“Where are you going?” Molly called after Chris’s retreating figure. She followed him up the street where he entered the livery. Molly couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t stop. She followed him into the livery where he retrieved his horse and began to put it’s saddle on. “You’re leaving?” she asked in disbelieve. He didn’t even turn her way. “You can’t go. You can’t just leave her like that. She’s up there right now and she’s hurt and afraid and alone and you can’t just go,” Molly begged him. She was getting desperate. “Please, please don’t go,” she said in nearly a whisper.

There had been so much blood on the sheets Mary Travis brought out. Molly wasn’t sure she heard right when Mr. Jackson had said something about a baby. Lily had been pregnant. Chris finished saddling thehorse and mounted it. He still didn’t acknowledge her presents as he rode right past her out the door. The look on his face was blank and void of any emotion. Molly turned and watched him ride up the street and out of town. She was in such a state of shock she didn’t notice the person who had walked right up to her.

“Molly? What’s going on?” Vin Tanner’s voice came next to her. She turned to him not quite sure how to answer his question. Had he been there in the hallway with them? No, he’d been on the street when she’d been sent to get help. The events were all meshing together in her mind and she couldn’t keep them straight.

“He left,” she said simply, chocking back tears. “Lily she was, with child and she lost her baby and he just left. He just stood there and didn’t even say a word to her. How could he do that? How could he just leave her like that?” Molly sobbed, her heart breaking for Lily. How was she going to tell her that he’d just left?

“It’s okay,” Vin said to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. Molly looked up at him. The look on his face was the same as it had been at her house only days before.

“Molly?” JD’s voice came from outside. Molly stepped back out of Vin’s touch before JD walked into the livery. “He take off?” he asked the pair.

“Afraid so,” Vin replied. Molly took in a breath.

“I have to see to Lily,” she stated simply as if there were no question about her care now being the girl’s responsibility.

“I’ll walk with you,” JD said, taking her arm and leading her outside leaving Vin to watch the younger pair go off toward the clinic.

Bo Jun was at the top of the stairs to Nathan’s clinic when Molly and JD arrived. Molly hurried up the stairs ahead of JD. The door to the room was shut. “She is resting,” Bo Jun stated simply. Molly only nodded at her and quietly opened the door. Nathan stood at a dresser, cleaning his hands in a basin. He looked over at the door at the sound of it opening and saw Molly walk inside. He could see Bo Jun and JD standing just outside. Molly looked over at the woman lying in the bed. In the dim light of the room she could see just how pale she was. It caught Molly off guard to see Lily look so weak and vulnerable. Nathan walked up to the girl as she hovered in the doorway.

“She’ll sleep mostly now,” he said in low voice. “She, um, she lost a lot of blood. We just have to wait and see but she’s a strong one.”

“If it’s all the same to you, I’ll stay a while,” Molly said. Nathan hesitated then nodded. He had already sent Mary Travis home to be with Billy.

“I will see to the saloon,” Bo Jun stated. “I will come back later.” JD looked torn as to what to do. He didn’t feel comfortable staying but he didn’t want to leave Molly.

“You go,” Molly said to him. “I’ll be alright.”

“You sure?” he asked, already knowing what her answer would be. As he suspected, she nodded that she would be. Molly watched Bo Jun and JD walk down the stairs together before she shut the door. A chair sat near the bed Lily lay in. She pulled it over and sat down knowing it was going to be a long rest of the day.

It was almost the middle of the night. Nathan had spent the better part of an hour trying to get Molly to go home and get some rest herself. She insisted in her quiet, polite way that she was fine and that Lily may need her should she wake up. The laudanum that Nathan had given her kept her sleeping most of the time. Every once in a while her eyes would flutter open but it was only for a moment before sleep would overtake her again. Molly sat next to her, a lamp lit on the table beside her casting a soft glow over the whole room. JD had managed to get her to leave for a bit and get some supper but she had come back with schoolwork to look over and grade.

Nathan watched her now from the other side of the room. He had seen the relationship between Molly and Lily develop and he knew that each cared deeply for the other. He knew that Lily had only trusted a few people with her "secret" and he had wondered if Molly had been one of those people. Judging by the look that had crossed her face when Mary Travis had walked out of the room and explained what happened he didn't think so. He watched now as she would read from a paper but then mark her place with a finger and look over at Lily, then turn back. The way she did it was almost as though it were a natural reflex for her, almost like she'd done it before. He didn't really know much about Molly other than what he saw of her in the town. He walked up to her and knelt next to her.

"You know, it'll be gettin' too late for you to call off school tomorrow," he said, speaking softly. She looked down at him.

"I have no plans to call off school tomorrow, why would you think that?" she asked.

"How you gonna manage if you don't get some sleep?" he said to her. "You know what time it's getting to be?" She offered him a tired smile.

"I'll be just fine," she said. At that moment there was a stirring from the bed. Molly set her papers aside on the table and moved the chair closer to the bed. "Lily?" Molly whispered. She reached for the woman's hand and took it in both of her own. Lily's eyes fluttered open. Nathan brought over water knowing the laudanum would have made her thirsty. Molly took the cup from him.

Gradually, Lily came awake more. Molly helped her to sit up enough to sip from the cup. Nathan was about to warn Molly to go easy, that too much would make Lily sick but she seemed to already know, almost like she'd done this before. Molly got her back settled lying down.

"How do you feel?" Molly asked offering her a smile.

"Where's Chris?" Lily asked in a groggy voice. Nathan watched the smile freeze on Molly's face. Molly glanced at him for a moment. She was unsure of what to say. How could she tell her that upon hearing Lily had been pregnant and lost her baby he'd simply left? Molly wouldn't lie to anyone but she couldn't stand the thought of hurting her friend.

"He's not here right now," Molly answered, hoping that would pacify her. "You should rest now."

"When will he be back?" Lily asked. Molly looked down at her hands that once again held one of Lily's.

"I'm not certain...he, um, he didn't say," Molly said. Lily didn't need to hear any more. The look on the young woman's face, the fact that she wouldn't look at her told Lily all she needed to know. Chris had never stayed. He had left and he wasn't coming back, maybe ever. Lily couldn't remember ever feeling this empty. She pulled her hand from Molly's and placed it on her stomach. She had thought lately when she did that, she could feel something, movement maybe. Now there was nothing. Molly was still talking but Lily couldn't make out words, just her voice. She turned her head from her and shut her eyes and prayed she'd never wake up.

Nathan walked up to the bed and put a hand on Molly's shoulder. "We should just let her be for now," he said to her. Molly looked up at him, tears in her eyes. Before she could say anything more the door opened and Bo Jun took a step inside. Molly quickly turned her head away and wiped her tears with the back of her hand. Nathan walked up to her and the two talked quietly. After a moment Nathan walked back to Molly and once again crouched beside her. “Honey, Bo Jun here’s gonna walk you home,” Molly opened her mouth to protest but Nathan wouldn’t hear it. “You gotta get some sleep now, you hear? Otherwise you’ll be no good to anybody but especially your students or Lily.” Molly looked up at him dejected.

“It doesn’t seem right to just leave,” she said.

“I ain’t going nowhere,” he said to her. Molly let out a sigh of surrender, stood up and began to gather her things. Before she turned to leave she leaned over the bed and kissed Lily’s cheek. She walked out into the night with Bo Jun. They walked down the stairs in silence. Molly looked up to the night sky and saw the first star begin to make it’s appearance. She stopped her gait.

“Star light, start bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight,” she said with her eyes closed. When she opened them she caught Bo Jun’s confused gaze. “Haven’t you ever heard that before?” Molly asked her. Bo Jun shook her head.

“You pray to the first star?” she asked. Molly let out a small laugh.

“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it,” she said. “It’s more of a child’s rhyme than anything. I haven’t said it since I was a little girl.” Molly began walking again. “Miss Caine, tell me a story, something, anything. Tell me about where you’re from,” she said, desperate to get the day’s events off her mind. “Tell me about where you grew up,” Molly said. Bo Jun took a moment to ponder the girl’s request. There was much about her past that she didn’t wish to reveal to anyone right now.

“I lived in the Imperil Palace,” Bo Jun said.

“A palace?” Molly said. “That must have been grand.” She noticed that Bo Jun didn’t seem to recognize the word. “Um, wonderful,” she restated.

“It was different, I am sure from how you were raised,” Bo Jun replied. They neared the church and Molly noticed that Cheyenne’s horse, Black Wind was standing outside. She wondered if Cheyenne knew the day’s events. As far as she knew Lily and Cheyenne didn’t know each other all that well. She hoped that Cheyenne’s own experience with the town gossip would cause her to ignore what ever was going to be said about Lily come tomorrow. Molly pointed him out to Bo Jun.

“There is Cheyenne’s horse,” she said to her. “Have you met her yet?” Bo Jun nodded.

“We have agreed to let our horses mate,” she said to her.

“Oh,” Molly replied. Her blush did not go unnoticed by Bo Jun who wondered about it. They reached her house. “Now you have to walk back alone,” Molly said to her.

“I will be fine,” she replied. She doubted from the incident that took place in the saloon earlier that anyone who witnessed it would give her much trouble. A customer began to speak badly of Lily and none to quietly. Bo Jun had silenced him and was certain that after the minor fight that ensued no one would dare speak ill of her mistress in her presents again.

“Why does everyone always assume that I won’t be?” Molly asked. Bo Jun seemed unsure how to respond. She didn’t know the girl well enough to try and answer. “Oh never mind,” Molly said. “Thank you for walking with me.” Bo Jun simply nodded and half bowed to the girl.

“This may not be the time to say this but I would like to learn from you to read and write.” What seemed like Molly’s only smile of the day crossed her face.

“Oh I’m so pleased. You’ll forgive me though if I wait until Lily’s back on her feet.” Bo Jun nodded again. She turned to leave before Molly stopped her.

“Miss Caine, did you know? I mean did Lily tell you about her baby?”

“I figured it out, the rest she told me,” Bo Jun replied.

“Oh, well good night then,” Molly said to her opening the door and walking inside. She shut it and leaned back against the door. She wondered why Lily never told her. Was it because she didn’t trust Molly? Or worse, because she thought, as it seemed most people did, that she wasn’t old enough or “experienced” enough to understand? She sighed and crossed the room to light a lamp and get ready for bed. She knew when she woke up tomorrow her world, once again, would be a very different place.

He was only a few days now away from the town where she lived. He had made contact with a man who had a great deal of influence and money in the area. His name was Guy Royal and while he was not the type of person who would ever be considered “high society” on the Island, out in the west of America, he was. Along with that type of influence came fear from the people around him. Most would rather do what he said than risk crossing him. He was not the sort of person that Hartman wanted to do business with but for his plan it seemed an evil necessity. Royal seemed to know of the Gallagher’s but more of Bryan and his brother Colum than Molly herself. That seemed to relieve Hartman a bit; he wanted no competition when it came to her affections. They were planning now. He had been told by Royal of seven men who protected the town and it’s people. It didn’t matter. He would have Molly, they would wed and start a new life in Europe. Seven hundred men couldn’t stand in his way, he resolved as he once again starred at the kohl portrait of the girl, his fiancée.