PART 2 — THE COWBOY WHO STOPPED IN THE DARK

The man saw the blood before he saw her face.

“Good Lord!”

He dropped the reins, grabbed the lantern, and jumped from the wagon.

Nora heard his boots crushing the dry grᴀss, but she could no longer lift her head.

“Ma’am? Can you hear me?”

He knelt beside her.

The lantern illuminated a woman lying in the dirt, her brown dress torn and stained, one arm wrapped protectively around a tiny baby.

For a moment, the cowboy simply stared.

Then he noticed the child’s lips trembling.

“Easy, little one. I’ve got you.”

His name was Silas Boone.

He was forty-one years old, a rancher from the northern Wyoming territory, and a man who had learned not to ask too many questions about trouble found along lonely roads.

But this was different.

The woman was barely conscious, and the baby was dangerously cold.

Silas carefully lifted Elsie from Nora’s arms.

Nora suddenly grabbed his sleeve.

“No…”

“I’m not taking her away from you.”

“Please… don’t let him have her.”

Silas frowned.

“Who?”

“My husband.”

Those two words changed the look in his eyes.

Silas examined the wound in Nora’s side without moving her unnecessarily.

“Who sH๏τ you?”

Nora swallowed.

“Wade.”

“Your husband?”

She nodded.

“He took the money.”

“What money?”

“Eighteen thousand dollars. From the bank in Cheyenne.”

Silas went still.

He had heard about the robbery.

Every newspaper from Cheyenne to Casper had carried the story. A bank employee had been found bound in the basement, and a substantial amount of money had disappeared.

The sheriff believed the robber had fled south.

But nobody had mentioned a woman and a baby.

“What’s your name?”

“Nora Mallory.”

Silas looked down at the baby.

“And this little girl?”

“Elsie.”

“All right, Nora. I’m taking you both somewhere safe.”

She tried to answer, but her eyes rolled backward.

Silas caught her before her head struck the ground.

He wrapped Elsie in his coat, then carefully lifted Nora into the wagon.

His ranch was nearly twelve miles away.

He made the journey as quickly as the injured woman could safely tolerate.

Throughout the ride, he kept looking back.

Nora drifted in and out of consciousness.

Once, she whispered something about a kitchen.

Another time, she begged someone named Wade not to take the baby.

When the wagon finally reached the ranch, Silas carried her straight into the house.

His housekeeper, Mrs. Abigail Turner, nearly dropped the dish in her hand.

“Merciful heavens! What happened?”

“Get clean sheets, warm water, and the doctor. Tell him we’ve got a woman with a gunsH๏τ wound.”

“And the baby?”

“She’s coming inside too.”

Abigail immediately took Elsie.

The baby began crying again, and Abigail pressed her gently against her shoulder.

“Oh, sweetheart. You’ve had a terrible night.”

Silas lit every lamp in the bedroom.

He had no wife, no children, and very little experience caring for infants.

But he knew enough to understand that the next few hours mattered.

Dr. Samuel Whitcomb arrived forty minutes later.

He examined Nora carefully and worked through the night.

The bullet had pᴀssed through the fleshy area below her ribs without striking a major organ, but she had lost considerable blood.

“She needs rest,” the doctor finally said. “And she needs to be watched closely.”

Silas looked toward the bedroom.

“Will she live?”

“If she makes it through the next day, her chances improve.”

“And the child?”

“Exhausted, hungry, and frightened. But she’ll recover.”

Silas released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

The following afternoon, Nora opened her eyes.

The first thing she saw was a white ceiling.

The second was an unfamiliar woman sitting beside the bed.

“Where’s my baby?”

Abigail immediately stood.

“Right here, dear.”

She brought Elsie over.

Nora began crying as she gathered her daughter against her chest.

“She’s all right,” Abigail ᴀssured her. “She’s been fed, cleaned, and spoiled with more attention than she knows what to do with.”

Nora kissed Elsie’s forehead repeatedly.

Then she noticed the cowboy standing near the doorway.

Silas removed his hat.

“You’re safe here.”

Nora studied him suspiciously.

“Why?”

“Because I found you.”

“People don’t help strangers for nothing.”

Silas considered that.

“Perhaps you’ve met too many unkind people.”

She looked away.

For several minutes, neither spoke.

Finally, Nora whispered, “My husband will come looking.”

Silas’s expression hardened.

“Then he’ll have to come through me.”

But Nora shook her head.

“You don’t understand. Wade doesn’t come back because he misses someone. He comes back because he wants something.”

“What does he want?”

“The money. And something else.”

Silas waited.

Nora looked toward Elsie.

“He knows I found a second envelope.”

Silas frowned.

“What envelope?”

“Inside the bank satchel. There was a letter hidden beneath the money. I only saw part of it before he caught me.”

“What did it say?”

Nora closed her eyes, trying to remember.

“Something about a list of names. Men who were supposed to receive the money.”

Silas stepped closer.

“Did you see any names?”

She hesitated.

“One.”

“What name?”

Nora looked at him.

“Boone.”

The room became completely silent.

Silas’s face changed.

“What did you say?”

“Boone. I remember because Wade mentioned it once. He said the man was expecting his share.”

Silas slowly put his hat back on the chair.

“There are several families named Boone in Wyoming.”

Nora shook her head.

“No. Wade said Silas Boone.”

For the first time since finding her, Silas looked genuinely frightened.

Because he had never met Wade Mallory.

But three weeks earlier, someone had come to his ranch offering him five thousand dollars to hide a stolen bank satchel.

Silas had refused.

He had ᴀssumed the matter was finished.

Apparently, it wasn’t.

That evening, Silas went to the barn and searched through his old correspondence.

At the bottom of a drawer, he found the business card the stranger had left behind.

There was no company name.

Only an address in Cheyenne and a handwritten warning:

If you change your mind, don’t speak to the sheriff.

Silas stared at the card.

Then he heard something outside.

A horse.

Not one of his.

Someone was standing beyond the fence.

And when Silas stepped onto the porch with his rifle, the rider was already gone.

But something had been left hanging from the gate.

A small piece of blue ribbon.

The same ribbon Nora had tied around Elsie’s blanket.