"All right." Vance hesitated only a second. "You're fine?"

"Yes, yes. I'm coming with you. I've helped him with this kind of thing before."

"What kind of thing?" Kate said, hurrying along beside them, a terrible fear rising in her throat. When Mae didn't answer immediately, Kate grasped her arm to slow her headlong rush. "Mae, what kind of thing?"

"Someone's been shot." Mae took Kate's hand. "Someone from the Rising Star. That's all I know, honey."

No. No no no. Not again. This can't be happening again. With fierce determination, Kate ran.


CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Kate cursed the dark, the uneven rut-strewn street, her shoes with the short square heels as she hurried toward Doc Melbourne's office. A light flickered in the window from the oil lamp, and a shadow passed back and forth within, splintering the shaft of light that escaped. Despite her horribly slow pace, she was well ahead of Mae and Vance when she reached the wooden porch in front of the building. Even as she pushed through the door she was calling Jessie's name.

Jessie turned at the sound of the door slamming open. Blood streaked the right side of her face. Her shirt was soaked with sweat, caked with dirt, and a large stain over her left side looked frighteningly like blood.

Kate flung herself into Jessie's arms. "Oh my darling...are you hurt?" Frantically, she patted Jessie's shoulders, her chest, her face.

"You are. You're hurt. Oh...sit down. Where's the doctor? He must look at you."

"Kate," Jessie said gently, catching her hands, stilling her motion.

"I'm all right. It's nothing. Just some scratches." Then she wrapped her arms around Kate and buried her face against Kate's neck. Her voice was muffled as she choked out, "It's Jed, Kate. Lord. He's been shot."

Vance strode through the door followed immediately by Mae. In her rush toward the closed inner door that led to the treatment room, she spared Kate and Jessie a brief glance. It took a second for her to register that the cowboy holding Kate, or being held by her, was a woman. She put her surprise away and looked at Mae. "Can you help?"

"Yes, of course. I've done it before."

"And so can I, if you need me," Kate said firmly.

"It wouldn't hurt." Vance disappeared through the inner door with Mae.

Tenderly, Kate disengaged from Jessie's embrace and stroked her cheek. "He'll be all right, darling. Sit now. I'll be out very soon."

Not knowing what else to do, Jessie slumped into a chair, her hands dangling uselessly between her legs. "Please, Kate." Her eyes were deep pools of misery. "Please don't let him die."

"Vance and Dr. Melbourne will take care of him." Heart aching, hating to leave her but wanting desperately to do something, Kate kissed Jessie swiftly, then hurried away. Not even thinking about what awaited her, she rushed into the next room, only to halt abruptly just inside the door. Shocked, she stared at the sight of Jed lying facedown on the table. He was shirtless and his back was awash with blood. Doc Melbourne leaned over him, pressing a square of white cloth between his shoulder blades.

"Why, Kate, what are you doing here?" Caleb Melbourne glanced quickly from Kate to Vance.

"I thought we could use the help," Vance said.

"Might be right," he said. "Kate, we won't have time for the smelling salts."

She took two steady steps forward. "I won't faint. Just tell me what to do."

"Get some more of these bandages from the case over there," he said with a tip of his head. Over his shoulder, he said to Vance, "He's got a bullet in his back and he's lost a lot of blood. We need to get it out, and we need to get it out fast. I'd say you'd be the best one to do that."

Vance didn't bother examining Jed but took Caleb at his word.

She shrugged out of her coat and pulled her surgical kit from the closet where she had stored it upon her arrival in New Hope. She hefted it onto a nearby table and jerked open the flaps. It was not the same kit she had used that last morning at Appomattox, but a spare she had brought from home after hers was lost. For one brief second, the shining instruments looked completely foreign. She gripped a gleaming silver probe, and at the first touch of the cold steel against her fingers, everything came back to her. She felt the ground shake with the thunder of the cannons, smelled the cordite and blood in the air, shuddered beneath the weight of the dying.

Mae covered Vance's hand with hers. "Why don't you tell me which ones of these you need, and I'll lay them out while you see to Jed."

Vance stared at Mae's hand, stunned as the warmth cut through the chill that entombed her. Mae's voice was so soft, and yet it penetrated the barrage of sounds that bombarded her. Her voice barely a whisper, she said, "Thank you."

"Nothing to thank me for," Mae said briskly, relieved to see a bit of color return to Vance's face. When she'd reached into the leather satchel, she'd turned chalk white and her eyes had gone flat, as if her body was still there but her soul had disappeared. It was about the most terrifying thing Mae had ever seen. The only thing she could think to do was touch her and try to pull her back from whatever hell she'd slid into. "Which ones, Doc?"

"All of...the probes. And the forceps...those are the clamps...

there." Vance cleared her throat, her voice stronger. "If you could open that canister...Yes, that one...and pour some of the carbolic over my hand. And my sleeve...could you roll it up, please."

Swiftly, Mae took care of Vance's shirt and then unscrewed the metal top from the pint-sized canister. At the first whiff, she drew back in disgust. "Lord. You want that on your skin?"

"It won't hurt me," Vance said, holding her hand over a nearby basin. "Go ahead and pour it."

"Whiskey will do just as good," Caleb remarked.

Vance nodded. "You might be right." She shook her hand free of the liquid and walked up to the table. "Let me see."

Gingerly, Caleb moved the poultice aside, and blood immediately welled up from the hole adjacent to Jed's shoulder blade. He slapped the compress back down, his expression grave. "The bleeding might stop if I hold this on here long enough, but the bullet will still be in there."

Vance and Caleb both knew that leaving the bullet in place would lead to infection and certain death. Unfortunately, at the rate the wound was bleeding, Jed was likely to bleed to death before they could get the bullet out.

"Have you given him anything?" Vance asked.

"I didn't have to. He doesn't know anything that's happening."

Caleb tossed the crimson-soaked bandage aside and held out a bloodied hand to Kate. "Could you hand me another, my dear. Just keep one ready at all times."

"Here you are." Kate extended the cloth, careful not to look at Jed's face. She'd discovered very quickly that if she just concentrated on the injury and what needed to be done, she could keep her fear and horror at bay. If she thought that this helpless man on the table was Jed, the kindhearted and gentle man who had welcomed her to the Rising Star as if she had been family, she thought that she might break down in tears. She couldn't even contemplate the terrible loss it would be for Jessie if Jed died. She could not think of those things and be of any assistance. And she was determined that she would help save this man she cared for and who meant so much to her Jessie.

"Caleb," Vance said, carefully pressing her fingers over the thick muscles along Jed's spine. "If you will steady the probe once I locate the bullet, I'll follow it down with the forceps and extract it."

"You just get me in the right spot," Caleb grunted. "Kate, you be ready to swab the blood, because we're not going to be able to see a damn thing. Mae, you'll be handing us the instruments."

Both women murmured their assent. Mae watched as Vance selected a silver probe ten inches long and as thick around as her small finger. It narrowed into a blunt rounded tip at each end. Vance's hand was steady, her face calm but determined. Despite the terrible circumstances, Mae couldn't help but think how beautiful she was. Her eyes met Vance's and held. "Just tell me what you need."

"This may be too thick. Have the next size down ready."

"Yes." Mae searched it out as Vance leaned over Jed.

"Ready?" Vance said to Caleb.

"Let's get this done."

The instant Caleb removed the bandage, blood gushed forth.

Unperturbed, Vance inserted the end of the probe into the bullet wound, balancing it delicately across her fingers and angling it with slight pressure from her thumb until it naturally found the angle of the bullet track. Then she guided it forward with a gentle massaging motion, avoiding trauma to the surrounding tissues. She was unaware of time passing or of the swift intake of breath beside her. The air grew very still, the sounds of battle receded, and there was only the rush of blood through Jed's body, the pump of his heart, the ebb and flow of his life that rested now in her hands. When the steel probe touched the ball of lead lodged in the paraspinous muscles, she said without looking up, "Caleb, hold this just as it is. Don't push forward or change the angle."

Without looking away from the wound, Vance waited until Caleb placed his fingers next to hers on the probe. She noted absently that his hand was shaking. She repositioned the instrument slightly. "Do you have it?"

"Yes," Caleb said, the tension making his voice thin and tight.

Vance let go of the probe and opened her hand. "Mae. The forceps.