Kate framed Jessie's face, softly tracing Jessie's cheekbones and jaw before kissing her gently. "You are my home." She kissed Jessie's breast above her heart. "This is my life." She smiled and shook her head. "I guess stubborn is the other side of strong, and you've got plenty of both."

Jessie grinned and bumped her hips, rolling Kate over. She played her finger down the center of Kate's chest. "I'd say we're pretty even there. You were the one with the gun in her bag all set to do in that snake in the Nugget."

"That just shows I have good sense," Kate replied primly. She caught her breath unevenly as Jessie's fingers skimmed lower, dancing between her thighs. She clutched Jessie's arm as a quiver of excitement shot through her. "I miss lying with you at night when you're out on the trail."

"I'm careful, Kate," Jessie whispered, slowly working her way down Kate's body. She rested her cheek against Kate's stomach and looked up, studying Kate's face in the moonlight. "I'm always careful because I want to come back to you."

"Promise me you always will," Kate gasped.

"I will. Always." Jessie eased inside her with the joy of a lost voyager returning home. Slowly at first, then--as passion eclipsed wonder--with deeper, more demanding strokes, she carried Kate to the peak and over. When Kate's quiet moans of contentment stilled, Jessie slipped out to hold her again. "When I wake up in the morning and see you lying next to me, I don't think I could love you more. When I look across the yard and see you on the porch, carrying water or stacking wood or any of the other dozens of things you do, I don't think I could love you more. When I'm with you like this, when you've touched me in the places no one else sees, and you've let me touch you back, I don't think I could love you more." She kissed the tip of Kate's chin, then her lips. "Every day, I love you more."

Kate wrapped her arms around Jessie's shoulders and pulled her down tight against her. With her mouth against Jessie's ear, she whispered fiercely, "You are my heart. I love you so."

"As soon as Jed can travel safely, I want to bring him back to the Rising Star," Jessie said. "I want him to be looked after with his friends around him."

"Of course. I'm sure I can do whatever needs to be done."

Jessie shook her head. "I'm not asking you to do that. I can--"

"You can, and you will. But not alone." Kate gave Jessie a small shake. "Heavens, didn't we just have this conversation a few weeks ago?"

Jessie smiled and snuggled against Kate's shoulder. "Might be we need to have it a few more times."

"As many times as it takes," Kate said drowsily. "Go to sleep, darling."

"It will be morning soon. I'll try not to wake you."

Softly, Kate laughed. "You always say that, but I always know when you leave me."

Jessie smiled. "I'm glad."

"So am I."

v At the crack of gunfire, Vance shot upright. When another volley reverberated, closer this time, she threw herself over the wounded soldier beside her. "Stay down! Enemy fire."

The ground heaved with the force of cannonballs gouging its surface, and the torn earth rained down upon her, a deadly shower of mud and blood. She groaned as fire scorched her flesh, and she pressed the body beneath her down more forcefully.

"Vance, what is it?" Mae cried, awakened from a sound sleep by Vance's shouts. She pushed instinctively at the heavy weight pinning her to the bed, then relented when she realized she might hurt Vance unknowingly. Instead, she forced herself to lie still and stroked Vance's back. She cradled Vance's head against her breasts, shaken to find that Vance's hair was soaked with sweat and her body ice cold. "Oh, sweetheart, it's all right. It's outside. Some fool is shooting outside in the street."

"Shooting," Vance said urgently. "Someone is shooting."

"It's outside," Mae repeated. The room was growing light, so it had to be close to dawn. She caught Vance's chin in her hand and forced Vance to look at her. She waited until Vance's dark eyes cleared and focused on her face. "No one is shooting at us. We're safe. You're all right."

Vance frowned, struggling to orient herself before memories of the previous evening returned and she realized where she was. Then she became aware, all too acutely, just exactly where she was--lying naked on top of Mae's similarly naked body. With a start, she rolled away onto her back, her chest heaving with the remnants of her nightmare and an altogether different kind of excitement. She'd never experienced the touch of another's body all along the length of her own before, and Mae was lush and warm and arousing.

"You here with me now?" Mae asked as she reached for Vance's hand. Abruptly, pain stabbed at her heart when she realized she was lying on Vance's left side and there was no hand to find. She rolled closer and reached across Vance's stiff body until she could clasp her fingers. "Vance, honey?"

"You see why I shouldn't be lying with you," Vance said, forcing each word out through a throat tight with anger. "I could've hurt you."

"I was the one who almost hurt you," Mae pointed out in what she thought was a reasonable voice considering the swell of fear that coursed through her at Vance's words. It had been a long time since anyone had frightened her. Hurt her body, perhaps, but not her heart.

She stroked Vance's face. "I'm not hurt."

Vance turned her head away. "You could've been. I do things sometimes in my sleep." She laughed unevenly. "I broke an antique lamp one night and had a hard time explaining that to my father in the morning."

"I'm not china, and I don't break easily."

"That's not the point, Mae." Vance withdrew her hand from Mae's grasp and pushed herself up on the bed. "I'm the one who's broken. I've got no business being here."

"What is it you think I need, Vance?" Mae said, heat in her voice now. She sat up, too, unmindful of the sheet falling away and leaving her body bare. "I haven't asked you to do anything for me. I've been taking care of myself for quite some time."

"And I'm not asking you to take care of me." Vance swung her legs over the side of the bed, waiting until she felt steadier before she stood.

"Lord," Mae sighed. "I'm not offering to. What I had in mind was sharing a little comfort and a little pleasure."

Vance said nothing, because she knew it would be far more than that for her. "I appreciate it." She stood and scanned the room, trying to recall where she'd left her pants. "I should get over to the office to check on Jed. I shouldn't have left Caleb alone there all night."

"It hasn't been but a few hours," Mae pointed out as she rose and pulled on her robe. "And you needed some rest."

"I'm sorry I disturbed yours." Vance pulled on her shirt and started working the buttons through the holes.

"You didn't." Mae pushed Vance's hand aside and buttoned her shirt. "I've seen what your spells look like now. Awake and asleep. Is this as bad as they get?"

"No." Vance looked past Mae to the gray light outside the window, feeling very much the same inside. Drained and desolate. "Sometimes they're worse."

The thought of being visited by such horrors made Mae's eyes dim with tears, but she quickly blinked them away, knowing that they would only hurt Vance's already bruised spirit. "Don't seem all that terrifying to me."

Vance smiled wearily. "I don't believe that I've ever met anyone like you."

Mae tilted her head back and met Vance's gaze. "I'll take that as a compliment since you seem to be short on those right now."

"I don't know why you would trouble yourself with me."

"I know you don't." Mae brushed a kiss across Vance's mouth.

"That's probably why I do."

"I do need to see to Jed."

"And I need to be sure that everyone here is tucked safely away."

Mae smoothed her hands over Vance's shirtfront. "I like the way you felt in my bed last night. I want you to come back."

"You're a beautiful woman." Vance played her fingers lightly over Mae's neck and underneath the edge of her robe to skim her collarbone.

"A kind and tender woman."

"Vance--"

"Shh." Vance stepped away, letting her hand fall to her side. "I liked the way it felt to be in your bed last night. I'd like to come back, someday when I'm not empty inside. When there's something for me to give you."

"Maybe there already is," Mae whispered, "only you can't see it."

Vance nodded seriously as she collected her coat. "Maybe you're right. I hope you are."

"Don't stay away because you don't know how it will turn out,"

Mae called as Vance walked to the door. "Some things you only learn by doing."

"I'm not certain I'm as brave as you, Mae." Vance shook her head.

"In fact, I'm quite certain that I'm not." She glanced over her shoulder as she reached for the doorknob. "I lost more than my arm."

"I don't know what it will take for those horrors to be undone, as much as they can be," Mae said, resisting the urge to go to her, to prevent her from leaving. "But I know you didn't lose the best part of you. You might have to trust me on that for a while."

Vance turned the knob but did not go out. "You make me wish for things I have learned to live without."

"Doing without and not wanting are different."

"Yes." Vance pushed open the door and stepped into the hall.

"Good night, Mae."

Mae sat down on the edge of the bed as the door swung closed. She leaned her head against the bedpost and closed her eyes, remembering the way Vance had felt in her arms. And what am I to do with the things you've made me want?