Waking up to the feeling of a gentle hand on her brow, Karen felt groggy at first. "Easy, Karen. Just let yourself wake up slowly. It's okay." Heath's voice greeted her as she struggled to wake up and find out where she was.

She let out a deep breath and relaxed into the pillow under her head. She was comfortable. Her shoulder ached and her wrist throbbed but she was comfortable and safe. She knew this. She let her eyes open and saw Heath sitting on the edge of the bed, smiling at her.

"There you are. Good evening, sleepyhead. Mother wanted me to wake you and tell you that dinner's almost ready. Do you think you can handle coming down for dinner? Or would you prefer a tray up here?"

"I'll come down. Would you help me to sit up so that I can put my robe on?" Heath sat down to help her from the left side so as not to jar the right too much.

Very gently, Heath helped Karen to get to her own feet and then helped to slide her robe up the right arm first before putting the left in its sleeve. Once it was fully settled around her, Heath tied the belt around her snugly but not too tight. Then, he put the sling he'd removed when they started working on putting her robe on back in place to support her shoulder and wrist.

"Are you ready?" he asked, looking straight into her eyes.

She nodded and he allowed her to link her left arm with his right and they went downstairs.

"Karen! Oh my dear, it is so good to see you up and about!" Victoria said as Heath escorted Karen into the dining room for dinner. "How do you feel?"
"Better after some sleep, Ms. Victoria. I understand that Nick and Jarrod discovered what made Flamestar rear and bolt the way he did?"

"They did. Apparently someone had lined one side of the saddle blanket with sandburs. There were a lot on the blanket. Nick and Jarrod made sure that none were left behind after they took the saddle blanket off."

"Thank goodness. Is Flamestar alright then?"

"My dear child, you are astounding. You worry for the horse that could have killed you instead of being angry with it." Victoria shook her head as she took Karen's hand as the girl sat next to her. "Yes. Flamestar is just fine. A bit worn out but that is to be expected with as far as he ran."

"I'm glad. I would have felt awful if he hadn't been alright."

"Well, dear, it was not your fault. Someone had deliberately set up that blanket and made sure that you put it on Flamestar. Were there any other blankets around?"

"No. Now that you mention it, there weren't. I thought it was odd but that they might be in the wash."

"The hands would never put all the saddle blankets to wash at one time. They have a system set up so that certain ones get washed at certain times. The standing rule is never leave only one blanket out at any time. It just doesn't work that way."

"Are there any new hands? Maybe someone who doesn't know the rules for that sort of thing?"

"We haven't hired anyone new in months. All of the hands know the rules and abide by them. They understand how important it is to follow them."

"Ms. Victoria, is it possible that someone simply came in and sabotaged the blanket, removing the others so I would have no choice but to use that one and then left?"

"I would hope that no one would be that cruel, either to you or the horse, but I suppose it should be considered. I would hope that our hands would notice someone that doesn't belong and stop them before they could do anything to anyone here."

Just then, one of the hands came in. He seemed worked up about something. "Ms. Victoria, we found the other saddle blankets that should have been laid out for use. Someone buried them under the hay in one of the stalls in the barn. We found them just a bit ago when we were cleaning things up out there, trying to see if they'd simply been misplaced."

"Is there anyway they got buried by accident?" Karen asked.

"No, miss. Not with the amount of hay on top of them. It had to have been done intentionally." Karen started feeling frightened. Obviously, someone had gone to a great deal of trouble in order to set this up. Apparently in the hopes of her getting seriously hurt, if not killed. She reached over to Heath and took his hand. He held hers gently, realizing just how frightened she was.

"From now on, I want someone with Karen anytime she works with the older horses. I don't care who it is. But I want one of our people with her anytime she's outside the house at all. Apparently, someone is trying to scare her or even harm her. I won't have it. Ben Cartwright trusted us with his daughter and I intend to see that she returns to him in the shape that she came here in." She looked around the room at her family and the hand that was standing there. "Am I understood?"

"Yes, ma'am." The unified answer seemed to placate Victoria for the moment. She turned to the hand that had brought the news to her.

"I trust that you will pass the word and make sure that all of our people know to watch out for Miss Karen anytime she's outside this house."

"Of course, ma'am. I'll spread the word myself." He turned and went back outside.

Karen turned to Heath. The fear in her eyes was almost tangible. Everyone at the table was angry that someone was doing such a thing to a sweet girl like Karen. Heath felt it most of all. She had turned to him because she was now frightened. She didn't deserve this. Not one bit.

"Karen, dear. Why don't you finish your supper and then we'll see what is to be done afterward?"

Karen nodded. "Yes, ma'am." She turned back to her plate and quietly started eating what was on her plate, still worried and wondering what she had done to whom to make them hate her this much.

Her harsh whisper came out of the darkened barn. "Did you do as I told you to?" she asked as the man began touching her in ways that a man touches a woman he cares about. Her clothes began to fall away as he moved around her body.

"I did. But the old woman's sons saved her. I think that she hurt her shoulder and wrist. She may not be back for some time."

"That ought to teach her to mess with me." Lydia was trying to stay quiet but with the way the man was touching her, she was finding it increasingly difficult to do so.

"She won't get you in trouble again anytime soon. I promise you that. And if she does, I'll take care of the problem once and for all."

"What will you do?"

"I'll make sure that she doesn't finish school. And it won't be because she went home to her pa. Unless you count going home in a pine box." He laughed as the young woman beneath him fell apart under his touch.

The next several days, Karen stayed pretty close to the house and was never unaccompanied when she was outside, even if it was just to sit on the porch. She seemed rather skittish about every little noise she heard when she was outside and was even rather jumpy inside.

Victoria and Audra stayed as close to the young woman as possible as much as they could without making her feel smothered. Heath was also nearby almost constantly. Nick and Jarrod weren't quite as visible on a constant basis but they were watching as well.

For several hours the first three days after finding out that someone had tried to hurt her if not kill her, Karen spent a lot of time inside working on her classwork that she had brought with her so as not to fall behind in any of her classes.

On the fourth day after the incident with Flamestar, Karen made a decision. She walked into the dining room that morning dressed to ride.

"Karen?" Audra asked.

"I have decided that I'm through letting whoever this is cow me into a dark corner for whatever reason they may have come up with. I will continue working the older horses and if someone wants to come with me, that's fine. If they don't, I'll do it anyway."

Audra sat up a little straighter, proud of the young woman in front of her. "I'll be more than happy to go with you, Karen. Just let me know when you're ready and I'll go with you. In fact, I'll go change right after breakfast so that whenever you're ready, I'll be ready."

"I can work with that, Audra. Thank you."

Karen felt good as they sat eating at the table. She looked over at Victoria at one point. "Ms. Victoria?"

"Yes, dear?"

"I've made a decision. I'm finished letting whoever tampered with Flamestar's saddle blanket make me cower in fear. I'm a Cartwright and I have come to consider myself a Barkley. I won't let this person or these people destroy me like that. I'll be working with the horses today and Audra said she would be happy to be with me."

"I'm very proud of you, my dear. And very pleased that you consider yourself a Barkley as much as a Cartwright." She looked over at Audra. "Thank you for volunteering to go with her, Audra dear. Keep her safe. As well as yourself."

"I promise, Mother. I'll be going up to my room to change so that I can ride with Karen right after breakfast this morning."

"Would the two of you ladies like to have an extra riding along?" asked Heath.

Karen nodded and ducked her head. She tried to control the blush raging across her face with very little success.

Almost two hours after breakfast, Heath, Karen and Audra walked out to the stable and saddled up horses. Heath was basically riding guard for the two women. He wasn't about to let anything happen to either his sister or the young woman he loved. Audra had one of the older horses and Karen had Flamestar. Heath was on his own horse that he had worked with for years. The horse knew him and he knew the horse.

The time went quickly and before the three knew it, they were finished working the horses and back at the house for lunch.

The next week went very similarly. Everything stayed quiet as Heath was with the women everyday for the working of the older horses.

One morning, Heath approached the women as they were getting ready to take two horses out for a workout. "I can't go with you this morning. I have to go to town today. If you want to wait until later, I could go then."

"Why are you going to town today?"

"Mother has a shipment arriving today on the train and I'm picking it up for her. Nick and Jarrod are working with some of the ranch hands on repairing a stretch of fence that went down before any of the cattle get out."

"I understand. Well, since we're ready to go, we can go on our own. I have Audra with me and we both know that she can shoot as well as you and your brothers. And I'm not lacking in an ability to shoot."

"Just be careful, Karen. You too, Audra. We know that someone wants to see Karen out of the way for whatever reason they've come up with. We just don't know how patient they are."

"We'll be careful, Heath. I promise," Karen said, pressing a gentle kiss to Heath's cheek. We'll see you later today?"

Heath nodded. "I hope to be back shortly after lunch but I can't be certain. It'll all depend on if the train is on time today."

Karen stepped away from Heath and let him start saddling up his horse. He didn't want to leave Karen for some reason. He just didn't know what the reason was.

And he didn't have the time right now to figure it all out.