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bothered.’’ Atticus cinched the knot down tight. He glanced up to Opal. ‘‘You want to tell someone about him, or should I?’’
    ‘‘Neither. He’ll probably yell loud enough to wake the dead. Come on, I’ll give you a ride.’’ She drew her foot out of the right stirrup so he could swing up behind her. ‘‘Where you going?’’
    The two of them rode off, the man’s screams for help assailing their ears.
    ‘‘I was on my way home. Been out diggin’ up the garden plot for Mrs. Black. Jed’s so busy building for the marquis, he don’t have time.’’
    To Opal it seemed strange to hear Cimarron referred to as Mrs. Black, but then, Atticus hadn’t really known them when they all still lived and worked at Dove House. The more new people who moved in, the fewer would remember Cimarron’s former life as a soiled dove before Ruby and Opal inherited the saloon-turned-hotel from their dying father.
    ‘‘I’ll take you back near to town, then I gotta get on home.’’ Home to the ranch, the first real home she’d had of her own in her entire life.
    ‘‘How come you weren’t in school?’’
    She’d been hoping he wouldn’t ask that. ‘‘I had a headache and felt sick to my stomach, so I told Mr. Finch I needed to go home.’’
    ‘‘But you went swimming instead.’’
    Leave it to Atticus to hit the nail on the head. He had a talent for that. Opal sighed. ‘‘The river was calling my name.’’ She thought a moment. ‘‘How come you showed up?’’ The bend in the river where she’d gone swimming was not on his way home, more like a mile out of his way.
    ‘‘Thought I’d take home some fish for supper.’’
    ‘‘And I messed that up for you. I’m sorry.’’ She looked over her shoulder, suddenly realizing how close he was, her back warming from the heat of him.
    ‘‘Never mind. I’ll get Robert, and we’ll try the second bend north of town. We always catch plenty there too.’’ Robert was Atticus’s younger brother.
    When they came around the hill, she stopped the horse. They could still hear the man yelling, although faint by now. ‘‘Who you going to tell?’’
    ‘‘Charlie?’’
    ‘‘If you tell him the whole story, he’ll go string the snake up himself.’’
    ‘‘Maunders?’’
    ‘‘That skunk and Jake Maunders are probably in cahoots. They smell like two of a kind. Word of this gets back to Ruby . . .’’ Opal shuddered. All she had wanted was to feel better, and a swim seemed the perfect answer. Why do I always get in trouble when I don’t mean to? I wasn’t playing hooky. Mr. Finch gave me permission to leave . Somewhere in all this the drumbeat at her temples had started up again. Once she got home, Ruby would steep up some willow-bark tea, and that would take care of things.
    ‘‘You can let me off here.’’ Atticus swung to the ground when she stopped her horse.
    ‘‘Thanks for saving me.’’ She smiled down at him, then cocked an eyebrow at the serious look on his face. ‘‘What is it?’’
    ‘‘Don’t you never make fun of us gettin’ married again, you hear?’’
    ‘‘Atticus, it was . . .’’ Of all the nerve .
    ‘‘I mean it.’’
    She watched him stride off across the land now rippling with calf-deep grass. Whatever had come over her friend?

CHAPTER FOUR
    She should be home from school by now.
    You know Opal will be here when she gets here. You promised yourself you would no longer worry about her. After all, what can happen between Medora and the ranch?
    Ruby Torvald, now Mrs. Rand Harrison, tried to ignore the argument going on between her ears, but she knew only too well all the things that could happen between town and home. Runaway horse, although it would take something pretty catastrophic to set Bay off; step in a gopher hole; a snake bite, although she’d heard no mention of rattlesnakes being out of hibernation yet. Surely Opal wouldn’t have gone fishing without letting her know. But she’d done just