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Her fingers were cool from the rain. He closed his own around them, careful not to grip too tightly.

“Tell me about Missouri,” he said.

“What would you like to know?”

“Something that ain’t about an accident.”

She thought for a moment. “Josiah once claimed the neighbor’s rooster was possessed.”

“Was it?”

“It chased him all the way down the lane every morning. It never bothered anyone else.”

“Smart rooster.”

“Josiah said the same. He was not complimenting it.”

Eden told him about the creek where she and her brother had caught minnows as children, and about the time Josiah climbed the church bell tower on a dare and their father had to rescue him. She told him how peach preserves cooled on the kitchen sill and how Mama pretended not to notice when the children stole a spoonful.

Jesse listened to the life she’d left behind. He could picture her younger, running beside a creek, her skirts wet at the hem, laughing at a boy foolish enough to quarrel with a rooster.

When she paused, he opened his eye.

“Go on.”

“I’m running out of embarrassing stories about my brother.”

“Then tell me one about you.”

Eden’s cheeks colored.

“Oh, now that’s worth staying awake for,” Jesse said.

She shook her head, but he could see she was deciding which story to trust him with.

Outside, men were hunting Crowley through the rain. Jesse hadn’t forgotten them. He wouldn’t until both his brothers came through that door.

For the moment, though, Eden’s hand remained in his, and she began to tell him about the time she tried to teach a stubborn mule to bow for the church picnic.

Chapter Twelve

The men returned to Flat River in the hours before dawn, having spent most of the night at the south crossing.

Eden heard the horses from Jesse’s room. He had finally fallen asleep while she read to him, the book now lying closed beside the bed. At the first clatter of hooves in the street, his eye opened.

“Bass?”

“I’ll find out.”

She rose, but his left hand caught the edge of her sleeve.

“Tell me straight.”

“I will.”

He released her. Eden took Jesse’s notebook and went out front.

Bass stood inside the clinic, shedding water from his coat. Beau followed him, along with Whit Hartman, Marshal Davis, and Ranger Hardin, who had a shallow cut along his cheek.