"Geronimo?" Her hands dropped from Ryder's face, and she turned quickly in the direction of the band of warriors. They were already moving away, the great man himself leading the captured horses. She stared after him, awed by her close encounter, amazed at her own temerity. She closed her eyes and made the sign of the cross. Ryder lifted Mary against him in a hard, solid embrace.

"I can't turn my back on you for a moment." He kissed her forehead, her cheeks, her ear.

"God," he whispered against her hair.

"Thank God."

"Does this mean you're not going to beat me?"

she said when he set her down. A wash of moonlight highlighted her mouth. Ryder's decision was easy. He kissed her. Mary gave herself up to it, forgett all her questions and losing herself in the taste and texture of that kiss.

"Oh," she said a little dazedly when he lifted his head.

"Oh, my." Ryder smiled.

"I'll take that as a compliment." His dry tone was enough to sober Mary. She stepped back and turned her gaze in the direction of the mining camp.

"What happened?" she asked. Since Ryder was alive there was only one answer she expected. It wasn't the one Ryder gave her.

"Rosario's trussed like a calf for branding." Mary's forest green eyes held her astonishment.

"You didn't kill him?"

"Not yet. Jarret's deciding his fate."

"Jarret! Then he and Rennie were in the camp." Ryder nodded.

"He'll probably never know for certain what roused him out of his cot or what made him decide to take a look around, but he had a lot more to do with saving my lifb than I did." Mary tried to take it all in.

"Is the entire camp awake?"

"No. Just Jarret. Even the posted guard's still sleeping. Jarret wants to kill him more than Rosario." Ryder took a bandana from his pocket and wet one end of it. Lifting Mary's chin, he cleaned the thin trail of blood from her neck.

"Jarret clipped Rosario with the butt of his Colt and tossed him into one of the mining carts. We pushed it into the mine, then I came to get you. Jarret was going to keep Rosario in one of the abandoned shafts until we make our escape. If he sees the blood on your neck he may just push Rosario down it." Though he spoke lightly, Mary knew it was the truth. She supposed Jarret's interference had a great deal to do with saving Rosario's life, too. The flinty look in Ryder's eyes told her that he could easily take the scout's life for what he had done to her. "i'm fine," she said.

"Really." Mary laid her hand over Ryder's wrist and forced him to stop attending her. She pushed his hand gently away.

"Rosario came up behind me," she told him.

"When you went to the corral. I didn't go looking for trouble." It was important to her that he know the truth.

"I believe you." And he did. Rosario had probably been following them at some distance from the time they left the cave. Ryder blamed himself for not being more observant.

"Let's go. Jarret's waiting for us." He thrust the bandana back in his pocket and took Mary's hand.

"He has some place in mind for us to hide." The hiding place turned out to be the same abandoned portion of the mine where jarret had made Rosario a prisoner. Jarret's torchlight flickered over the unconscious scout as he led Mary and Ryder deeper into the shaft.

Mary saw that Rosario, bound and gagged' was not likely to stir anytime soon.

"You won't let him die," she said to Jarret. When he didn't answer her she tugged on his shirt.

"Don't ignore me, Jarret."

"As if I could." He stopped because he had reached the end of the horizontal shaft. He thrust the torch into a crevice between the timber uprights and the rock wall.

"No," he said plainly.

"I won't let him die. But he has to stay there until we decide what's to become of the two of you." He pointed to the blankets he had already laid out on the ground.

"It's the best I could do on short notice. You weren't exactly expected."

"And certainly not invited," Ryder said, giving Mary an arch glance.

Jarret said, "Oh, I know whose idea this was. It has that masterful Dennehy touch all over it. I'm only surprised you went along with it."

He sighed and his voice lost the sarcasm that had marked it.

"Never mind. I do understand." He raked back his hair in a weary gesture.

"Get some sleep. There are a few hours left before sun up. You may as well rest until then. There's going to be quite a commotion in camp once I tell the miners their horses are gone." He left the torch behind and made his way out by touch. Mary and Ryder heard him swear softly as he tripped over Rosario's body. To her shame, Mary had to control the urge to laugh.

"It's all right," Ryder said, quelling his own smile.

"Rosario didn't feel a thing."

"I was thinking more of Jarret's toes. He was barefoot, did you notice?" Ryder had noticed.

"I.

don't suppose Jarret's had much cause these days to sleep with his boots on." He helped Mary down on the blankets, smoothing them out on the edges. He didn't even have his coat to lend her for a pillow.

"Put your head on my lap," he said.

"No," she said.

"You put your head on mine.." Ryder recognized the flat, dogmatic tone. If he argued with her they would both spend the night sleeping sitting up. He valued his own rest more than winning an argument with Mary.

"Very well." He let her settle back against the wall, then lay down.

When her fingers began to sift through his hair he closed his eyes. Her touch released the tightness in his scalp and the tension at the back of his neck. His mouth relaxed, then his shoulders. Hours later Mary raised a finger to her lips as Rennie and Jarret entered the area from the mine passage. The torch Jarret had left behind had long since burned out, but Rennie was carrying another. Mary squinted to adjust to the onslaught of light.

"Is it morning already?" she asked softly, loath to wake Ryder.

He had slept deeply, rarely stirring. Rennie knelt beside her sister.

She touched her face as if to assure herself it really was Mary-and in one piece.

"Are you all right? What are you doing here? Don't think for a minute that I believe all that nonsense Jarret reported after he found you. I know you didn't help plan Ryder's escape. You told me about finding Mama's habit, remember?

You weren't pretending to be hurt or angry. It was all very real.

You didn't plan that." Mary rolled her eyes. She had forgotten how wearing Rennie's energy could be.