Kid, Ruth, Camille, and Lydia came out of the hotel dressed in black clothing. The crowd of people desiring healing was back, having discovered how they used the back door, and thinking foolishly that a touch would be all it took. The newspaper man had kept his promise and now her reputation was as shining as it had ever been. She almost regretted the retraction if this was the result.

Rather than trying to press through the crowd like last time, Ruth tried addressing them instead. "Go home," she said, her voice carrying over their murmurings. "It's to Him you must turn your eyes and ask for healing of spirit and body. I am but a woman proclaiming the message of the Lord and as long as your focus is on me and not the Great Physician you will never be healed. The Lord is coming. Make yourselves right before Him before it comes upon you like a thief in the night. Go read your Bibles."

The crowd noticeably thinned after that but a few lingered and followed them to the grave site, refusing to be dissuaded. However, when they saw that the funeral was for an outcast, they hung back as if the dead woman's unrighteousness could infect them if they got too close.

Florine couldn't be buried in the city's cemetery because of her occupation, so she was buried just outside the city limits as shunned and separated from "respectable" folks in death as she was in life. And yet, Ruth didn't see how the problem could be ignored forever. She'd existed, the problem existed, and pretending it didn't wasn't going to change anything. She could preach another sermon to the crowd right now on that, but she didn't and turned her attention where it should be.

Kid had collected smooth, round stones to form a cross and mark the site. Lydia had specifically said she didn't want to see her mother's body, so Kid had also taken care of burying the body beforehand. Only freshly turned earth spoke of the reality that Florine was gone.

Lydia, Kid, Ruth, and Camille were the sole mourners as Joe refused to let any of the girls attend. Ruth supposed they should be grateful that he had informed them at all of her demise, so they could come claim the body. Besides, Florine had been more fond of the bottle than any of her colleagues, generally keeping to herself, so it was likely none would've shown if he had.

John Meacham performed the service as Ruth wanted to be able to offer emotional support to Lydia, although she seemed to be keeping a stiff upper lip or maybe it was simply because she didn't know the woman being buried as well as she would've liked; she bore the title Ma, but she was little more than a stranger to the girl. Camille and Lydia had become close over the past couple of weeks and Camille stood on Lydia's other side.

Reverend Meacham focused little on her life but spoke passages of comfort and of the daughter she'd given life to.

"Do you think Ma went to heaven?" Lydia asked Ruth when the service was over.

"I know that many folks finally change their hearts with eternity before them and I think that above all it's in God's perfect and loving hands."

That answer seemed to satisfy her.

"Did you know when your Ma was carrying you that she tried to run away and start a new life with you, but it just didn't work out for her?"

"Really?" Lydia asked brightening. She looked at the grave and realized for the first time in her young life that maybe her mother had loved in her own way.

Camille walked up to the grave with Lydia where the girl laid the wild sunflowers she had picked.

"We're going to miss having you at our church Sundays," John said to Ruth. "I know you only came 3 times, but that's enough to miss you. I imagine I'll hear your name pop up every now and then though. You're doing good work."

"So are you. I'm sure I'll be hearing about your work too," she returned.

"Godspeed, Sister Ruth."

"Thank you and God be with you, Reverend. Thank you for doing this. I know it meant a lot to Lydia."

After the funeral, they all prepared to leave St. Louis. Kid got the wagon and horses ready and Ruth, Camille, and Lydia packed up their belongings. Camille then took Lydia over to Joe's to see if they could get the Bible back while Ruth purchased paint and added to the sign on the canvas: 'The Lord is Coming'.

"How's it look?" Ruth asked Kid, the letters gleaming from the wet paint. "Think it'll remind people that it's not Sister Ruth's Revival as much as it is the Lord's?"

"If it doesn't, you will," he told her.

Camille and Lydia joined them. Lydia had her Bible and Ruth gave her the leftover paint as a gift. Then she asked Camille, "Decided where you're going?"

"Independence. If that doesn't work out, it's an easy place to decide where I want to go from there, so many trails I can take further west."

Plans firmly in place, Ruth turned her attention to Lydia. "Have you decided who you're going to go with?"

They'd offered her the option of choosing for herself a couple of days ago.

"It'd be fun traveling with you all, but I think I want to try having a home, a real home for awhile."

Camille was smiling. "You want to go purchase our tickets on the next stagecoach heading to Independence?"

"I've never been in a stagecoach before," she said with obvious delight as she took the needed money from Camille and skipped off after giving Ruth and Kid goodbye hugs.

"Can I talk to Kid?" Camille asked Ruth.

"Sure." She seemed surprised for a moment but her face softened into a smile and she climbed up onto the wagon seat to give them some privacy.

"Camille—" Kid began.

"Sally," she interrupted.

"What?" Kid asked, not understanding.

"That was my name before it all happened and I guess it will be again."

He smiled. "Sally then. That's a nice name."

"It's a plain name, but it suits me. It'll take some getting use to though; I've been Camille for so long."

"You know I never apologized. I'm sorry."

"You're sorry? I'm the one that tried to drive a wedge between you and your wife, who is a wonderful lady by the way."

"I meant about before. I know we were friends and all, but I didn't treat you like a true lady even with all my polite ways. It's a terrible occupation and if it weren't for men like I was, it wouldn't go on."

"I accept your apology. Do you accept mine?"

"I do. Like the Bible says, we're new creatures. The old us has passed away."

"Then let's start over completely. I'm Sally Aiken." She offered an outstretched hand.

He gave her hand a gentle, brief shake. "I'm Kid Cole."

Camille went to join Lydia while Kid climbed beside Ruth.

Kid gave a slap of the reins to get them moving. "I'm sorry that you had to run into a woman I used to know. I just hope you know that no woman past, present, or future can hold a candle to you. I appreciate you being so nice too. I'm sure it helped in her decision to follow Jesus. I don't know that I could be as gracious if I were to run into a man you used to know in that sense."

"I'm not as much a saint as you think I am. I've had plenty of unkind thoughts about her."

"But it doesn't keep you from being kind. That's why I love you so much." He leaned over and kissed her cheek.

Kid noticed out of the corner of his eye that a crowd of people was following the moving wagon. It could be they were giving a sendoff but more than likely they were still hoping for last chance to be healed.

"Now I know why John the Baptist preached out in the wilderness," Ruth kidded.

"The wilderness sounds good to me right about now."

Present Day

Sister Ruth was intently penning a message on her lap desk.

"That's for the crazy woman, ain't it?" Kid surmised. "She didn't want to listen to you. What makes you think she's going to read your letter?"

"I don't know that she will, but without my presence to distract her, maybe she will. I want to help her and if it wasn't for my name being so well-known, I probably could."

"Not your fault. You didn't ask for the fame. Neither did I, but our names will probably outlive us. We'll be legends long after we're dead and buried and most of the legend will be fiction. Listen to this." He held a dime novel in his hand that he'd seen and bought this morning in the general store, starring him. He read a part of it out loud for her.

"The lynch mob encircled him. Suddenly there was a cloud of smoke and the sound of shots being fired. When the smoke cleared, 22 people lay dead on the ground, but he was still standing. He always kept a gun hidden for just such purposes.

He leaped onto a black horse, his owner no longer having need of it in the afterlife.

Redheaded Lil had watched it all unfold from the sidewalk, impressed with his manliness and accuracy. As he galloped by, he took her hand pulled her onto the ebony beast and they rode off into the sunset.

Virginia City wouldn't soon forget the name Kid Cole.

Not exactly the way I want to be remembered."

Ruth had tried hard to restrain her mirth during the read, knowing that Kid was irritated with it, but the laughter now burst forth. "I'm not laughing at you," she apologized when she got her laughter under control. "I'm laughing at that drivel."

"You wouldn't be laughing if it was about you."

"I might as long as they weren't blasphemous about God, but few of us are remembered the way we want to be remembered. Don't forget what 1 Peter says. Men's flesh and glory wither and fall like grass, but the word of the Lord endures forever. It's not about us. It's about living for God, being a light to draw people away from the darkness. That's all that will matter in the end."

"You're right. My identity is found in Christ; it's most certainly not found in a dime novel." He finally cracked a grin. "You want me to deliver your letter and then ride off into the sunset with me?"

She smiled back. "I'd ride off anywhere with you."

The End