Now Ethan Cord just wanted to kill Ethan Cooper. Whether slowly or quickly he couldn't decide but the man was driving him crazy. He had stopped claiming his horse had caught a stone but when Ethan checked the sorrel gelding he found nothing. Shooting Cooper, a look he got back on his horse and they kept riding.

An hour later, Cooper claimed to be too saddle sore in certain areas and Ethan just shook his head and said that taking some time off from getting friendly with saloon girls would take care of that.

"I don't carouse with them," Cooper insisted, "I'm just a gambling man."

Ethan didn't doubt that. He just didn't seem to be good at it judging by the fact that he didn't have enough money to buy a train ticket from Reno to Denver. Ethan figured he'd be the type of gambler that would always be one step ahead of lying destitute in a gutter or getting beaten up or worse by other players when he couldn't pay up.

"You'd best keep up or I'm leaving you behind."

"I bet you she's not even in Colorado Springs," he said, "She could be in Boise or Wichita instead."

Ethan kept his eye on the trail. He knew the area they passed through often had bands of outlaws hiding out or stashing their goods inside caves or empty mine shafts.

"The women left you…time to move on don't you think?"

Ethan looked behind him.

"Quiet down…you don't want to attract attention on this part of the trail unless you want to get shot off your horse or your throat slit."

Cooper fell silent then and Ethan breathed easier. If the man could just stop talking all the way to Colorado Springs then that'd be perfect. The trail was in decent shape, so was the weather and they were making good time today.

He didn't envy what lay ahead for Cooper when his children saw him again. It seemed they had seen the truth, in that he'd been more concerned about getting his hands on some money for gambling than in their welfare let alone being a father to them.

Ethan couldn't imagine abandoning his child. He'd gone through enough of that growing up with Lucy. He figured the Cooper children would send their wayward father packing sooner than he could open his mouth and spin a tale of how he'd become a changed man.

Hopefully, they'd know they found themselves a good home with this female doctor and her husband and just tell him to get lost.

He hoped he'd find Amelia there too. It'd be the first time in nearly a year that he'd seen her since she took off.

When he saw her what would he say to her? It'd broken his heart when she'd left him but he'd had time to think about it including when sitting in the porch swing at her empty house where they'd done some of their courting.

Besides she'd wired him to meet her in Reno. That had to mean something. He just didn't know what.

Colorado Springs

Michaela was in her favorite place in the world right now, the arms of her husband. They'd had a rare dinner out at the restaurant and then some time alone at the house, after coming home late while everyone else slept.

Afterward, they came back down to earth feeling better than they had in a while. Both of them had been so busy, she with her new patient and he with the monument he was building for the Cheyenne.

He stroked her hip underneath the covers.

"Katie's almost two, can you believe it?"

She smiled against his chest.

"I know…time does fly doesn't it. It seemed just like yesterday she was born in the wilderness and then when we came home, Jake complained about her not having a lot of hair."

Sully chuckled.

"She's got a full head of hair now," he said, "and she's sure picking up her words. She'll be off to school before we know it."

Michaela had mixed feelings about that. She enjoyed Katie as a baby and then a toddler, she knew she'd enjoy her just as much as a girl but she'd miss having her close to her…while she was at home…or at the clinic in town.

"You thinking about giving her a brother or sister?"

She sighed.

"I know we've been talking about it but with my workload," she said, "Perhaps when she's a little older."

Sully nodded.

"I think Katie should be the youngest for a while longer."

Michaela smiled. She remembered what it'd been like to grow up in her own household back in Boston. Her favorite sister had been her oldest, Rebecca and she'd fought the most with Marjorie but losing her during the diphtheria epidemic and been one of the hardest experiences in her life. She did want her daughter to have a sibling to grow up with closer to her in age even if they did spend part of it fighting with each other.

She and Marjorie had made their peace, respecting each other's differences and had shared some special times before her death, leaving her feeling blessed.

Sully pulled her closer knowing that her sudden quiet meant that she was remembering Marjorie again. She settled happily against him as they drifted off to sleep.

Jake Slicker sat in the Golden Nugget having a Scotch the minute the morning became afternoon. Even the job as town mayor didn't give him much to do so he spent a lot of his spare time at the saloon he co-owned with Hank.

He kept out of the brothel side of it leaving that to his partner. It wouldn't be fitting for a mayor to be involved in such a sordid trade in a traditionally Christian town. The Reverend shook his head whenever he encountered him knowing that side of it. Jake was just so stunned that the Reverend knew it was him despite having been blinded by illness not too long ago.

Hank walked by him looking unusually tidy in a suit that must have been stashed away in the back of a storeroom for years. He'd even groomed his thick long hair and what was that smell? Was Hank using cologne?

"Where you heading Hank and why you all gussied up like you're heading to the spring dance?"

Hank just cast him a surly look.

"You want to take this outside. I don't want to have to replace anymore bar stools."

Jake shook his hand preferring a quiet afternoon with some alcohol to a brawl out in the middle of the street with a man who didn't fight fair.

"I'm not starting anything honest. I just don't see you dressed up like that and got curious. No crime in that."

Hank sighed.

"I'm heading to Michaela's clinic to help with a patient."

Now that really intrigued Jake because he didn't often hear Hank admitting that he was doing anything to help anyone besides himself.

"Which patient?"

"Amelia Lawson…"

"Amelia who?"

Hank looked impatient and in a hurry to be out of there. Whoever this Amelia was, she must have assumed a major role in his life somehow.

"Amelia Lawson…"

"She your sister?"

Hank shook his head.

"Sister in law. She ran off and married my brother Pierce."

Jake felt lost.

"You have a brother named Pierce?"

"I do but he's a no good cheat and liar," he said, "and women stealer."

Jake chuckled.

"I got to meet this guy. Is he coming to see you?"

Hank's eyes hardened and that told Jake not to push the issue. Obviously there was bad blood between him and his brother.

"He shows up here he's a dead man."

"So what's his wife doing here?"

Hank sighed again.

"She's got amnesia. Forgot who she is. Since I knew her, Michaela thinks I can help her get her memory back."

Jake gave him a sly look.

"Taking her down memory lane? You coveted your brother's wife?"

Hank scowled.

"I knew her first," he said, "Pierce swept her off her feet with crazy talk and she married him."

Jake shrugged.

"If she doesn't remember she was married to him then this is your second chance."

Hank just looked at Jake in a way definitely not friendly before he headed out of the saloon.

Amelia sat at the clinic sipping some tea. Her head had stopped hurting but her memories still eluded her. She wondered if this man named Hank who apparently shared her last name could help her recover them.

But she remembered Michaela's warning and his attitude. Surly seemed to be putting it mildly when it came to his demeanor. How could she have ever been involved with a man like that, especially after hearing that he owned a saloon that included a brothel?

It just didn't seem to make sense to her. But then she'd been told that the woman that'd been with her when she got ambushed had been working at a brothel in Reno. Did that mean that she'd worked in one herself? But then she had a husband named Pierce Lawson who she didn't remember.

In her dreams she saw another man that had been sitting by her bed imploring her not to die. Dark hair, brown eyes and a soft voice. Somehow she didn't think he was her husband.

Michaela walked in carrying Katie who had been fussy that morning.

"You ready to spend time with Hank?"

Amelia nodded.

"I'm somewhat nervous about it but I really want…I need to find out who I am and what I'm doing here."

Michaela poured herself some tea.

"Fair enough. I hope he can help you. He really seems to want to try. You don't remember anything about him?"

Amelia shook her head.

"I wish I did but I don't…nothing at all. There's a man but I know it's not him…and I don't think it's my husband, Hank's brother. It doesn't make any sense."

Michaela rested her hand on Amelia's shoulder.

"It will…you'll find a missing piece to the puzzle of your life and you'll make a breakthrough. It could happen at any time even when you don't expect it. At least that's what the journals state."

Amelia tried to process it all but it was just so difficult. Hopefully meeting with Hank would get the process started at least.

But she felt so nervous about it and him. He played a key part in her past, she believed that but what?

Michaela sat and waited with her for his arrival.

Denver

The man looked at the bounty hunter who'd brought his posse from Pueblo where they'd spent some time after the ambush outside Colorado Springs.

Where they'd last seen both Amelia and Pearl. He grew impatient with the posse. He knew he had to prove himself in Reno to feed his political ambitions in his new town. Amelia had made a damn fool out of him and the owners of the Cactus Flower

"I gave you a simple job to do and you bungled it," he said, "Now I need you to go out and finish it."

The bounty hunter sighed.

"Those women…they got the jump on us," he said, "You didn't tell me you put a bounty on Amelia Lawson."

"You didn't tell me that you knew her and she'd recognize her."

The bounty hunter shrugged.

"It's a smaller country than I thought," he said, "I didn't think I'd see her kind anywhere near a brothel."

The man gritted his teeth.

"She got it in her head to help Pearl escape," he said, "Now we got to go find her and take her back to Reno to work off her contract."

"And Amelia?"

The man smiled.

"I want to deal with her personally myself."

The bounty hunter nodded.

"I'll take my men out to Colorado Springs as soon as we freshen the horses and get supplies," he said, "We'll get the both of them or my name's not Johnny Ryan."