Nitis didn't look up when he came back to the small adobe house. He was roasting a piece of meat over the fire from some animal he must have captured under the cover of night. "You know of baby," Nitis said right away gauging the truth.

Kid was stunned. "You knew? You knew she was going to have a baby?"

"Yes. She tell me when she think I not understand."

"Well, that's just great. It would have been nice if you'd have told me or if she would she have told me sooner."

"Why make difference? You stay with Ruth for baby?"

"No."

"Then why tell?"

He had a point and he knew it. "It's the principle of the thing."

"You leave either way. You coward. Never be warrior if Apache. You run because scared. Apache never run."

"I have to run or she'll leave me!" He didn't even realize he had felt that way until the words were out of his mouth. He was absolutely terrified of her leaving him. So much so, he was going to leave her before she had a chance to leave him.

He could picture what would happen if he told her the truth in vivid detail. She would try to heal him through faith. When it didn't work, she would think he had no faith and the pity would become contempt. He would only hinder her work because folks wouldn't take much stock in a faith healer with a sick husband. And she would end up leaving him for them because God came first in all her decisions.

"How you know?" Nitis asked. "How you know if you not tell?"

"I know." He wanted to run away from Nitis' words again, but that would only prove his accusation that he was a coward, so he did the next best thing. "I'm going to bed."

sss

Christmas came and went too fast. Ruth read the Christmas story for the Martinezes. Ruth made them her special sugar cookies as a Christmas gift. The Martinezes gave her an attractive plaid fabric, a black background with red and white lines. It was enough to make a dress from it if she wanted, but she planned on making the baby's gowns from it.

The day of the trial came even faster, the last day. Ruth pushed her runny eggs around in her plate over breakfast. She wasn't sick. She just had no appetite.

"Starving yourself isn't going to change anything," Señora Martinez pointed out rationally.

"I know. Maybe I can eat when this mess is over."

The frown she received in response that reminded her she was eating for two forced the bites of egg to her mouth where they settled uneasily in her stomach.

On the walk to the church, she forced herself to take a deep breath. Nitis had been right. She had to wait on God. She had to let go and let Him handle things. She might never know why Kid wanted this annulment, but she could still have peace by letting go and letting God. "Please, take care of him, Lord."

Kid was already there when she came in. He studied her carefully. He looked at her waist first. He just couldn't get over it. She was carrying his child in there, their child.

His eyes went up. She was so calm. How could she be calm at a time like this? Maybe this was what she wanted after all and if she had gotten used to the idea, he supposed he should be grateful. This was the simplest way to handle everything after all.

"You realize that the civil judge will make you pay for your wife's support, Señor Cole, even if the marriage is dissolved?" Señor Martinez asked, translating for the judge.

"Oh, uh, yes. I'm already taking care of that."

"Then the Holy Roman Catholic Church and the state of Sonora, Mexico finds-"

He expected to feel a small sense of relief with the coming judgment, but he didn't. It felt like death already. Worse, in fact, because he was causing this death. With the judge's next breath, his marriage would be dissolved. He couldn't let it end this way with Ruth.

"Stop! I have to talk to Sister Ruth first for a minute alone."

"Is that agreeable to you?" the judge asked her. There was no doubt the priest would rule in Ruth's favor, asking her a question like that, instead of ordering her to go with him.

She gave a slow nod.

He met her in the aisle and he took her elbow. She didn't pull away with the onlookers, but he could tell she wanted to.

She spun toward him the moment they were outside the church. There was anger and confusion on her part. "Are you trying to torture me? To prolong my pain? If you want an annulment, let's get at it."

They had a tendency to get in each other's faces when arguing and to a casual observer their closeness indicated they were either about to kiss or kill each other, but no one could mistake which one of those this was with the angry look Ruth was giving him and the hands on her hips. And they definitely had plenty of observers. Despite the fact it was a case closed to the public, the town had gotten wind that a decision would be made today and they waited to see what that decision would be, which annoyed Kid. He'd drag her to a more private place if he could. "No," he said.

"No you don't want one or no you're not trying to hurt me?"

"No, I'm not trying to hurt you and no I don't really want an annulment, but I'm prepared to get one."

She gave a snort of disbelief. "I don't understand. What do you mean you're prepared to get one?"

He could feel the bothersome stares from the crowd even though he wasn't looking at the nosy busybodies. He could at least pull her around to the side of the building and he did. "Remember when you made me go see that doctor?"

She gasped. "It was something to worry about, wasn't it? I knew you weren't acting right."

His eyes dropped to the ground. "I've got consumption."