“I feel the same.” He kissed her lightly as his hand sliced beneath the cotton. “I promise I'll be home as soon as I can.” He moved across the thin camisole and found the pink ribbon he remembered. “We have our lives to spend together.” He tugged at the ribbon pulling the thin garment low. The small gun slipped into his palm as he felt her bare flesh on either side of his hand. For a moment, he paused, loving the feel of her warm skin.

“Hold me, my love,” she cried. “Hold me once more before I go.”

She pressed against him as he slipped the derringer into his vest pocket.

He kissed her then in earnest as she buttoned her blouse. With a sigh, he walked her to the door. He didn't know how this trouble would end, or how long it would take him to get out of this prison. But one thing Daniel knew without doubt. He would touch the valley of bare flesh between her breasts again. And soon.

TWENTY-ONE

VALERIE MET KARLEE A BLOCK FROM HOME WITH A twin in each arm. All three girls were crying.

“What is it? What's happened?” Karlee jumped from the wagon.

“Soldiers!” Valerie said between gulps. “They broke in the front door without knocking and told us to get out. They said they had orders to search the place.”

“For what?” Karlee lifted the little girls into the wagon bed with a strong hug for each. “It's going to be all right,” she whispered against their blonde curls. “ Everything will be just fine.”

“I don't know why they're there.” Valerie tried to stop her own tears. “I just grabbed the twins and ran. They were throwing things and breaking things. When I ran out Ida, the old German, was trying to tell them to stop breaking things, but they weren't listening.”

Karlee hugged Valerie. “Things don't matter,” she whispered. “You and the girls do. You did the right thing by leaving.” She thought of asking Valerie to watch the twins longer, but she'd imposed enough. The girls were now her responsibility. “Climb in, and I'll drop you at the bakery.”

“No thanks.” Valerie waved. “I can cut through the houses and be there in half the time. I think I want to see my madre right now.” She tried to smile. “Be careful.”

“Don't worry.” Karlee flicked the reins. “We'll be fine.”

A few minutes later, Karlee left the wagon at the front door and walked into her house with a twin on each side of her. “Now don't worry, girls. These men are just playing hide-and-seek, and they have to learn it's an outside game.”

She moved through the house listening to the racket from above. They must all be on the second floor. From the sound, she'd guess four, maybe five men.

Karlee grabbed a quilt and spread it out in the wide foyer where the sunlight shone in through the open doorway. She sat the twins down and collected all the dolls she'd made. “You and all your friends can watch the men leave,” she tried to sound cheery.

A soldier stepped to the landing above. He was shorter than her by half a head and a few years older in age. His clothes and body were the bagginess of a man who'd worn the uniform too long.

She quickly straightened, blocking the seam in the paneling where the wall slid open. She had no idea what they were looking for, but she didn't want them finding the guns. Daniel had never mentioned his arsenal to her. Until this moment, it had never occurred to her as strange that a man who wore no weapon of any kind would have owned so many guns.

“What are you doing here?” the soldier yelled from the landing. “I thought I told everyone to leave. I'm Sergeant Whiteley, and I've got the authority if you want to see the papers.”

“I'm Mrs. McLain and I live here, sir. I have every right there is to ask what you and your men are doing in my house, paper or not!” Karlee yelled back. “And there's no need to yell, Sergeant Whiteley! I have no problem with my hearing.”

“We've been ordered to search, and search we will.” He stormed down the stairs, his voice still a notch below an all-out scream.

She heard something familiar in his tone. A touch of home twisted in his words. “Then do your duty, but be careful what you break, or you'll answer to me, Sergeant.”

He paid her no mind.

“Or,” she added, “your mother back home in Indiana.”

The stout sergeant turned and stared at her with tired eyes.

“You are from Indiana, aren't you?” Karlee had guessed right.

“Indiana Regular. First to fight, first blood spilled,” he said proudly. “A Volunteer force all through the war, and I'm proud to say I was one of them.”

“Well, I guess your mother would be real tickled to know you're down in Texas tearing up the home of a good preacher who fought with the Indiana Regulars as well.” Karlee was guessing, but after all, Daniel was from Indiana, he must have fought with the state's regiment. “The reverend was wounded a few months before the war ended. He came home to find his father's farm had been raided by Rebs. His parents were both dead. And now he has you and your men as a plague.”

The sergeant's face paled. “McLain fought for the North? I figured him a Reb for sure.”

Karlee tried to remember what she'd heard Aunt Rosy tell of the McLain brothers. “He fought along with his brothers, Captain Wes McLain and Doctor Adam McLain.”

The sergeant's face was starting to look sickly. “He don't favor his brothers, does he?”

“No,” Karlee answered slowly. “Daniel has blond hair, but both his brothers are darker.”

Men stomped down the stairs and into the study throwing things aside as they searched. Their shouldered rifles bumped into walls and tables with no care taken.

“Hey, men!” Whiteley yelled. “Be careful of the preacher's things. There ain't no use in us destroying the place.”

The soldiers looked up in surprise and slowed their pace. They weren't raiders, only enlisted men following orders.

The sergeant leaned against the wall beside Karlee, unaware he was aiding her with her concealment.

He lowered his voice so the men wouldn't hear. “I knew a Captain Wes McLain back in sixty-three. With the chances he took, I never figured he'd make the end of the war. I remember one night a bunch of us was talking about the battle up ahead, and Captain Wes said he had it covered. If he was wounded, he had a brother who would fix him up and if he died, his little brother would preach him into Heaven.”

The sergeant smiled. “I ain't thought of that night in years. I was so scared I couldn't think of nothing but cleaning my rifle. I must have cleaned the thing a hundred times before daybreak. I got where I could put it back together in no light at all.”

Karlee watched the others as she listened to the sergeant. They had no skill at searching a place. She could have hidden the horse in this house and they'd never have found it. One soldier was playing with a half-finished doll. Another read the book titles slowly, mouthing the words as though he'd find the answer to a puzzle in them. A third had gotten on his knees trying to answer Starlett's questions as fast as she fired them at him.

The sergeant straightened to his military stance. “What's this youngest McLain done that landed him in the stockade?”

“I don't think he's done anything,” Karlee lied. “I couldn't love a man who was rotten. He's only a small town preacher.”

“Did he tell Lieutenant Logan he was in the Regulars? Logan's looking for men who helped that thieving troublemaker, Cullen Baker. An Indiana man would never do that.”

“He won't talk to Logan. Daniel thinks all men, Northern or Southern, have a right to be treated fairly. The war's over.”

“But all he's got to do is open his mouth and Logan will know. He wouldn't dare hold a McLain without a darn good reason. There's bound to be several men among us who knows the family name.”

“If Daniel talks, he'll be treated differently? The injustice lies with Logan, not my husband.”

The sergeant saw her point. He'd spent most of his life in the Army following orders and it had got him nowhere. The Union Army had been sent down here to prevent trouble. Chasing after a ghost like Baker was just stirring more up. He'd seen Logan step out of line more than once trying to catch the man.

“Would your husband talk to me? I figure I owe him that much, being from the same state and all.”

“He might.” Karlee turned around and pulled the already loose ribbon from her camisole. “If you gave him this, at least he'll listen.”

“I'm not promising anything, ma'am.” He stuffed the ribbon in his pocket. “But I'll do what I can.”

Whiteley turned toward the men. “All right, empty your pockets. We ain't taking souvenirs with us. Let's get out of here and leave this mother and children in peace.”

Karlee watched them file out. She still stood in front of the hidden latch. They'd found nothing.

Several of the day-shift guards reported in sick the next morning to the stockade known as Sandtown. They complained of something they ate.

Daniel watched replacements come in reluctantly for duty. They didn't want to be here any more than the prisoners did. They probably wanted to be home with their families, not on duty in Texas.