"He likes me."

"He likes the sugar and apples you give him."

Kate grinned. "That too." She kissed Jessie again. "Sometimes bribery works."

Jessie put both arms around Kate and pulled her close. With her mouth on Kate's, she muttered, "So do kisses."

Mae removed the key from the inside pocket of her dress and fit it to the lock in the door to her room. As she stepped inside, she was propelled forward by a sharp blow in the center of her back. She would have stumbled and fallen, but large hands grasped her arms and swung her around so forcefully that she banged against the wall, striking her head hard enough to cause her vision to blur.

"Been holding back on the profits, Mae?" a deep male voice grated. "Or have you just been too busy entertaining the new doctor to work the way you ought to?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Mae said sharply, trying to twist out of the painful grasp. She turned her face away from the fetid odor of stale whiskey and tobacco. He was larger than her by half, and he leaned his weight against her, leaving no doubt as to the pleasure he got from handling her. "You've been getting your money just like always."

Michael Hanrahan came around once a week to collect the money she and the girls earned entertaining men. She had never been certain to whom he reported, but she was sure that he did not own the Golden Nugget. He was too often drunk and far too ignorant to run a successful business, and she doubted that Frank would work for the likes of him.

Nevertheless, he had power by virtue of the fact that he represented whoever controlled them all from behind the scenes.

"I've got what you've come for in my dresser," Mae said calmly.

"Let me go and I'll get it for you."

He put his hand beneath her dress and dragged his fingers up her thigh to clasp her roughly between the legs. "How do you know what I've come for?"

She stayed perfectly still and kept her eyes on his, refusing to allow him the pleasure of seeing her pain or her fear. She couldn't reach her Derringer, which was strapped just above her knee, and even if she could, she wouldn't shoot him. Killing him would only bring down the wrath of other men. Men who were most certainly more dangerous. "I imagine you've got somewhere to be with that money."

His gaze flickered away, and she knew that he was considering how much time he had before he needed to deliver what he'd come to collect. When he roughly covered her mouth with his and forced his tongue past her lips, she reacted instinctively. She bit him, and he pulled away swearing. She didn't have time to raise her arm and block the vicious backhand he swung at her face. When brutal pain exploded inside her head, she slumped to the floor.


CHAPTER TWENTY

"Hey, Jed," Jessie said, gently resting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "How are you feeling?"

"Not bad," Jed said, his voice rough and raspy. He smiled weakly at Kate, who stood by Jessie's side.

"The doctor says you're doing very well," Kate said, leaning down to kiss his cheek. "Tomorrow, we're going to take you home."

"That sounds right fine." He coughed and grimaced. "Sorry to be so much trouble."

"Guess you must've fallen on your head when you pitched off that horse," Jessie said roughly, "seeing as how you're talking foolishness."

"I can't say as I'll mind going home."

Vance came in just in time to hear Jed's remark. "Something wrong with our hospitality?"

"No," he said, turning his head slowly as she approached. "But being here makes me feel like something mighty serious might be ailing me."

"Oh," Vance said musingly, "nothing that a little time won't take care of." She took off her coat and hung it on a pine clothes rack inside the door. "I'm going to need to take a look at that back of yours now."

"All right," Jed said.

As Vance opened a cabinet against the wall and withdrew a stack of clean bandages, she said, "It might be a bit painful. I'll give you some laudanum before we start."

"Can't say as I like that stuff overmuch. Makes my head feel like it's filled with wool."

"It can do that. You won't need as much this time." She placed the supplies on a stand by the bed and regarded Jessie and Kate. "This will take me a little while."

"I'd like to help," Kate said. "Then I'll know what needs to be done."

"All right. Jess?"

"I'll just wait over here out of the way." Jessie patted Jed's shoulder again before moving to the opposite side of the room. She leaned against the wall and watched Vance and Kate as they worked.

Despite having only one arm, Vance was obviously strong and was able to move Jed onto his side with only a little assistance from Kate.

When they pulled the blanket down, Jessie saw that the bandage over the center of Jed's back was dark with blood. She tensed, knowing he was a long way from being all right and that it could easily have been her lying there instead of him.

Vance said something to Kate that Jessie couldn't hear, and then both women went to a sideboard where they rinsed their hands in an enamel basin with something Vance poured from one of the containers she withdrew from a cabinet. Then Vance removed the poultice over Jed's wound, pointing something out to Kate, whose face was a study in rapt attention. Jessie wondered whether Kate would have become a doctor like Vance if she had remained in Boston. It struck her that when Kate had come West, she'd given up far more than Jessie had ever considered. When Kate looked over at her and smiled with excitement, Jessie smiled back, but she felt a trickle of apprehension race along her spine.

Her attention and the stirrings of worry were diverted by the thud of running feet in the outer room and the bang of the door crashing open. All three women staring in surprise as a young boy of perhaps eight careened into the room, sweating and out of breath. He gaped at Vance.

"Help you?" Vance asked.

"I'm supposed to find a doctor," he exclaimed, dancing from one foot to the other and waving his arms. His canvas trousers were a size too big, his boots worn almost flat at the heels, and his face and hands streaked with grime. He smelled like a barnyard.

"I'm Dr. Phelps," Vance said as she threaded the last bit of linen packing into the tract of the bullet wound. "What's the trouble?"

"My ma. My ma says the baby is coming soon and I'm to get the doctor." He looked from one woman to the next, clearly confused.

"Where is he?"

"Aren't you Emily Jones's son?" Kate said kindly. "Tommy, right?"

The boy nodded vigorously.

Kate said to Vance, "Emily is a few years older than me. She's got...five already, I think."

"Then this one will come along quickly," Vance remarked, straightening up. "Jessie, can you help Jed get comfortable?"

Jessie pushed quickly away from the wall. "Sure."

"I'll be with you in just a minute, son," Vance said, collecting the instruments and placing them in a tray on the sideboard. "Don't worry, now. I can take care of your mother."

"Can I come with you?" Kate said hurriedly. "I could help." At Vance's look of inquiry, she added firmly, "I want to learn to be a midwife."

Vance regarded her steadily for a long moment, then nodded briskly. "All right. Let me show you the equipment we need to have available."

While Kate and Vance collected instruments and supplies, Jessie helped Jed ease onto his back. Jed's eyes were clouded with pain. "You okay there?"

"I expect I'll live."

"I sure hope so." Jessie smiled grimly. "We've got a score to settle."

"You'd best be waiting for me for that."

"I will if I can." Jessie shrugged. "I expect that won't be up to me. If they've a mind to keep stealing my stock, I'll have to set them right."

"You need to take care, Jess," Jed said urgently. "They won't think nothing of shooting--"

"Jessie," Kate said, resting her hand in the center of Jessie's back, "I might be gone for a while. Will you be all right?"

"I want to check on things out at the ranch, anyhow. Why don't you have Vance bring you back there when you're done?" She grinned at Jed. "Then tomorrow, we'll come back into town and collect this one."

"Yes, all right. If you're sure?" Suddenly, Kate was nervous. She had no idea what to expect, never having witnessed a birth, or if she would even be of any use to Vance. And she hadn't given Jessie very much time to grow accustomed to the idea of her taking on this new responsibility. She searched Jessie's face uncertainly. "If you think I shouldn't--"

"I think you and the doctor should get going," Jessie said gently.

"Sounds like you're needed somewhere pretty fast." She stroked a finger down Kate's cheek. "You be careful."

"I love you," Kate whispered so that only Jessie could hear.

Jessie felt the words settle around her heart, next to the worry that she tried to push aside.

v "Don't push yet, Emily. This baby's almost out." Vance cupped the infant's head in the palm of her hand and gently eased her fingers inside the birth canal beneath the shoulders. "All right now, bear down nice and easy."

Kate stood just behind Vance's shoulder, holding a warm blanket and barely breathing. Emily had been almost ready to deliver when they'd arrived. They had hurriedly boiled water to cleanse the instruments Vance had packed and heated blankets and towels in the oven. Emily's husband Robert had retreated to the barn, muttering something about cows the instant they'd arrived. Kate and Tommy had settled the other children, ranging in age from toddler to six or seven years old, into their respective cribs and the single large bed the oldest ones shared in the loft above the main room of the house. Emily and Robert's bedroom occupied part of the first floor along with the kitchen and common living space.