The mare and foal slept most of the night, exhausted from their labors. Amelia checked on them while Cord stoked the fire that warmed the cave.
"How they doing…," he'd ask.
She smiled.
"Great...nice and strong colt," she said, "The mare's settled down well."
She sat next to him again, looking into the fire.
"What about you?"
She glanced at him sideways.
"I'm fine…like I said the mare needed a little help but nature took over from there."
They'd had many conversations like this since she really known him. It had taken time for their friendship to develop and enrich before it turned into something else.
"I'll help you take them both back in the morning."
She nodded and then reached into her pack for some jerky. She handed him some this time and he took it, eating it.
"They'll be fine until then," she said, "and the rain should clear out by then."
"I talked to Martha about what happened at the ranch," he said, "Her father wouldn't come out of his office."
"I'm not surprised," she said, "but there's no real mystery to it Ethan. This has happened in bigger cities."
Ethan sighed.
"I don't have any evidence that's what Darrin's doing," he said, "not yet anyway."
She shrugged.
"He's way too careful Ethan," she said, "Hiring men to commit crimes to rile the businessmen up to buy into your solution. But it doesn't work well without a scapegoat and that's Bella."
He paused.
"I'm not going to let anything happen."
"It's already happened," Amelia said, "Most of the businessmen have signed up for to use his men who could be outlaws for all they know."
"I tried to get the names of the newer ones to put on the wire before they arrive."
"I know and Darrin didn't tell you anything did he?"
Ethan saw the scar on her face above her eye and he still didn't know how it'd gotten there. She didn't want to talk about parts of the time that she spent away from Paradise.
"No he didn't but it doesn't matter," he said, "I'll get that when they arrive in town."
She sighed pulling her blanket higher up.
"I guess we'd better get to sleep," she said, "It's been a long day."
He nodded and they both settled to make themselves as comfortable on the rock floor as possible.
"We haven't done this in a while…"
"You mean camp out," she said, "Not since…"
But that had been a different time when they'd been together and so much had changed since then.
"The chase…?"
"Yeah…that…"
"And when we had to go after the children who were looking for treasure…"
Her cheeks flushed.
"That too…"
That had been the night they'd almost been intimate for the first time but it hadn't been the right time for many reasons. It's not that she didn't want to share that with him, it's just that it'd been a big step for her to take since her husband abandoned her. She'd made up some excuse as to why she'd turned him down but then on another camping trip, they'd finally given into their feelings.
But soon enough after that they'd gotten engaged and that's when it started to go wrong. All these signs that they weren't going to make it. Aborted trips to the altar, the new house being torched to the ground and finally her feeling so overwhelmed when she thought she'd have to bury Ethan after he'd been shot for the umpteenth time.
"I don't know why I got so scared Ethan."
"Scared of what?"
She sighed.
"Scared of losing you…that night in the hotel," she said, "I'd been close before and it just made me more determined to hold onto you."
Ethan remembered some of those moments, those close calls when he'd been in danger or injured. The one time he'd faked his death when an assassin came after him, he'd dropped in on her when she'd been playing some somber dirge on the piano. Her face had been streaked with tears when she'd turned around to face him. She'd asked him not to go, to put himself in a situation where he'd get killed for bounty.
But when he kissed her goodbye, she had felt some of his determination to return to her once he'd dealt with the man trying to kill him.
"I was so desperate one time I thought you were dead," she said, "I asked for a gun from Charlie and Scotty and I didn't even know what I was going to do with it…I felt like just shooting that man dead like he'd done to you."
Ethan hadn't heard that part of the story from her before…oh Scotty and Charlie had blown it up into some tale where his woman had threatened to go vigilante on the hired killer. But he took their accounts of incidents with a grain of salt and by the time he returned into Amelia's arms he had wanted to focus on moving forward. She didn't fight that either so relieved to have him back safe.
"I didn't know that," he said, "I knew if I didn't confront him that another hired gun would be sent after me…and my family."
"I know that now…I did so much thinking when I was away Ethan."
"Were you going to come back to me Amelia?"
There it was, the question which stood between them. She felt a lump in her throat when she remembered when she'd made that decision.
But she finally nodded and his heart skipped a beat.
"I missed you," she said, "so I decided to come back but it took me longer than I thought."
"I'm glad you did," Ethan said, "How was it like to travel to different places?"
She smiled.
"I enjoyed most of it…had some adventures but I couldn't stop thinking about you and the children…what I said to you…it was always on my mind."
"I know that was something you had to do," he said, "and you always wanted to do it. Heard about your scrapbook…"
Amelia made a face.
"Yes you did…from Pierce…I don't know why I shared my dreams with him."
Ethan looked at her.
"Because you loved him…?"
She shrugged.
"I did…or so I thought," she said, "I was so young then but I had time to think about it the times when he took off to escape from whoever came looking for him."
"He was a fool…"
She smiled again getting up to go check on the mare and foal again while he watched. She was dressed up just like he was, in pants and a button shirt, her hair braided, not in the dresses she'd once favored imported from Europe.
"He just never grew up Ethan," she said, "but he's got bigger things to worry about now."
She looked distant for a moment after she sat down beside him again.
"Meaning what?"
She didn't respond right away.
"Nothing worth worrying about," she said, "but some men are looking for him."
"Daggett and his men…?"
She looked at him.
"Not exactly…"
She didn't elaborate and he didn't ask.
"He owed two men a lot of money," she said finally, "and they were in San Francisco looking for him."
"Who Amelia…?"
She rubbed her forehead.
"There's a powerful family there," she said, "I think that Daggett was involved with them but I don't know how."
"So what did that have to do with Pierce?"
She sighed.
"He tried to sell them some land," she said, "some valuable property that was fertile for farming and the family bought into it and…"
"It didn't exist?"
"It was out somewhere in the desert," she said, "Miles away from any town."
"They weren't happy with him when they found out they got swindled?"
She nodded.
"But he'd skipped out right after he got the money," she said, "I could see he hadn't changed."
"Did you see him?"
She shook her head.
"I never saw him," she said, "I don't know anyone would assume I did. We've been divorced for about two years."
"Did anyone talk to you?"
She looked away from him towards the opening of the cave.
"It's really coming down hard right now," she said, "I hope it clears out by morning."
"It should," he said, "just a summer storm. We can head back after the sun comes up."
She pulled the blankets around her.
"I guess we should get some sleep," she said, "It's been a long day."
He did like and they tried to get comfortable sleeping on the hard rock but both had done it before. Amelia's mind filled with so many images of the past when they'd traveled to Virginia City or to search for his children when they'd taken off on the treasure hunt but so much had happened since those days.
Sometimes it seemed like yesterday, sometimes it seemed like a whole lifetime ago. It'd been so hard for her to sleep in the past few months because of what appeared when she closed her eyes…and in her dreams. They'd been dreams about her time spent in Paradise, when Ethan and she had gotten together, gotten engaged but then they'd changed and she'd remember another time. She'd wake up, her heart pounding and her clothes drenched without remembering where she'd just been only to be met with silent darkness.
She didn't want that to happen here. She didn't want him to know what she couldn't tell him. So she thought to herself, I'll just lie here and stay awake. But she felt so tired too and her eyes felt heavy so it was a battle to keep them open.
To fight to stay awake.
"Amelia…"
"What is it Ethan?"
"I want to know what happened when they asked you about Pierce."
She sighed and didn't know what to say.
"There's not much to tell."
"I don't believe that."
She felt irritation flood her.
"Ethan why can't you just accept that…?"
He paused.
"Because I know you," he said, "and when you need to tell me I'll listen."
She just looked at him.
"You wouldn't just listen Ethan."
Then she pulled the covers over her and tried to figure out how much time there'd be until morning.