"People at the fort think you're a friend of the Chiricahua."

"That's probably because it's true," he said "Did that make you assume I was one of them?"

"I .. . I don't know. I suppose I thought it would explain some of your actions." Ryder's features remained impassive, but tension was tightening his jaw line. A tiny muscle began to tic in his cheek.

"What do you know about my actions?"

"I know you abducted me," she said. He dismissed that with an abrupt slash of his hand.

"Before you came to see me in my cell," he said tersely, "what did you know of my actions?"

"I thought you were honorable," she said.

"And perhaps you still are, but I don't know who you honor any longer.

If the Colter Canyon raid was your doing it may be that in order to honor your friends you had to betray your country."

"I seem to remember you saying something about helping me if I had asked. If you believe I had a part in the raid, then wouldn't you be betraying your country?"

How was it possible that she had the gun and he still had the upper hand?

"If I thought you were responsible for the raid I wouldn't have offered my help."

"Exactly." His logic confounded her.

"That was then," she said.

"I don't know what I think about your notions of honor now. You haven't behaved honorably toward me."

Ryder didn't deny it.

"No," he said.

"I haven't." Mary hadn't expected his easy admission. Her brows drew together as she studied him.

"Then why-"

"I sacrificed you to protect Florence.

I suppose you would see that as more proof of my divided loyalties."

Ryder leaned forward on the stool, resting his forearms on his knees.

His posture was relaxed, casual.

"I'd rather you put the rifle down, Mary. I don't mind explaining things to you, but not this way." She was struck by the fact that he had used her name. She couldn't recall that he had done so before, and now he did it with a certain deliberateness, as if there were meaning and some expectation attached to its use.

"Just tell me this," she said.

"Would this rifle be enough incentive for you to lead me out of here?"

"No," he said quietly.

"But I think you already know that." Mary sighed and lowered the weapon.

She let Ryder take it and return it to the crate with the others.

"I didn't like holding it on you," she said.

"I didn't imagine you did." He picked up his Colt and placed it on top of a flour keg.

"And I don't think I'll need this. Why don't you sit down?"

Mary adjusted the blanket, giving it a yank upward before she rounded the wing chair. She thought she saw Ryder smirk, but the expression was so brief and so faint that she warned herself she could have imagined it.

"I could have shot you," she told him.

"I was convinced." She sat in the wing chair, drawing her legs under her. When her thighs rubbed, she winced and sipped the air to catch her breath.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Nothing." It was such an obvious lie that Ryder's lip curled derisively.

"Should I get the gun?"

"Oh, if you must know," she said impatiently, "I'm tender from riding all night."

"Tender?"

Mary's mouth flattened. Just how plain did he want her to speak?

"It feels as if someone's set fire to my thighs." Ryder watched as Mary's complexion suffused with enough color to rival the red-gold in her hair. She was staring hard at him, daring him to mention it.

"I'll make a salve for you." Ryder didn't tell her it would mean leaving the cavern. He would have to do it while she slept, but judging by the faint drooping of her eyelids, he wouldn't have to wait long.

"It will help." She didn't thank him for his offer.

"What did you mean about Florence Gardner?" she asked.

"About sacrificing me to help her?"

"I thought you understood her part in the escape."

"I understand she arranged for me to see you, hid the key in her Bible, hid a gun in the valise, and saw to it that you had fresh horses."

"That's right.

You know that because you were there. How do you suppose it looks to everyone back at Fort Union?" Mary considered that for all of a second.

"But you abducted me!"

"Really?" he asked calmly.