Lily was relieved by the judge's ruling but she wondered how the revelation of her secret would affect KC. She left the makeshift courtroom and returned to the saloon. She found herself distracted and barely able to concentrate on the patrons ordering from her.

"Is everything alright, ma'am?" Lily was pulled out of her thoughts by a young voice. Jake Hardin stood in front of her a quizzical look on his face.

"Yes, cher, everything is fine. Would you like some milk?"

"Yes, thank you ma'am." He took the glass and waited a moment before speaking again. "I can't believe she was a woman." Lily looked at him confused.

"Who?"

"That lady that was on trial. She was the person that helped me a few days ago, kept those fellas from killing me. I sure would like to thank her."

"Joseph, take care of things, I'll be back." Lily hurried from the saloon spurred by the boy's words. She wasn't sure where to find KC, but the livery seemed the logical place to look first.

The aroma of the stalls assaulted her nose as her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light. Lily found KC in the last stall saddling an unfamiliar horse.

"Leaving cher?" KC didn't turn to answer the question just continued what she was doing.

"Yeah."

"Where will you go?"

"Don't know."

"There's someone in town that would like to thank you." This time KC didn't even respond to Lily's words. "It's a young boy, he says that you saved him from being killed a few days ago."

"They robbed him. No reason for 'em to kill him."

"He's a very nice young boy. His name is Jake Hardin." Lily waited for a reaction from KC but received nothing. "He came west looking for his mother. He has a picture of her that he carries. A pretty young woman, could have been much more than a child herself when she had him."

KC stopped saddling her horse and let Lily's words sink in.

"He has your eyes. I won't beg you to stay but think about it. The boy deserves to know who you are. If you leave now, he'll be off on his own again. Maybe next time he won't be so lucky to have his mother there to save him."

Lily went back into the saloon through the back door and slipped into the store room. She wanted a minute alone to compose herself. Her hands shook with frustration. She wondered if she'd gotten through at all to KC. She reached for a bottle from the top shelf the glass slipping from her fingers almost as soon as she touched it. Lily jumped back and managed to only have a fraction of the liquid hit her dress. The glass exploded around her feet. A slew of French spilled from her mouth.

"Should I ask what you just said?" Lily turned to find Chris leaning against the door frame to the store room. He gave her a sideways grin that did not elicit a similar smile from her. He quickly crossed the distance between them. She stepped away as he reached out for her.

"I need to get back out front." Chris blocked her path backing her up against the wall. He put a hand on the wall on either side of her.

"You can spare two minutes." He leaned in close. There was a strained cough at the door.

"Um, Miss Lily, some gentlemen just ordered a two bottles of scotch and we only had one out front." Joseph's dark eyes met Chris's. Chris didn't like this young man, there was just something about him that didn't feel right. Buck had tried to convince him that Chris's only problem was that he'd been hired by Terrance. Lily took the opportunity and ducked under Chris's arm. She grabbed two bottles from the shelf.

Once out front Joseph pointed her to a large group of men on the far side of the room. There were about a dozen of them. Some looked familiar but the only two that she knew were Colum and Bryan Gallagher. She as approached the table she could her their voices but not understand their words. She suspected that they were speaking Gaelic. As a young girl she had visited Ireland with her mother and had heard the language. The men quickly stopped speaking when she reached the table.

"Here you are gentlemen. Is there anything else I can get for you?" Lily's eyes scanned the table. A pile of papers sat in front of Colum that appeared to be maps. Another man tried to push them under a worn black ledger that sat just to Colum's left.

"No, Ms. Patterson, I don't believe we'll be needing anything else. Thank you." She nodded to Bryan and returned to the bar. Joseph set down the glasses he had been drying and walked over to her a piece of paper in his hand.

"The man from the telegraph office brought this over for you earlier. It's from Mr. Sullivan." Lily smiled at the boy and took the telegram. Chris was standing nearby and watched a scowl spread across her face as she read it.

"Bad news?" Lily looked up at Chris's question. She quickly folded the paper and stuffed it in her pocket.

"No, just Terrance telling me how his trip is going." He studied her for a moment. It was obvious that she was holding something back. He decided to leave it alone. She was obviously still upset from before. He'd ask later tonight when they were alone.