“I’m not much good at lyin’, Aunt Annie.”

“You’ve lived in Texas long enough. It’s time you learned.”

Her heart was thumping as she stood at the edge of the dog-run, waiting. This was by far the largest body of soldiers she had yet seen pass this way. She saw the officer who so often had come in search of James, but she saw other officers, too, men whose uniforms suggested even higher rank. One of them gave an order, and the procession halted. She thought there were probably seventy-five or eighty men, perhaps as many as a hundred. The officer who had always led the searches seemed to be asking permission of a higher-ranking one. He received a nod and dismounted. He came up to the dog-run with less swagger than he had shown in the past, when he had always been the ranking officer. He had never spoken English, and Annie had learned only limited Spanish from Petra. They had always managed to communicate, however, because she knew what he wanted, and no was the same in both languages.

She had to assume he was asking about James, as he always had before, though the words were unintelligible to her. She was surprised when a man’s voice answered from behind her, speaking in Spanish. Sly Shipman leaned against the log wall. The officer asked him several sharp questions, and Shipman replied to them in a matter-of-fact manner that neither challenged nor yielded. The officer was obviously not fully satisfied, but he seemed resigned.

He spoke something in a gruff voice that Annie supposed more or less meant good-bye. He walked back to his horse and remounted. The soldiers were soon gone on the trail that led west toward San Antonio de Bexar.

Mordecai had stood silently beside Annie, his gaze moving from the officer to Shipman as each spoke in turn. He asked in awe, “You sure you ain’t a Mexican, Mr. Shipman? You sure do talk like one.”

“A necessity of the business I’m in.” To Annie he said, “The lieutenant says he and the others have been called to Bexar. There’s a revolution down in Mexico, and they’ve got to go fight it. He said he’s not forgettin’ about James, though, and if he ever gets back up in this country again he’ll be huntin’ for him.”

Annie let go a long pent-up breath. Leaving. It was like a heavy weight had been lifted from her shoulders. “Then James will be free to stay here, out in the open.”

“If he wants to. Chances are that officer will never come back.”

“He looked at you a little suspiciously. How did you explain what you’re doin’ here?”

Shipman made a broad smile. “Told him you’re my sweetheart. Told him we’re fixin’ to get married.”

Annie felt the blush warm her cheeks. “Why did you tell him such a lie as that?”

“The notion just popped into my head. I figured it’d seem logical to him, a good-lookin’ woman like you and a good-lookin’ man like me.”