Chapter One

The breeze was a nice gentle one, as ten year old black haired Elizabeth Anna Peterson and seven year old brother, brown haired Jeremiah, ran over through the hills that sat roughly thirty feet from the back of the home they shared with their widowed mother, Alejandra De Martinez Peterson. The home lay ten miles out of Lodi and was set back a good two hundred yards from the road. Their pitch black haired eighteen year old cousin, Isabel De Martinez, who had lived with them ever since her father-Thomas De Martinez-and their father-Adam Peterson-had been killed in freak accident, sat on a blanket under one of the trees keeping an eye on the children. It had been a long hard week and she hoped to be able to relax and enjoy the quiet time. However, it was not to be, as she heard both her cousins screaming her name.

Isabel jumped to her feet and ran towards her children, who were standing frozen along some trees that stood close together. The trees were surrounded by bushes. "What is it? What…" She never finished the second sentence as she froze in her tracks and looked behind the trees. A stranger lay on the ground, unconscious…and there was blood on the side of his head.

"Quickly, Anna, run to the cabin and get your mother!" Isabel spoke to her cousin as she began checking the injured stranger. "And take your brother with you!" She was not trying to be mean only, as active as Jeremiah was, Isabel did not wish to try to tend to a wounded stranger while trying to keep an eye on a young seven year old boy.

"Okay!" Anna grabbed young Jeremiah's hand and hurried away, while Isabel continued to look the stranger over; she had to know if there were any other injuries. It didn't take long to realize the man's right leg was broken and there was a large bump on the back of his head. Hoping to find some identification on the gentleman, she started looking through his pockets, only to come up with only an empty money clip. She could only wonder if someone had broken the man's leg broken-probably to prevent him from following the attacker later-hit on the back of the head, rendering him unconscious, for whatever money he had been carrying on him.

The stranger stirred when Isabel lifted his head in order to put her shawl on the ground, hoping to make it so his head did not have to rest on the hard ground. "Sir?" Isabel asked when the gentleman opened his eyes.

The stranger simply stared straight ahead and closed his eyes once more. By the time she laid his head down on her shawl, Isabel's Aunt Aljandra was also kneeling beside him. Jeremiah-who had followed his mother back to where his cousin was taking care of the stranger-stood close by.

"I've sent Anna to get the doctor and Benjamin." Alejandra told her niece. Benjamin was her late husband's brother who lived a mile away from their home.

"Who do you think he is? Where do you think he came from?" Isabel asked as she kept an eye on the stranger, who she fleetingly mused was the most handsome man she'd ever seen.

Alejandra wasn't stupid, and she shook her head; knowing what the young woman might be thinking. "I don't know, but I dare say he's too old for you and no," she quickly added knowing how hopeless a romantic her niece was, "I'm not interested either." Silence then fell between the two as Isabel continued to keep an eye on the stranger while her aunt kept an eye out for the doctor and her brother-in-law.

~oOo~

"No, you don't understand!" Nick stood in the sheriff's office in Lodi. To say the brown haired Sheriff, who had barely enough weight on him to keep him from blowing away, was upsetting the dark haired rancher was an understatement. Nick was downright livid. "My older brother is not the kind of man to shirk his responsibilities! He said he would meet me and my brother here," he pointed to Heath, "yesterday, and he's not here! Which means something has happened to him! All I'm asking, all any of us are asking, is if you'll help us ask around and see if anyone has seen him! What is so hard about that one?"

Sheriff Puttman leaned back in his chair and shook his head. "And I told you, when it comes to me seeing anyone, I only got back into town a couple of hours ago. When it comes to helping you look now," he gestured towards the cell, "until my deputy comes in, I can't go anywhere. The US Marshall is supposed to be here soon to get the man in there." He then softened his tone and said, "I'm more than willing to ask around when I get a chance; however, the three of you should be able to cover the whole town before I ever get a chance to be of any help."

Just as Heath went to say something, the door to the office opened and a teenage Mexican boy practically ran inside. He looked rather excited and was almost out of breath. "Hold on there, Amigo." Nick took a hold of the young man's shoulders just as he, the boy, was about to run into him. "Where's the fire?"

"I'm sorry, sir. But the doctor sent me." He looked at the sheriff. "He says there's an injured man out at the Peterson place. He said that, no, as far as he knows the man is not wanted only he thought you should know. In case anyone is looking…" He didn't get a chance to finish as Nick started asking just what the man looked like.

The young lad pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Nick. "He wrote the description down, in case the man was wanted."

Nick scanned the description and then tossed it on the sheriff's desk. "Don't worry about looking. This sounds our brother. Come on, Heath!" Nick flew out the door with Heath right behind him after getting directions to the Peterson home from the young boy. It didn't take Nick or Heath but a few minutes to get to the livery stable, saddle their horses and to ride out of town…and they didn't let any grass grow under their horses' hooves either.