Trudy held his arm as I ran around the edges of the field, as if she were holding him back from running to meet me.

I grabbed his shoulders with both hands and pulled him to me. “Oh, Jamie!”

“Did ya miss me?”

“Just a tiny bit. Where is everyone? Is everyone home? Is everyone okay?” Besides Jamie, Trudy was the only person here who was back from the raid. Everyone else in the little crowd—Lucina, Ruth Ann, Kyle, Travis, Violetta, Reid—was welcoming them home.

“Everyone’s back and well,” Trudy assured me.

My eyes swept the big cave. “Where are they?”

“Uh… getting cleaned up, unloading…”

I wanted to offer my help—anything that would get me to where Jared was so I could see with my own eyes that he was safe—but I knew I wouldn’t be allowed to see where the goods were coming in.

“You look like you need a bath,” I told Jamie, rumpling his dirty, knotted hair without letting go of him.

“He’s supposed to go lie down,” Trudy said.

“Trudy,” Jamie muttered, giving her a dark look.

Trudy glanced at me quickly, then looked away.

“Lie down… ?” I stared at Jamie, pulling back to get a good look at him. He didn’t seem tired—his eyes were bright, and his cheeks flushed under his tan. My eyes raked over him once and then froze on his right leg.

There was a ragged hole in his jeans a few inches above his knee. The fabric around the hole was a dark reddish brown, and the ominous color spread in a long stain all the way to the cuff.

Blood, Melanie realized with horror.

“Jamie! What happened?”

“Thanks, Trudy.”

“She was going to notice soon enough. C’mon, we’ll talk while you limp.”

Trudy put her arm under his and helped him hop forward one slow step at a time, keeping his weight on his left leg.

“Jamie, tell me what happened!” I put my arm around him from the other side, trying to carry as much of his weight as I could.

“It’s really stupid. And totally my fault. And it could have happened here.”

“Tell me.”

He sighed. “I tripped with a knife in my hand.”

I shuddered. “Shouldn’t we be taking you the other way? You need to see Doc.”

“That’s where I’m coming from. That’s where we went first.”

“What did Doc say?”

“It’s fine. He cleaned it and bandaged it and said to go lie down.”

“And have you walk all this way? Why didn’t you stay in the hospital?”

Jamie made a face and glanced up at Trudy, like he was looking for an answer.

“Jamie will be more comfortable on his bed,” she suggested.

“Yeah,” he agreed quickly. “Who wants to lie around on one of those awful cots?”