II.

Although it was already after midnight, Claire McLeod was still awake. She was searching the world wide web to find out more about the right training for the horses that other people gave to her for training. She was a great rider but she always wanted to get better and better. After the nerve-racking problems with Peter Johnston, Claire had obviously quite quickly found her way back to the normal life, but it was hard to keep her face in front of the others when all she wanted to do was hide in a secret place and cry her little heart out.

With a sound he stopped the engine and got out of the car. Carefully he put the girl into his arms and carried her towards the door. From behind, he saw headlights moving towards the main building, probably from Dr. Gardeners car. He had a very old and shabby Ford but still, it got him any place he needed to go, even in the night time.

Alex prodded his foot against the door, not minding the late hour, and only moments later, Claire opened the door. In her own special weird way, she looked at Alex holding the dirty girl in her arms and frowned.

"What is this?" she asked wide-eyed.

"I found her, somewhere down the road. Her horse is still there. Can…"

"Yeah, I'll send Becky later. Come on in. Oh, you've already called the Doc?"

Alex only nodded. He stepped in and brought the young woman to the couch in the living room. Claire switched on the lights and only moments later Becky and Meg stood in the doorway.

"Is something wrong?"

Then Becky saw the girl's face. She went over to the couch and wiped away the mud and blood that was there. Now Alex saw that he had been right, it was blood. Meg brought water and a towel and together with Becky they washed the other girl's face. There were several cuts and bruises which could not have possibly happened during the fall from the horse or during the drive to Drover's. To him, and he knew this game, it looked like she had been beaten up. She was quite cute, Alex thought to himself. Funny, he thought, why was he thinking weird things like that in a situation like that? She was badly wounded. After Meg left to empty the bucket of water, Dr. Gardener examined her and his forehead displayed quite clearly what he thought. When he finally turned around and looked at them, Tess came downstairs.

"What is going on here? I was just dreaming something really…" Then she saw what was going on. "Oh…is she alright?"

"Becky, would you ride out and get her horse? Alex said he tied it to a tree somewhere down the road…"

"Sure!" the blonde replied and turned around to leave the house and bridle up her chestnut coloured mare.

Dr. Gardener raised an eyebrow and began to talk. "A couple of ribs are broken, both wrists and several fingers sprained and many bruises on her chest and stomach." He lifted her shirt for a moment to show the others what he was talking about. Her skin was pale and the bruises were so visible that it made Alex think that they were quite new. The line of contusions trailed along her ribcage across her stomach and also lower down. What happened here? He stepped a little closer and saw deep scratches a little higher where the pants covered her hips.

"What is this?" he inquired.

Dr. Gardener had a closer look and frowned. "What on…" he whispered and pulled the upper part of the jeans down a little to see more. The scratches went down a long way but Dr. Gardener bent over the girl so that Alex and the others couldn't see anything. It took a few moments until he stepped back, but he wouldn't say anything. But he asked Claire out of the room to talk to her privately. Alex nearly died to find out what it was they had to talk about in secret but Tess now wrapped the girl into a blanket.

"Tess?" Alex asked. Tess turned around.

"Hmm…?

The concerned look on her face made him shiver. "Is it something bad?" he asked in a low voice.

Tess shook her head with a sad expression in her eyes, then turned away and put one hand on the girl's shoulders.

"So I guess it is bad…" Alex whispered and sat down on the chair on the left of the couch.