Anna groaned at the rooster crow but sat up anyway, pulling herself from bed. The smaller bed on the other side of the room held her darker haired girl, playing quietly with her dolls. Smiling to herself, Anna held her arms out to her. "Come here."

Lizzie ran over the floor, jumping into Anna's arms. She kissed Lizzie's forehead, brushing back her hair. "How long've you been up?"

"Long enough to know that man's still here."

"What?" Anna threw off her blanket, setting Lizzie to the side, and craned her head to see out the window. Sure enough John Bates limped across the paddock with the horses, using a bit of rope to get them all to lay down for him. Anna turned back to Lizzie, "Stay here and don't look out the window no matter what."

She grabbed her dressing gown, shoved her feet into the boots by her door, and grabbed her rifle. The banging of the open door alerted John to her and he immediately raised his hands in response to the gun. "Now, hang on-"

"The agreement was you left when morning came."

"You've still got my guns."

"You won't need them to ride twenty minutes west and see yourself right into the nice cell Sheriff Carson's got ready for you without knowing it." Anna jerked her head, "Be on your merry."

"I just wanted to help." John pointed to the horses, "They're not broken."

"I know that."

He looked confused, "Why'd you get unbroken horses?"

"They're a gift."

"Can I ask from whom?"

"It's none of your business." Anna cocked the rifle, "And I wasn't saying it's time for you to leave like a suggestion, Mr. Bates."

"I just wanted t repay your hospitality."

"By ignoring what I asked you?"

"By helping you break your horses."

"What makes you think I can't break them myself?"

He stopped, shrugging, "Nothing but if you've got fifty horses here then you need someone to help you or it'll take you too long."

"Don't presume to know how long it'd take me to break them."

"I'm just trying to be helpful."

Anna fingered the trigger before dropping the gun and uncocking it. "Yes, I think you were."

He let out a sigh before pointing a finger at her, "What is you hadn't thought I was trying to be helpful?"

"Then I'd've shot you and buried you out of my property somewhere Mr. Bates." Anna lifted the rifle to point, "I've got a nice spread here so I'd just pick the most inhospitable spot and leave your body to rot there."

"You're not one to mince words." He pointed toward the house, "I think someone's watching you."

Anna looked over her shoulder, frowning as Lizzie ducked her head back under the window. "Yes, she is."

"Curious one is she?"

"Too much so for her own good." Anna faced John again, nodding her head toward his leg. "How much better is it?"

"The bleeding 's all stopped and there's no permanent damage so I'll be fine. Just give it a few days and it'll heal up about right."

"You'll let it fester and then lose your leg," She rested the rifle on her shoulder, "Come inside and we'll clean and stitch it up before you need a cane or something."

"I think I'd be rather dignified with a cane." John came out of the paddock, dropping the rope to hold the gate closed and then limping after her. "Don't you?"

"I'm trying not to think too much about you Mr. Bates before I come to my senses and change my mind."

"About which part? Turning me in or shooting me."

"Haven't decided." Anna stopped before the door and held a finger in John's face. "Don't tell her who you are or any details. I don't need her spinning tales or having nightmares from anything gruesome you might bring to my table. Who you are and everything else associated with your life you leave when you come through that door. Are we clear?"

"I won't do anything to harm that little girl ma'am."

"Good." Anna opened the door to usher him through. "Find a chair and get your trousers off."

"With her inside?"

"Lizzie's seen worse than your leg and we'll just cut your long underwear high enough for me to clean your wound but leave all your…" Anna appraised him, "Better bits covered."

"You're think they're better?" He grinned and she shrugged.

"I'm still a woman, Mr. Bates." She motioned him inside, "Now please?"

He shuffled inside and she closed the door behind him, setting her rifle there before moving his guns off the table and dumping them onto her bed. His snicker drew her attention and she pulled out his gun, Heaven, and held it up. John swallowed, taking a chair at the table.

Anna put the gun back, pivoting to see Lizzie sitting on her bed, playing quietly with her dolls. She went over to her, sitting next to her. "Are you alright?"

"Who is he?"

Anna narrowed her eyes at John, working his belt loose and sliding his trousers down his legs to expose his stained long johns. "He's someone who needs our help for a bit and he'll help us break the horses."

"Is he a drifter?"

"I don't know." Anna kissed her head, "Help Mummy get her kit ready so we can fix his leg?"

Lizzie nodded, pushing off the bed and running to a corner to gather the necessary things while Anna drew the curtain between the beds and where John sat at the table. She removed her nightgown, changing quickly into her chemise and bloomers then sucking in to tighten her corset. Taking a breath, to ensure she could, Anna nabbed a blouse and loose skirt. Hurrying into them gave her enough time to pull her hair back with a few strokes of the brush to a knot high on her head before turning to Lizzie.

"You did wonderfully." Anna took the things from her, "Now change into your clothes and get your books. I don't want you late when Mrs. Hughes comes to take you to school."

"Yes Mama." Lizzie changed, scrubbing at her face in the wash bin, and assembled her books as Anna drew back the curtain.

For a moment her breath caught, the sight of John with his back to her and wearing nothing but an embarrassed grin holding her attention. Anna quickly shut the curtain again, turning to make sure Lizzie had her back turned, and then slipped through the curtain to face John again with the kit in her hands. He now held his shirt up, face redder than her blouse, and she pushed past him to a trunk in the corner after setting the kit on the table.

"I didn't mean to offend you. I just thought, with the curtain pulled, I could-"

"I'm going to assume you mean that you wanted to change out of your stained and damaged clothing and not that you intended for anything improprietous to happen, Mr. Bates." Anna risked a look at him, digging clothing from the trunk before closing it again.

"Never, ma'am."

"Good." She pushed another chair toward him, snapping her fingers and pointing to it. "Rest your rear on the other chair and your leg on this one. I'll need to have the muscles stretched or this'll never work."

"Right." He sat on the chair, spreading his shirt over his lap as Anna set the clothes in her arms on the table before opening her kit. "You've done this before?"

"Many times." Anna removed a few items before walking to the sink, pumping to get water into the kettle and setting it on the stove. She bent, checking the inside, and shoved a few smaller logs into the space. "I'm a bit of a medicine woman."

"Cure for everything?"

Anna looked over her shoulder at him, smirking a bit. He looked down, face growing even more red if it were possible, and resting his hands over his lap while Anna laughed. "Yes. Even for that."

"I'll… I-"

"Please," Anna stood, walking to the table and threading a needle while digging around for a few packets of things. "I know men, Mr. Bates. You're not the first one to give me that response."

"I do hope I'm a bit more chivalrous than the others."

"Very much so." Anna dropped some herbs in a ceramic bowl, grinding them up. "I've had a few too many individuals who gave me the response you've gotten who weren't nearly as embarrassed by it."

"Did any of them-"

She stopped, "Did any of them what, Mr. Bates?"

He pointed at the curtain, "I heard what she called you."

Anna set the bowl down, shaking it in place to check the contents before returning to the whistling kettle. "What of it?"

"Was her father one of those less than chivalrous men?"

"That's none of your business." Anna poured the water into the ceramic bowl with the leaves and another empty one.

"I didn't mean to pry."

"No, you just succeeded." Anna took a cloth, dipping it in the hot water. "But I guess you told me your story last night and there's a bit of quid pro quo in all this."

"I thought you not shooting me sufficient."

Anna snorted, sitting on a stool near John's stretched out leg, cleaning away the dried blood on both sides of his leg. "I would've thought so too but I guess there's something about you that tugs my heartstrings."

"Really?"

Anna pointed a finger at his brightening face, "It's the kind of pity one feels for a wounded bird, Mr. Bates."

"It's still more than more people feel toward me."

"I'm compassionate toward the downtrodden." Anna pressed the cloth into the wound and he hissed. "It's probably a bit infected."

"Probably." He grabbed his leg as Anna pulled at the skin to see. "Why?"

"To check for infection."

"No," He shook his head, speaking past his gritted teeth. "Why are you compassionate toward the downtrodden?"

"I've been that myself." She felt around the wound, "It isn't too bad, just needs some cleaning."

"Alright."

Anna cleaned the wound and then took the needle and thread. "I hope you've got a strong constitution."

"Strong enough." He held his leg and nodded, "Go on."

Anna started poking through the skin, sowing the wound closed on the top. When she noticed the strain in John's jaw from clamping it closed she nodded her head. "I'll distract you shall I?"

"Please."

"I can out here to get married." Anna kept the stiches small, pinching the skin so as not to pull too tightly and risk tearing it further. "Can you imagine that?"

"Where's the lucky man?"

"He's dead."

"I'm sorry."

Anna shook her head, "Don't be. I'm not."

"Odd way for a woman to speak about her husband."

"He wasn't a good man." Anna tied off the thread on the top, biting through it to give herself the needle and thread to reach the underside of his leg. "He was a financier, named Alex Green, who owned a few of my father's debts in Black Hawk."

"What kind of debts?"

"My father worked in the mining industry and they had one too many accidents in their mines. Working faster than they could safely build."

"Sounds like the story of many."

"It was." Anna moved the chair closer to him, bending his knee to give her more give on the underside of his thigh. "But my father couldn't pay back any of the debts when the mine shut down."

"What'd Green do?"

"He offered to settle my father's debts if I married him."

"What?"

Anna tied off the thread, biting it again, and rested it on the table. She reached for the other bowl, mixing the coagulating contents before spooning it onto both sides of his wound. "Yes, he wanted me as collateral to call in the debts."

"And you married him?"

"I wanted to save my family from destitution."

"Did it work?"

Anna set the bowl back, grabbing a bandage and wrapping over his leg while shaking her head. "No. He reneged on the deal with my father and brought me down here anyway since the marriage was still legal."

"And where's the bastard now?"

"Washed away in a flashflood." Anna tightened the bandage, pulling it up and around John's thigh. "So I hope he's burning in hell now if there's justice in the afterlife like there's not in this one."

"And your little girl?" John nodded his head toward the curtain and Anna stopped, tying off the bandage on his leg.

"She's the product of the worst nights of my life." Anna held his gaze, "The demand of a wife fulfilling her wifely duties."

"He forced you?"

"Not sure any court'd see it as that since I was his wife." Anna pushed herself to stand, "But providence shined on me and I inherited all that was my husbands when he passed from this life to eternal torment."

"Did it save your father?"

"It was too late for him when he decided the way out was a bullet to the brain to end his suffering." Anna gathered her things on the table, "I did save my mother and sister from destitution but they both went back to England to be closer to our family there."

"So you're here all alone?"

"I'm not alone," Anna held the things in her arms, "I've got Lizzie and she's all I need here."

"She's lovely."

Anna smiled at the shape through the curtain, "Yes, she is." Gathering her breath she faced John. "Use those clothes to change. Don't move too fast or you'll pull your stiches and we'll have to do this all over."

He nodded and she turned her back, cleaning her utensils and gathering what she needed to start breakfast. With the clearing of John's throat she pushed the curtain back for Lizzie to come to the table. "Help Mummy with breakfast darling."

"Yes Mummy." Lizzie pushed herself off her bed and Anna moved behind her, fixing her pinafore and hair before patting her bottom.

"Set the table for us and our guest."

"Is that what I am now?" John grinned at her, moving his leg to the stool so Anna could drag the other chair to a better position at the table. She frowned and he crooked a finger for her to lean toward him. "You've seen me naked. Aren't we more than that now?"

Anna narrowed her eyes at him, "I think leaving it at 'guest' for now is best, Mr. Bates. You don't want to see the wrong end of the barrels at my disposal."

"No, I suppose not."

"Good." Anna set a skittle on the stovetop, "Eggs everyone?"