"It has its own rewards." Anna Leigh snorted.

"What does that mean?" she asked sharply.

"Some Apache nonsense, no doubt." Mary felt Ryder's shrug and smiled to herself. Anna Leigh would never understand about the waiting.

"You'd do well to answer him, Miss Hamilton," she said.

"Ryder's rarely in a hurry. We'll grow very old here. Just as Senator Stillwell intends." Ryder doubted that was all his uncle intended, but he didn't point it out.

"Colter Canyon," he said.

"In exchange for your freedom." Anna Leigh carefully stretched her right leg. She could just touch Davis Rivers's body with her toe. She nudged him several times, but got no response. There would be no help from that quarter. He hadn't even armed himself, so there was no weapon she could steal. More disgusted than distressed, Anna Leigh drew back her leg. Her skirt rustled softly.

"What is it you want to know?"

"How my uncle planned it," said Ryder. Anna Leigh's short laughter was without humor.

"Wilson said you suspected it was my father's scheme. What changed your mind?"

"My uncle did."

"Wilson? How?"

"When he said he could arrange for you and the lieutenant to come here.

He could offer no explanation. Only the certainty that it could be done.

Mary said from the beginning that it didn't make sense. She was right... and wrong. Mary's only mistake was her refusal to change her premises. It didn't make sense if my uncle was innocent, but if he was involved .. ." His voice trailed off and he let Anna Leigh and Mary draw their own conclusions. Mary raised her head, disappointed that she hadn't guessed it for herself.

"Then it was Senator Stillwell who arranged for your assignment--on his own, not with Warren Hamilton's encouragement."

"That's right," Ryder said.

"He lied about that and a few other things."

"Your uncle's very good at lying," Anna Leigh interjected bitterly.

"I'm not so easily fooled as your dear Mary." The last three words were iced heavily with scorn.

"You were right. He deceived Davis and me this evening. We did expect to be part of your capture, not our own." She leaned back against the step behind her.

"Your uncle and I were lovers for almost a year before Colter Canyon was ever mentioned. I knew Wilson had power and influence in Western policies and the Indian campaigns, but I had no idea he could implement something as stunning as the Colter Canyon raid." There was the subtle rise of excitement in her voice as she went on.

"Watching him maneuver people like pawns .. . he was brilliant.

I've never seen anything like it." She suddenly seemed to recognize that enthusiasm and admiration were not called for. Now she spoke with more deliberation, carefully modulating her voice.

"He didn't confide his plans right away. He wasn't so certain of me in the beginning of our relationship. That took some time on my part .. .

a bit of maneuvering equal to his. I never knew the full scope of what he intended. Never guessed that he meant for so many soldiers to die."

Mary felt Ryder's hand on her shoulder, cautioning her against interrupting. She doubted Ryder believed Anna Leigh was so innocent.

She certainly didn't. But he wanted to hear all from her.

"My father could never have engineered such a plan," she said.

"I don't think it would have been a completely moral judgment on his part. He just wouldn't have had the stomach for it." She paused.

"Or the brains, for that matter." Mary's own stomach became a trifle queasy as she listened to Anna Leigh speak with such disrespect and disregard.

"Wilson Stillwell called in all debts to put his plan together. Most of the men he had assigned to Fort Union felt they owed him some favor.

Of course that was only a small reason they joined him. There was the gold, after all." She drew her legs up, hugging them as the cool dampness of the cellar sent a shiver through her.

"My father and I were there as part of Wilson's plan," she said.

"Not that Papa was aware. As far as he knew his reasons for being there were perfectly legitimate. I understood that Wilson was setting up another scapegoat in the event that you did not take to the role so obligingly." Ryder's deep chuckle was mirthless.

"I was everything you could have hoped for." Protected by the unrelieved blackness, Anna Leigh smiled, remembering.

"Yes," she said.

"Yes, you were. I really was intrigued by you, you know. I'd heard so much about you. Some from the women at the fort, much more from your uncle. He thinks of you as a half-breed. He really does.

All those years among the Apache. It's as if you're one of them in his mind." Anna Leigh's head tilted to one side. She brushed away the tangled hair that clung to her neck.

"It's hard to say how different things might have been if you hadn't pushed aside my attentions. You might have been killed during the raid. Who knows, I could have saved your life."

"But then, if my uncle's plan had unraveled, if it had been discovered the Chiricahua were not behind the raid, your father stood to take the blame. I think you saw a way to make certain I stayed alive and was fingered with the responsibility." Anna Leigh was silent for a moment.

"My father had been critical of Washington's policies on the Indians of late. He was recognized among his peers to be more sympathetic.

Wilson and my father... they were known to argue publicly--and privately. I think Wilson saw Papa as a patsy for his scheme long before he recognized you were a better choice." She tossed her disheveled hair defiantly.

"And what if I did help Wilson to see it? Better you than my father."

"You could have turned everyone in," Ryder said with quiet conviction.

"But then, there was the gold." Anna Leigh sighed.

"I suspect you know me too well," she said.

"Betraying your uncle wasn't something I could do." Mary couldn't help herself.

"You seemed to have changed your mind."

Anna Leigh's voice was sharp.

"He's the one who deceived me," she snapped.

"I was referring to your affair with Lieutenant Rivers," Mary said.