»

«I’ll settle for bread, if you have it. I’ve kind of lost my taste for biscuits. They remind me too much of …»

Whip’s voice trailed away. With a weary curse he lifted his hat, ran his fingers through his pale hair, and tossed the hat onto the kitchen table. Automatically he pulled off the bullwhip, hung his jacket by the back door, resettled the bullwhip on his shoulder, and sat down.

With eyes that reflected too many memories, Whip watched his sister go about the homey rituals of stirring up the fire, pouring coffee, and slicing bread. If he looked through nearly-closed eyes, he could pretend that it was Shannon moving around the kitchen, fixing supper, bringing him warmth and food with her own hands.

But it wasn’t Shannon, and Whip knew it all the way to the bottom of his painful, seething soul.

There was a rustling sound and a thump at the back door, as though someone had brought firewood and stacked it outside. Then the door opened and Caleb walked in with a pair of saddlebags thrown over his shoulder.

Whip didn’t even look up from his coffee.

Caleb shut the door and glanced at his wife. Willow shook her head slightly. Caleb almost smiled. He had guessed that Willow would be too tenderhearted to tear much of a strip off Whip’s thick hide.

Caleb, however, wasn’t.

«You said Shannon left a message for me,» Whip said. «What was it?»

Willow looked at Caleb.

«You forgot your change,» Caleb said sardonically.

Two saddlebags thumped heavily onto the kitchen table.

Whip glanced at them without interest. Then his eyes narrowed and one hand shot out. Muscles corded in his arm as he lifted the joined saddlebags, testing their weight.

He hissed a word that made Willow flinch.

«That tears it,» Whip snarled, letting go of the saddlebags. «Of all the stupid —»

«Did that gold come from Shannon’s claims?» Caleb interrupted.

«What damned difference does it make?»

«To me, none,» Caleb retorted. «It made a hell of a lot of difference to Shannon, though. The difference between being a widow and a whore.»

Whip uncoiled out of the chair and slammed into Caleb, pinning him against the kitchen wall in a single wild rush.

«God damn you, she isn’t a whore.»

«Whip! Stop it!» Willow cried, grabbing one of her brother’s arms.

Caleb stared into the quicksilver violence of Whip’s eyes and smiled almost gently.

«Hell, I know that,» Caleb said. «But if you’d feel better trying to beat the same words out of me, we can do a turn or two around the back yard.»

Whip stared at Caleb’s level, compassionate eyes, took a deep breath, and stepped back.