It took a moment for the question to register with Lily. The din of the noisy room had almost covered her words.

"Well, actually, yes." Lily gave a short chuckle. "Sometimes more than I think we can handle." She moved down the bar to fill empty glasses. She saw the young woman trying to catch her eye again. "Did you need something else, cherie?"

"Do you need extra help?"

"Are you looking for a job?" Lily studied the young woman as she nodded. "Alright, you're hired. You can start as soon as you finish your beer."

Bo Jun quickly finished the beer. Lily showed her a place to wash up and offered her an apron to wear. She started Bo Jun off with washing glasses and watching for spills.

The late afternoon passed quickly into evening and then into night. It was almost closing before the two women could sit down for more than a second. Lily took Bo Jun to a table in the corner and gave her a plate of fried pork and potatoes. Bo Jun paused over the food.

"You're not eating too?"

"No, cherie." Lily shook her head slowly. "I seem to have lost my appetite."

Across the room a game of poker was breaking up and the last of the patrons left the saloon. Lily waved to the last man to join them. Ezra crossed the room taking the seat across from Bo Jun. Lily had introduced them briefly earlier in the evening.

"Well, Miss Caine, how do you like it here?"

"Everyone has been nice." Bo Jun had been surprised by her treatment by the majority of the customers. Some gave her odd looks but most seemed to just accept her presence. It seemed to her that some of the men took their cue from Lily.

"Ezra, I'll be away till mid-afternoon tomorrow. I need to go to Stillwater to see their lawyer."

"Will Mr. Larabee be accompanying you?" Ezra gave her a sly smile. He took a casual look around for the first time noticing that Chris wasn't still in the saloon. It was rare lately not to find him there at closing.

"Actually, no, he is spending tonight at his house. He left early this afternoon that I didn't have the chance to ask him."

"You can't be thinking that you'll go alone?"

"Oh no, Josiah is going to go with me."

"Really? I'm surprised that he would want to leave Cheyenne so quickly after her exoneration."

Bo Jun recognized some of the names they tossed about. She'd picked up snippets of conversation through the evening about the trial and both those names had been mentioned.

"If you ladies will excuse me. I have some business to take care of before I retire."

"Bo Jun, do you have a place to stay?"

"No." She said the word quietly.

"Then you'll stay here."

"I. . . I couldn't."

"You don't have a choice. I insist." Lily reached out and squeezed her hand. "Please, we have these extra rooms upstairs and I would feel better knowing you had a safe place to stay."

Lily approached the church with a slight hesitation in her step. She hated the idea of lying to Josiah. She'd tried to justify to herself all morning that she wasn't really lying, she was only telling him part of the truth. She found him sitting on the backsteps of the church. It was still early and the children hadn't arrived for school yet.

"Good morning, Lily. Ready to go?" He gestured to the riding outfit that she was wearing.

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble." It'd be about half day's ride to Stillwater and back, taking into account the time she'd be doing her business. Josiah wanted to go and check on Cheyenne, but she'd still be there in the afternoon.

"Well, let's go then."

Lily had been quiet on the ride to Stillwater. Maybe too quiet, Josiah thought to himself. He assumed it had to do with Terrance's death. It had been no secret that none of the seven were too sorry that he was gone. But they all respected that he had been Lily's friend, even if in the end he had tried to assist in her kidnapping.

Stillwater boasted a population slightly larger that Four Corners. Large enough for two saloons and to need the services of a lawyer full time. The pair dismounted their horses in front of the smaller of the two saloons.

"If you don't mind, I'll wait for ya in here."

"That's fine Josiah. In fact," she pressed two coins into his hand, "why don't you have one on me."

"You don't need to do that Lily." He tried to give the coins back to her. She shook her head decidely.

"Consider a thank you for escorting me here and for just being a good friend." He touched the brim of his hat in acknowledgement and thanks.

Josiah took his time sipping his beer. He was almost finished with a second one when he took a seat at a table near the window of the saloon. From there he had a view of most of the street and would be able to see when Lily left the lawyer's office. He was surprised to see her several minutes exiting from the doctor's office directly across from the saloon. He turned his back to the window so that she wouldn't know that he had seen her.

They were nearly half way back to Four Corners when one of them finally spoke. Josiah had noticed the pensive look on Lily's face as she rode. "I take it by the look on your face that things didn't go well with the lawyer." Lily was taken off guard by the statement.

"On the contrary, everything was resolved with little difficulty."

"Then there must be another reason for that look I see on your face. Maybe it's because of the other visit you made?"

Lily waited several minutes before answering. She didn't know what to say or where to start. "You saw me leaving the doctor's office?" Josiah nodded silently. "For a few weeks, I've felt a bit under the weather and I wanted to talk to the doctor about it." He could hear in her voice that there was more to the story that she wanted to tell. But waited several minutes before speaking again, waiting to see if she would talk.

"You know, it is often good to share a burden that one carries. Confession can be good for the soul." A sudden burst of laughter escaped Lily.

"Spoken like a true preacher." She studied Josiah in the midday sun. She remembered the night of the tornado and how she had revealed secrets to him that no one else knew. "I'm . . .," she had trouble saying the words, "I'm with child."

The words fell like a thud between them. Josiah brought his horse to a halt. She wasn't expecting the look of joy on his face. He reached and grabbed her hand.

"Lily, that's wonderful." By her expression he knew that she doubted that it was such a wonderful thing. Something suddenly occured to him. "Is it . . ." Chris's? He let the unfinished question hang in the air.

"Yes."

"I'm taking by your tone of voice that you're not happy about this."

"I don't know Josiah." They continued to ride as they talked. "Part of me is overjoyed at the prospect. But then there's another part of me that worries. . . " There were more things that she was worried about then she could put into words.

"You don't think Chris will be happy about this?" Lily didn't know how to answer the question. She wasn't even sure she wanted to know the answer to that question. Either answer would set off a chain reaction of events and emotions that she didn't know if she was ready to deal with.

"Josiah, can you promise me that this stays between us?"

"Of course Lily." He paused for a moment. "You are going to tell Chris, aren't you?" Lily turned away from the question giving him the answer. "Lily, you have to tell him. He deserves to know." He reached across the short space between their horses grabbing her arm lightly. "I won't lie for you. If he asks me. . ."

"I'll tell him. Just give me some time."

Chris gave a short knock before opening the door to Lily's room. She peeked her head out from behind the folding changing screen in the corner.

"It is customary to wait for an invition before entering a lady's room." Lily flashed a coy smile before stepping out.

"When did I start needin' an invitation?" Chris took a seat on the edge of her bed. She had changed from a simple dark green calico dress into one of her fancier silk dresses. Lily often did this in the early evenings. This one in particular, was Chris's favorite. It was dark midnight blue just a shade from black.

"Help me with these." She turned her back to him indicating the row of tiny buttons that ran up the back of the dress. She had already buttoned about half of them. He began to unbutton the ones she had already done. "Chris, you're supposed to button them, not unbutton."

"I'd much rather unbutton you."

"I know that. That you can do later." She threw a smile over her shoulder.

"What do you do when I'm not here?" Chris knew the answer already. She had a hook that allowed her to button the dress without help. But he wasn't expecting the answer she gave.

"I ask Ezra." He knew without hesitation that she was joking. But for a half second an image formed in his mind of Ezra performing this task. He wasn't prepared for the strong pang of jealousy and anger that surged through his body. Chris gave her a quick pinch as he finished the last button.

"Not funny Lil." He pulled her onto his lap. "Though I did hear that you rode off with Josiah for the day. Do I need to start worrying about you and our good preacher running off together?"

"Don't think you can get rid of me so easily." Lily ran her hand down the side of his face, studying the lines etched there. Should I tell him, she silently questioned. She shook her head slightly pushing the issue from her mind. "Besides I doubt that any woman could take the place of Cheyenne in his heart."

"That's probably true." His hand cupped her chin bringing her mouth down to his. The kiss was fierce and urgent. Lily knew that if she didn't stop him now he would start unbuttoning her dress again and this time she wouldn't stop him. She forced herself to push away from the kiss and from his lap.

"Now let me finish getting ready." She sat down in front of her dressing table. She pulled out several hair pins letting her hair cascade down over her shoulders.

"You didn't say where you and Josiah went." Chris didn't really suspect that something was going on between Lily and Josiah, but it had seemed odd to him that they had gone off together.

"I needed to go to Stillwater. They have a lawyer there and I had some papers that needed to be drawn up involving Terrance's death and the sale of his share of the saloon to Ezra." Lily used her best poker face as she spoke. "I needed someone to escort me there. Would you have preferred that I went with someone else, perhaps Buck?" Chris smiled at that suggestion.

"Why don't you ever leave your hair down?" After brushing through it a few times Lily was twisting her hair back into a loose bun.

"That's an odd question. Why?" Chris shrugged. He didn't know why he'd asked. After the other night and listening to Josiah talk about Cheyenne and their past together, he had begun to realize just how little he really knew about Lily. What had shocked him was his desire to want to know more about her. "I don't know why. I guess it's just easier to have it up. Otherwise I'd have to contend with men grabbing it."

Chris moved to Lily's side and leaned in close to her ear. "You don't mind when I grab it." There was a dark huskiness to his voice that brought chills to her body. She turned pushing him away from her. That tone of voice was only going to lead to one thing if she didn't get him out of her room.

"Go downstairs. Let me finish getting ready."

"Alright, alright, I'll go." He shrugged in defeat and picked up his hat from where it had fallen on the floor. "We are going to finish this later, aren't we?"