Chapter Five
The Klansmen

Ezra Standish kept a vigil on Julia Pemberton's side after she was well enough to leave Alexandra Styles's clinic almost two days after her miscarriage. While the return home lifted her spirits somewhat, Ezra sensed a deep well of sorrow inside her for which there was no cure. Although he wanted desperately to understand it, he had only to look into those emerald eyes to see the inordinate sadness existing within its depths to know it was beyond his reach to conceive what pain she was enduring. Surprisingly enough, the women who previously kept their distance from Julia now rallied to her side to offer comfort and support.

Mary who knew better than anyone what it was to lose a child this way had come to Julia's aide with the same tenacity she faced everything in her life. Ignoring Julia's pleas to be left alone, the widow almost forced herself through the door in her effort to extend the hand of sisterhood towards Julia in this most difficult period. Ezra was grateful for Mary's assistance because he understood all too well there was a wound inside his lover's heart that required his empathy, not sympathy to heal. Unfortunately, that empathy was beyond his ability and while Mary provided support with her presence, Ezra noticed  not even the widow could reach Julia in her desolation.

Strangely enough, it was Josiah who managed to reach her.

At first, the gambler felt somewhat confused when Julia  requested the preacher's presence in the house, the morning after she was returned home. Ezra was aware from the early days of their relationship there was something familiar in Josiah craggy features that won Julia's affection. For a woman whose idea of affection usually translated into some form of seduction, Julia never made such attempts with Josiah. Instead, she treated him with uncommon respect, devoid of her usual sarcasm or blatant contempt. If he did not know any better, Ezra would almost say she saw Josiah with some reverence.

Josiah did nothing spectacular when he arrived at Julia Pemberton's home. He sat by her bed and read from one of his books. Ezra noticed she seemed to like Great Expectations written by Mr Charles Dickens but it was not the words that seemed to soothe her so much but the tone of Josiah's voice. She slept easily when Josiah read to her and it was not until almost a week of this practice, that Ezra felt the need to ask. Her answer surprised him.

"Daddy use to read me Dickens," she said with a sad smile, the spirited sparkle in her eyes he loved so much was nowhere to be seen. "He said I was his very own Estelle."  At least he did, before the nightly visitations had begun. 

Something had broken inside of her and Ezra did not know what to do about it. The rest of the seven allowed him to spend as much time with her, realizing how difficult it was for him because there were no secrets between them and they were all aware of his loss. Eventually, he came to a place with Julia through which he could pass no further. She would let him in but only so far and after a few days, not even Josiah was capable of penetrating the wall of sorrow she erected around herself. In his entire life, he never felt so helpless and the need to do something was gnawing at him like a Promethean torture.

When the stage pulled into town this morning, Ezra realized what that something was.

Two men emerged and judging from the way they were dressed, he knew immediately they were from Georgia. They reeked of excess and indolence; their eyes bore the same look he saw in the mirror for so many years, before meeting Nathan Jackson had driven it away. He saw them with their fancy clothes and the contempt in their eyes as they surveyed the town before them, seeing not the progressive little community  grown through hard work and endurance but a melting pot of racial impurity on the rise.

Nicholas Serfonteine met them when they stepped off the stage while Ezra watched as he sat outside the saloon enjoying the warmth of the morning with Chris Larabee and Buck Wilmington. It was the first time in a week he had joined them there because he had been keeping a constant vigil at Julia's side.

On this particular morning, he was usurped by Mary Travis and Alex Styles who were regular visitors since this whole crisis had began. Inez had also coming visiting with Julia whenever time allowed her the chance to slip away from the saloon.

Later on, Buck had learned from one of his paramours who worked as a chambermaid at the local hotel, the newcomers were James Micawber and Francis Lamont, both hailing from the fair state of Georgia. The storm Chris Larabee predicated had arrived in the form of these two men and Ezra knew just as Chris did, for whatever reason Nicholas remained in Four Corners, Micawber and Lamont were sure to play a part.

Ezra waited for no more than a day before he made his move, realizing he could not afford to delay any longer because they needed to know what Nicholas intended and he had been remiss in not trying to utilize his southern connection to gain intelligence. None of the seven berated him for the delay. However, Ezra still felt a tinge of guilt because he knew the welfare of Four Corners involved more people than just one woman who did not seem to need him very much while enduring a private pain she did not want him to share.

He found Nicholas Serfonteine in the hotel saloon later that evening. In attendance were his two companions whom had not left his side since their arrival in town. As he approached them in the saloon, Ezra could not help thinking they formed an ominous triumvirate as they stood along the counter, laughing about concoctions that would no doubt bring grief to anyone with the incorrect skin colour. Serfonteine's sister Violet was nowhere to be seen but this was hardly surprising. Good southern belles usually retired for the evening by the time the clock struck nine. Besides, Ezra did not believe that Serfonteine would discuss business in front of the young woman.

They saw him the moment he entered the saloon which was not as crowded as the one he and Inez owned further down the street. The hotel saloon was mostly frequented by guests. The general public gave it a wide berth because its dignified surroundings were a little restrictive with those who had a taste for livelier entertainment. He himself rarely visited the establishment and tried not to seem out of place when he walked across the polished wooden floor.

"Mr Standish." Nicholas said with a smile as he approached. "You've been scarce this past week. I was starting to worry you had disappeared."

"I had some personal issues to take care of." Ezra answered evasively, not wishing to discuss his whereabouts the past week until he was prepared to make his bid to gain Serfonteine's confidence.

Nicholas waved the bartender over before turning to Ezra and offering to buy him a drink. Never one to refuse a polite gesture, Ezra accepted the invitation to join the trio for a drink and they settled down at an unoccupied table to get down to discussing the reason for his presence before them. After engaging in some inane chatter about the weather and some measure of local news, Ezra shifted the conversation to the reason he sought them out.

"I have been thinking about what we discussed last week." Ezra said sipping his glass of rum. "In fact, it has occupied much of my thoughts of late."

"And?" Nicholas met the gaze of his two companions before turning back to Ezra. He was certain Ezra Standish would aid their cause once he was reminded of his origins and the loyalty that all southerners possessed.

"Events have recently transpired that has given cause to evaluate my choices until this point." Ezra said evasively.

"It sounds intriguing." Lamont remarked off handedly. Francis Lamont had coldness to his manner Ezra disliked immediately, even though the gambler revealed none of this. It was obvious by the cut of his clothes he was an over indulged personality, accustomed to never wanting for anything. He was definitely of European stock with dark hair and the kind of features that were Gallic in origin. With mahogany hair and similarly coloured eyes that seemed like dark opals filled with unspoken malevolence.

"Considering your past affiliations Mr Standish," Nicholas spoke up not wanting Ezra to be offended especially when the man was so close to capitulating to his offer. Although he was not foolish enough to completely trust Ezra just yet, Nicholas did want to know what had caused the sudden change of heart. "You will understand if I inquire what these events are."

Ezra looked around, feigning discomfort as he pretended to sum up the courage to discuss the unhappy subject that had brought about this shift in his decision to help Nicholas Serfonteine. "I will discuss the matter only if I have your assurances it remain absolutely confidential."

"You have our word as gentlemen," Nicholas replied automatically and glanced at both Micawber and Lamont to confirm that pledge extended towards his friend as well.

"Absolutely." Micawber stated in turn. Unlike Lamont, Micawber was in his late forties with soft hands and greying blond hair. He seemed a family man ill suited for the nocturnal activities he and his companions no doubt indulged in so passionately.

"I have a lady friend." Ezra replied, feeling a tinge of guilt using Julia's situation as a plausible explanation for his change in loyalties in his attempt to infiltrate the ranks of Nicholas Serfonteine and his kind. "She found herself in some difficult, if you understand my meaning."

"We are men of the world," Nicholas respond. "I think we understand what you mean."

"Suffice to say my lady friend found herself in an untenable situation where she risked public ruin and was forced to seek help from the local doctor, Alexandra Styles."

"Yes," Nicholas responded, his pleasant features turning a shade dark with distaste. "The half breed woman."

Ezra crushed every reaction of disgust at Serfonteine's description of Alex from his face because he knew the former slave owner was baiting him, provoking him into responding while the others watched closely.

"That is an apt a description as any." Ezra replied betraying nothing. "The high and mighty doctor refused to aid my lady in her unfortunate predicament and forced my Julia into the hands of a backyard operator who almost killed her."

"An unfortunate situation." Lamont said sympathetically. "She is almost as responsible for your lady's state as the butcher who performed the work."

"How is the charming Miss Pemberton after her ordeal?" Nicholas inquired, having heard about the beautiful Emporium owner who also had a reputation in Four Corners as a stunning beauty.

"Nowhere near what she used to be." Ezra replied with genuine sorrow because that much of his story was true. Julia was a shadow of who she once was and no one more than Ezra missed her fiery spirit. "I know from rumor Doctor Styles is happy to perform the surgery on women of her own racial distinction and believe she refused Julia on the basis of her excellent pedigree and a natural desire to see a white woman disgraced."

Forgive me, Alexandra.

Ezra thought this silently but any argument he used to convince Serfonteine of his changing attitude had to be a good one and this certainly qualified.

"Well one cannot expect anything better from a half breed. Like all mongrels, they are vicious." Lamont declared with a gleam of dislike revealing much menace.

"Following the incident," Ezra continued, "I realized that my notions of equality were somewhat misguided when the coloured seem to discard the principal whenever it suits them. I have attempted to be amiable but after this, I feel I can no more stomach the hypocrisy then I can stand by and let those people exploit our own race."

"It is unfortunate your trust has been eroded and I assure you, your situation is not unique." Micawber spoke in a voice that was more appropriate telling bedtime stories. "I have heard many such stories of trusting souls such as yourself who have in the goodness of their hearts attempted to extend the hand of brotherhood to the nigras only to have been disappointed."

"I am relieved to hear that." Ezra tried to sound earnest even though it was disheartening to think so many had fallen prey to such a vile doctrine of hatred simply because it was delivered so eloquently. Just how many had men like Micawber infected across the south with this dangerous rhetoric?

"So we may count on your support then?" Nicholas replied firmly, there was no mistaking his intentions by the sharp tone of his voice.

Ezra downed the contents of his glass and nodded. "You may count on it and more Sir." He straightened in his chair, as if resolving himself inwardly to what the course he set himself upon.

Nicholas smiled knowingly at the men at the table and then remarked with a satisfied smile. "That will come in good time."

*********

Since she had a light patient load that day, Alex had enough time in between her appointments to run her errands for the day. It was a good two hours before her next patient arrived and Alex resolved to get as much done during that time as she could. Her days were often unpredictable, even when Nathan was present to balance the workload because as the only two healers in the vicinity, their services were often in demand. Their patients did not merely encompass the citizens of Four Corners but dozens of families residing in homesteads across the local territory. Knowing she could be called on to make a house call at any time, Alex decided she would not waste what precious free time she had during the day and made her way to the main stretch of road serving as the town's main business district.

She was on her way to Gloria Potter's store when she ran into Inez Rosillios. Like herself, the bartender's early mornings were free since the breakfast crowd at the saloon had more or less dissipated and the afternoon crowd had yet to make their appearance. Now that Inez also provided Mexican cuisine to the patrons of the saloon, it was necessary for her to shop for the establishment as well.

Alex liked Inez who was one of the more colorful women she met since arriving in Four Corners. Unlike Mary Travis who was a paragon of virtue and quiet dignity, unless of course her ire was properly inspired, Inez was a far different creature all together. There was a great deal of strength as well  as endurance beneath the demure features of Inez's warm smile. Inez felt deeply in all things and her earthy manner often allowed those around her to see things clearly, without the misconception of polite society or the pretext of ego. When Inez spoke, she was honest and forthright and she absolutely accepted nothing more than what she deserved. She did not come into the world with a fortune or a background and yet Inez earned the respect of everyone she encountered by sheer force of will. Alex had met enough people in the world to know such individuals were rare.

Mary Travis and Inez Rosillios were an odd combination and Alex felt eternally grateful to be allowed in their circle of friendship, knowing it was something she had missed in her life. They were bound not only by the men in their lives but a deeper sense of purpose most women of their time seemed to lack. Here in the West, they were allowed to live the lives they always wanted, freed from most of the restraints holding other women in shackles elsewhere in the world. In Four Corners, it was possible to be the women they always wanted.

"So how is Julia?" Inez asked as they left the general store and continued further along the street, each with errands of their own to fulfil. Their journey took them down the boardwalk and gave them the opportunity to do some window shopping as well.

"As well as someone in her state can be, I suppose." Alex sighed, unhappy by Julia's distressed mental state. Although Ezra was unaware of her visit to Purgatory, Julia's state of mind seemed to be getting worse not better.

"Physically she's on the mend but I can't say what's going on in her head. She's so sad."

"I know," Inez agreed, having visited Julia only yesterday and had come away with the same conclusion. "Its like there's something inside her that's broken. Her spirit is gone."

"It's a difficult thing to endure." Alex replied, although as far as Inez was concerned, Julia's emotional turmoil was due to a miscarriage not a guilty conscience. "It eats away at you."

They lapsed into silence as they considered Julia's situation, walking past the hotel on their way to the shops on the other end of the street. At this time of day, most of Four Corners' population was up and about. The streets were a hive of activity with horses and carriages moving periodically down the dirt road running through the center of town, with pedestrians crisscrossing the street at regular intervals on their way form one destination to the other. Women with baskets travelled back and forth across the creaking floorboards of the wooden sidewalk, disappearing and reappearing out of shops every so often.

Alex and Inez were still engaged in idle gossip, commenting on the local news that transpired since the last time they had seen each other, a day or so ago, when their route took them past the hotel. They had no sooner passed the glass window giving passers by a clear view of the hotel restaurant when a man emerged from the door ahead and barred their way.

"Excuse me." Alex said politely as she and Inez continued talking while attempting to move past, taking little or no interest in the man who was an obstacle in their present path.

"You are the doctor, aren't you?" The man asked.

Alex paused and looked up at the man in his expensive clothes and his dark eyes staring at her so intently. For some reason, his gaze made her uncomfortable. If she had to explain why, Alex would be forced to say that his eyes seemed predatory. When she first met Chris Larabee, the gunslinger's intense blue eyes had the same effect on her until familiarity bled away her discomfort.

"Yes," she said stiffly. "I'm Doctor Styles."

"You are a pretty thing but there are no coloured doctors."

Alex raised her chin indignantly and was about to respond but Inez beat her to it. The plucky bartender came forward and replied most sharply. "Since you are standing before a doctor Senor and since in your eyes, she does appear coloured, then it is safe to assume there is at least one coloured doctor, Si?"

"Stay out of this, you little Spic." The man flashed Inez a deadly glare that more or less confirmed to Alex just how dangerous this man was.

Alex saw Inez's face curl up in disgust at the term and was preparing an acerbic rebuttal to his insult when Alex placed a restraining hand on her shoulder. For an instant, she was reminded of that dinner with Randall Mason when she first refused his proposal. Surfacing in eyes that had always been charming and friendly, was something vile and terrible that scared the hell out of her. From then on, she recognised him for the threat he was. This man had the same look and she knew he would not hesitate to hurt Inez if she caused him enough inconvenience.

"Let it go Inez," Alex replied softly. "Let's just go."

"Not yet pretty." The man locked his hand on her shoulder. "I want to talk a little." His eyes showed danger but she also saw the glimmer of desire. It was a dangerous combination.

"Office hours are nine to five. You want to talk to me? Make an appointment." With that, Alex disengaged herself from his grip with a sharp pull and continued walking. Unfortunately, the man was not about to let her go so easily and re-establish his hold almost immediately, halting her in midstep as his grip tightened around her arm with even more determination.

"Don't you walk away from me, you half bred whore. We have not concluded our business."

"You let her go!" Inez, never one to shirk away from danger, hurried to Alex's defense and sank her nails into the man's other arm, in an attempt to force him to release Alex. He growled in pain slightly but Inez's attack did not even penetrate his expensive jacket and he used the same arm to shove the bartender to the boardwalk. Inez fell down heavily on the floor and immediately brought everyone's attention to the excitement quickly becoming something worse.

"Unhand me Sir!" Alex saw Inez go down and struck him across the face with all the strength she could muster. His head snapped sideways from the force of her blow and his free hand instinctively went to his face as the pain registered.

"You uppity bitch!" He roared and threw a balled fist forward.

Alex had never been hit like that before and when his knuckle connected with her cheek, she felt the air escape her lungs and wondered how men could endure such pain. Her cheek flared with pain. It expanded from the point of impact, to spread outwards, making her ears ring from the concussion. Alex was conscious of falling down hard because her jaw hit the wooden boardwalk and send shock waves through her bones.

She had no idea the man regarded her with a small smile of relish before turning to Inez. Through the sting of pain and the ringing in her ears, Alex heard him speak but not to her.

"Maybe that will teach you some respect."

Then she heard his footsteps against the floor as he made his departure and let the dark claim her.

*********

"Here, put this on your face." Inez instructed a short time later at the Standish Tavern.

Alex looked the piece of steak Inez handed and regarded it with scepticism. "You know this has never been proven to have any medicinal value." She pointed out as she sat on a chair at the usual table occupied by the seven. The side of her face was throbbing and she did not need to look at the mirror to know she was sporting a considerable black eye.

A part of her was still astonished at what happened, even after Inez helped her into the saloon. Fortunately, the crowds had yet to make their appearance except for a few regulars who did not seem to pay much mind to the little drama unfolding before them. Although what the man had done was apparent, to the public of Four Corners, they were perfectly content to let the town's lawmen deal with the situation.

"I'm going over there," Buck Wilmington declared, his self righteous wrath well and truly inflamed as he checked his gun and stated in no uncertain terms he was not about to let the assault on two of his closest friends go unanswered. "I'm going to teach him it ain't exactly nice to hit a lady in these parts."

"Mr Wilmington," Alex spoke up as she turned towards him, wincing in pain when the action tugged at the tender skin taut across her face. "I don't want any more trouble than there already is."

"I don't think you have a choice," Josiah replied from where he was seated at the bar. The preacher remarked, his gaze was fixed on whatever occurring on the other side of the batwing doors.

Alex and Buck followed his line of sight and saw Vin and Chris making their entrance into the saloon. Instinctively, Alex swore under her breath because any chance of keeping this whole ugly incident from getting any worse had just flown out the window and was on its way to Mexico. Vin and Chris walked into the room, having ridden from Sweetwater after dropping off a prisoner into the custody of the local constabulary.

"Alex, I think you're about to get more trouble than you know what to do with." Buck remarked, perfectly aware of how the tracker was going to react the moment he took one look at her face. Even now, Buck could not help feeling fresh anger when he saw the extent of the injury. The flesh under her eye was swollen and purple, distorting her cheekbone somewhat. Unfortunately, there was no concealing a bruise like that as anything but the result of a knuckled fist. Buck knew it and when Vin saw it, he would know it too.

The tracker and Chris were engaged in conversation when they saw the grim faces of their friends and most notably the presence of Alex Styles. Alex never came into the saloon unless she had something of importance to voice that could not wait until after they emerged from the watering hole. Alex shifted her face away from their direction, perfectly aware what Vin was like when he was angry. He was a dozen kinds of rage waiting release when he was properly infuriated and she had every suspicion this was going to be one of those occasions.

"What's going on?" Chris asked, tensing immediately by the expression on the faces of Josiah and Buck. Buck was furious, Chris could tell instantly and that worried him. Buck was never angry about anything. He could be threatening but genuine anger was a rare emotion for him to display.

Josiah did not respond but he looked in Alex and Inez's direction. The barmaid was hovering closely to Alex who was holding what appeared to be a piece of steak over her eye. Judging by the way the doctor was holding the thing to her face, she was trying hard not to let anyone see what was beneath it.

Instinctively, Chris glanced at Vin who was already striding across the floor towards her.

"What happened?" He said dropping to his knees before her.

"It's nothing." Alex shrugged, steadfastly holding the steak over her eye and was quite surprised it was actually quite soothing.

"Let me look." Vin urged, reaching for her hand and attempting to lower it so he could see just what she was attempting to hide from him.

Alex resisted briefly, knowing what his reaction would be when he saw her face.

However, Vin was determined to see and finally succeeded in forcing her to expose her injury. She saw his jaw tighten when the enormous bruise was finally revealed to him and Chris. Vin Tanner was mostly unperturbed about most things, taking every crisis with a grain of salt. However, when something did penetrate the fortress of his inner emotions, the effect was extreme. Vin felt passionately about the things that mattered to him and when he dropped his defenses to indulge his passions, he was not only unpredictable but downright dangerous.

As he was at this precise moment.

"How did this happen?" Chris demanded wanting an explanation before the storm broke in Vin's eyes.

"One of Serfonteine's friends. The pretty one, " Buck answered automatically. "I think his name is Lamont."

"He was an animal! He just came up to us on the street and what he said..." Inez could barely managed to speak through her indignation and anger.

"It's starting Chris." Josiah stated and Chris understood immediately. Ever since Nicholas Serfonteine had made it known he was staying in Four Corners, Chris expected something like this to rear its ugly head sooner or later. Unknown to the others, Chris and Mary had been investigating the movement Ezra mentioned and what he learnt about the Klan was enough to make even his hardened exterior crawl with disgust. The stories about people being maimed and murdered convinced the gunslinger he wanted no outbreak of such violence in Four Corners.

"Well its ending right now." Vin stated and stood up. The tracker's blue eyes revealed the extent of his anger.

"Vin take it easy." Chris warned as the younger man strode past him.

"Like hell I will." 

"Vin please," Alex hurried after him. She was angry too but she was not prepared to let one violent act escalate into another. She knew he was only trying to defend her but Vin Tanner unleashed was not something that could be contained. He may very well kill Francis Lamont for this insult to her and Alex did not want that for him or the blood on her hands.

He paused in mid stride, only because it was her.

"It has to be done." He replied, staring into her eyes so she would understand. He had to do this because if he was forced to look into her face with that terrible bruise marking her skin, Vin was going to have to know he had done something about it or else go mad with rage. He placed his hand on her cheek and held her gaze long enough to see the fear in her eyes. His eyes remained there long enough before shifting to Chris Larabee's. "Chris, you know what's coming. This is how it starts and it ends with people dying." 

"I don't want that someone to be you!" Alex implored, frightened at what he would do and wanting him to understand that a bruise on her skin was something she would suffer willingly, if it kept him from harm.

"I won't get hurt." Vin stated confidently as he kissed her forehead gently and then looked at Chris again. "You would do exactly the same if it was Mary, wouldn't you?"

It was a challenge Chris could not deny. No, if someone had done that to Mary Travis, they had better started making funeral arrangements because it would save time when Chris Larabee caught up with them. His capitulation showed in his eyes and Chris let out a deep breath. "Yeah, I would." He admitted reluctantly and knew he was not going to stop Vin, merely temper the intensity of his vengeance.

"I'll be going then." Vin said abruptly and disappeared through the batwing doors, not giving Alex a second glance because seeing that bruise on her lovely features would only drive him further insane with fury. Right now, he wanted just enough anger to focus himself not cloud his judgement.

"The rest of you stay here," Chris ordered after Vin had gone. "I'll go with him and make sure he don't do nothing stupid."

Although, Chris was not entirely sure he could keep that promise. When Vin got something into his head, it was not easy to wedge it free again.

Alex was staring at Vin crossing the street outside the doors, her face etched in worry as she saw him make a beeline towards the hotel. When Chris approached her, she quickly turned around. "Chris, please don't let him do anything. You know what Vin is like."

Chris did know and reassured her with a far gentler tone than most were accustomed to hearing from him, save Mary.

"Don't worry," he almost smiled as he placed his hands on her shoulders and said with warmth. "I'll make sure he keeps his head. Meanwhile, you ought to do something for that eye. It looks nasty."

"She'll be okay Chris," Buck spoke up. "We'll keep an eye on her, you better get going or you ain't gonna find Lamont in one piece when you find Vin."

"Oh God!" Alex exclaimed, her jaw dropping open in horror.

"Way to calm the lady, Buck." Josiah frowned as he shook his head.

"Nothing's going to happen," Chris said hastily trying to assuage her fears as he started out the door. However, even as he left the saloon behind him, Chris knew Vin was almost as passionate about Alex as he was about Mary and if someone had touched Mary that way, Chris was not so sure he would leave the man in one piece either.

*********

Nicholas Serfonteine believed in playing it safe so when he heard his trusted friend and appointed Nighthawk had become engaged in a public display with the local doctor, going so far as to strike her in full view of the entire town, he was not at all happy. Even now, he could see the suspicious looks of the patrons, eyeing him with a mixture of distaste and caution. They no longer saw a trio of well dressed southern gentlemen in their company. Now they were seeing thugs who were willing to raise a hand to a well respected woman in the community.

"I do not see that I did any significant harm." Lamont remarked nonchalantly while sipping cognac at the counter with no regrets whatsoever over his actions earlier that day. In fact, he rather enjoyed the little melee with Alexandra Styles, unable to deny that he sought her out because of the talk he had heard claimed she was quite a beauty and spirited as well. After their encounter today, Lamont looked forward to familiarizing their relationship with more intimacy than she could possibly imagine.

"You did a great deal of harm!" Nicholas hissed, unafraid to show his anger. "We have yet to establish the foothold we desire in this township and until we do so, we cannot go about assaulting respected members of the citizenry."

"She's a half bred coloured." Lamont said defensively astonished by all the fuss over a darkie, let alone a woman. "So what if she has a piece of paper that says she's a doctor?"

"You destroy the reputation first then you destroy the woman, you halfwit!" Nicholas retaliated with uncommon vehemence, causing a few people in the saloon to look in their direction at his outburst. "You draw unwarranted support for the bitch by what you did today and in communities like this, you provoke their enmity when you wish to gain their trust."

"I fear I must agree with Nicholas on this one," Micawber added in a show of solidarity. "I have heard the talk about this Alexandra Styles, she's not Nigra and so she's not seen that way."

"The meat is still dark." Lamont pointed out, still very much unconcerned and mildly puzzled by the fanfare. "In the end, its the only thing that matters. I am surprised by your reaction gentlemen, I was merely acquainting myself with the lady and I must admit she is a darling specimen that will require my special attention when the time comes."

Both Nicholas and Micawber knew what that meant. In his home town, Francis Lamont was known to have cut a swathe through the ladies and had quite the reputation as a lady killer. Even when they were engaging in their nocturnal activities, Lamont loved to handle the women. He liked it rough and made sure when he was done with them, they were painfully aware of that fact. However, he confined his sadistic taste to coloured women because no decent society would tolerate a white woman treated that way.

"Well just keep such displays as you produced today to a minimum and it may be possible for you to satisfy that particular predilection." Nicholas warned with the unmistakable warning he was to be obeyed. "Do not force me to make this an issue of rank, Francis. We have our first gathering tonight with an expected turn out of at least twenty people I do not want your childish behaviour to jeopardize the cause even before it has a chance to flower."

Nicholas had been putting his sojourn in Four Corners to good use in the week since he had arrived. Today, he reaped the benefits of that painstaking cultivation with the formation of a fledgling Klavern that would finally have its time tonight. The secret meeting was taking place out of town and hosted by one of the town personalities who was sympathetic to the cause and was more than eager to see the formation of a local chapter of the Klan. With success so close in his grasp, Nicholas would not let anything endanger it, not even the unrestrained antics of a wayward disciple.

Lamont reacted for the first time, realizing perhaps he should not have pushed Nicholas this far by his defiance. However, pride would not allow him to make that admission yet.

"Just see to it  she's mine when the time comes." He repeated himself trying to salvage his dignity.

Nicholas knew the ploy well enough and decided to give the man that much because he needed Lamont if they were to carry out the plans they had intended for Four Corners. While Lamont had been making a public spectacle of himself with the doctor, he and Micawber had been moving throughout the township, rallying support and the interest of those silent numbers who kept their affiliations silent but required only a nudge to commit to a cause. From their work today, Nicholas knew there were enough voices to begin a local chapter of the movement. All that was required for it to go ahead was no more attention until they were ready to launch their debut.

"Don't worry," Micawber said with a salacious grin, trying to diffuse the situation as well as making it known this attempt at diplomacy was only temporary. "When the time comes, we'll all get a piece."

Suddenly, the rumble of chatter in the room seemed to die down as two new arrivals made their appearance into the room. Nicholas recognized the black garbed stranger as well as the younger man in the skins. He tensed immediately, watching the duo scan the room quickly before resting their stony gazes on himself and his companions. Both men looked like they meant business and Nicholas realized the intelligence regarding Lamont's treatment of the doctor had reached her paramour. It was common knowledge Styles and Tanner were involved in a passionate relationship bordering on the scandalous.

Vin Tanner wasted no time once he located the enemy. He knew who he was looking for of course. Serfonteine had been flaunting his companion's presence ever since they arrived in town. He promised Chris he would not do anything stupid but the terrible bruise on Alex's face made it a difficult promise to keep.

Everyone who was aware of what Lamont had been up to this afternoon were also aware with the arrival of the tracker, it was not good to be on the premises. A few people who did not know better remained at the tables but the majority of people immediately left their drinks untouched and scurried through the door, eager to escape the line of fire. Even the bartender had dropped below the counter and was opting to remain there until the fracas was over.

Nicholas noticed the island of solitude forming around them most prolifically and knew Lamont was about to suffer some repercussions over his rash actions with Alex Styles.

"You Lamont?" Vin as he stopped right before the three men. Chris Larabee stood a few paces behind Vin, having been given assurances by the tracker Lamont would not be killed or maimed but would be left with nothing more than a subtle lesson at what it was to hurt someone who possessed Vin Tanner's heart so irrevocably.

"Can I do something for you?" Lamont asked as he responded with a voice full of contempt before he raised his glass to drink, not even giving Vin the courtesy of meeting him eye to eye.

"Nothing really." Vin answered coolly, just before he grabbed Lamont by his fancy jacket and dragged him to the window, where he promptly threw the southerner through glass where 'saloon' was painted so nicely.

Nicholas and Micawber made a step to intervene but Chris only needed to look at them with a predatory gleam and a one-word warning. "Don't."

There was more danger in that voice then the Peacemaker nestled comfortably in Chris's holster or the hand  was poised over it. They took one look at the intent in his icy coloured eyes and knew that to interfere in their friend's predicament would be a mistake, and a fatal one at that.

Vin watched Lamont attempting to navigate on all fours with glass all around him with little or no expression on the tracker's face. The man was dazed and where some of the shards had met skin, Vin could see tiny cuts and thin lines of red crisscrossing his face and hands in places. Vin did not give him time to respond as he walked towards Lamont and grabbed him by a handful of dark hair before continuing on his own preselected path.

Lamont had little choice but to squeal as Vin had his hair and dragged him back onto the boardwalk. Some people had emerged to watch the fight, especially those who saw the incident that precipitated this violence. Vin did not slow down or pause as he held fast the thick locks of hair in his grip. Lamont was struggling to keep up, his feet scuffling along the ground because he could see nothing but the floor because Vin was keeping his head down.

When they reached the wall next to the shattered window, Vin slammed the man's face into the hard surface. Lamont did not have time to scream but the sound his head made against the wood and the blood left behind when Vin finally released his grip, indicated the collision was as painful as it sounded. Lamont dropped to his knees, recovering long enough to hold his bloody nose with his stained hands as Vin grabbed his hair once more and yanked back the man's head so that he could finally see Lamont's eyes.

"I made a promise to my friend in there I'm suppose to do this subtle," Vin said with that quiet voice of his, even though Lamont's eyes were wide and his face was covered in blood from the broken nose he undoubtedly had.

"You maniac!" Lamont managed to gasp through the pain.

Vin ignored the outburst and continued, calm as ever. "So I'll make this as subtle as I can and a fancy man with all your book learning ought to get my meaning easy." Vin responded, his voice showing no signs of anger or cruelty as he spoke in the maddeningly serene voice of his. "You go anywhere near Alex Styles again and I'm going to take this knife here," Vin removed the inch wide lengthy blade he carried with him everywhere and held it up for Lamont to see. "And I'm going to gut you from neck to nuts. Is that subtle enough for you?" He yanked Lamont's hair back harder.

"Yes." Lamont managed a weak reply; his eyes still fixed on that formidable looking knife.

"Good," Vin said releasing his hold and watching with some measure of satisfaction when Lamont felt back on his haunches, his bloody hands still holding his face.

Vin stood up and noted Chris had stepped through the broken window. "I'm done." He said calmly and started back towards the Standish Saloon once again.

Chris took note of the bleeding man on the boardwalk as he joined his friend, ignoring the angry glare he was receiving from Micawber and Serfonteine or the startled expressions of onlookers present at the commotion.

"Very subtle." Chris commented as he felt into step with the tracker who was walking away from the establishment in what seemed like almost a casual stride.

"Thanks," Vin answered. "I tried to keep it simple." 

Chris cast a parting glance at Lamont when Serfonteine and his other friend risked emerging from the saloon to go to the aid of their injured comrade. "Well pard," Chris remarked turning back to Vin. "you're just that kind of guy."

*********

"Nathan is due back tomorrow." Josiah stated. "What are we telling him?" The preacher looked at Chris.

After he and Vin returned from their encounter with Serfonteine and his men, the group left the saloon and retired to the jailhouse where they could talk. Chris gave Inez instructions to send J.D. and Ezra there if the duo turned up at the saloon first. Both men arrived not long after. What they were discussing required privacy as Chris felt things were starting to turn in Four Corners and not for the better. It was bad enough no amount of well meaning coercion was able to eject Nicholas Serfonteine from town and the man was no fool. He knew if he wished to press the issue, he could very well have some fancy lawyer slapping them all with orders for restraint that would put into question their role as lawmen.

It was Mary who pointed out Nicholas knew the law and he was using it to his advantage. He was perfectly aware once the seven had agreed to become the law in town, they had to live their lives according to its tenets. It was far too easy for the seven to become perceived as a gang of armed thugs rather than the protectors of Four Corners. Chris could see her argument and begrudgingly had to admit the only way to put an end to the man was to play this one by the book. As Mary put it so eloquently; Give him just enough rope to hang himself.

"I don't know." Chris replied honestly, unhappy about that particular situation as he sat behind the desk inside the dimly lit jailhouse, staring at the sky through the barred window. It always astonished him how such loveliness could exist so close to where so much grief was taking place. With a surge of shock, Chris realized he thought that very thing the night after finding out he had lost Sarah and Adam. The gunslinger shook the idea out of his head and returned his attention to the matter at hand.

They assured Nathan that Serfonteine would be gone by the time he returned from the Seminole village but unfortunately, the former slave master had been adamant in staying at Four Corners for the dark purpose only now starting to come to light. Although the six lawmen kept a close eye on Serfonteine during his stay, they noted nothing suspicious in his dealings. The man spent most of his time taking in the sights, walking around town and talking to people. Chris had an idea that he was ferreting out the climate in Four Corners, trying to decide if the community had any future as a potential candidate for the cause.

When Lamont and Micawber had arrived, Chris realized it did.

Vin had escorted Alex back to her house because the doctor felt she had a better treatment for her bruises than the steak Inez gave her for her eye. It was just as well anyway because the tracker was too close to it at the moment and he was liable to react almost as violently as Nathan after what happened to Alex.

"He's not going to be happy to know Serfonteine is still here." Buck retorted, pointing out the obvious.

Chris could not disagree. Nathan was ready to kill the southerner and that was something Chris had never seen him do. Nathan fought in self-defense. He killed in self-defense but he had never sought anyone out with the intention of doing them harm. "We'll just have to keep him away from Serfonteine until we can come up with a plan to get rid of the man."

"That's not going to work." Josiah stated. "I saw what Serfonteine did to him Chris." The preacher replied with more vehemence in his voice than he normally displayed. He wanted Serfonteine gone too because Josiah was as helpless to the memory of that seventeen year old boy he found almost dead from exhaustion and fever, as Nathan was to the death of his sister. "He was whipped Chris, whipped to an inch of his life on the same day he found Rebecca. He made it like that from Georgia to Kentucky before I found him. There's only so long he can bury that kind of hate and with what Serfonteine is fixing to do in town, I don't think its going to be buried for long."

He was right and they all knew it. Nathan was barely able to restrain his fury and only their earnest pleas for them to think about the consequences of the act kept him from ripping out Serfonteine's throat. However, if he were to return from the Seminole village and find out that his former master was inciting racial violence, Chris was certain no amount of reason was going to keep Nathan from carrying out his threat.

"What about you Ezra?" Chris turned to the gambler who had been silent. Ezra was mostly quiet these days and the others knew enough about what was bothering him to allow him privacy without any attempts to induce him to talk about it. Chris of all people understood what Ezra was going through and could appreciate why he might want as little discussed on the subject as possible. "Serfonteine made any more moves?"

"I do know he has not remained idle during his time here." Ezra remarked. "Mr Serfonteine has been quite the social animal. I've seen him talking to almost every respectable white family and businessman in town. Some have entertained him in their homes, others are somewhat cautious over his brand of politics but the overall response concerns me."

Chris could well understand why. It meant people were actually giving thought to Serfonteine's assertions and how long would it take before thinking about it transcended into an action because Serfonteine had opened up long hidden fears?

"What about you J.D.? Learn anything interesting form Violet?"

"Lots," Buck grinned. "But nothing that could help us."

"Very funny." The younger man frowned despite the amusement most of his friends found in Buck's comment. "All she talks about is how great Georgia is and how primitive Four Corners is compared to her home town. I must know just about everyone who is getting married, having an affair, whose beau is whose and what they're wearing at the jamboree. The girl thinks about nothing else!" He said with some measure of exasperation. "And worse of all, Casey's been blowing off all our dates." He was too young to understand why everyone in the room was looking at him with a complete lack of surprise over that particular statement. "What?" J.D. asked suspiciously, noting their somewhat amused expressions.

"Well you're just going to have to be a little more persuasive in your attempts to get the lady talking." Buck replied, his voice oozing with salacious intent.

It took a moment for J.D. to realize what Buck was alluding to. "No way!" He stood up in his chair and looked at the men around him who were struggling not to burst out laughing. "I ain't doing that for a dollar a day. The girl can't shut up! She goes on and on about nothing. How can anybody find that pretty? The only way anyone could possibly like a girl like that is if her jaw was wired shut so she couldn't speak!"

"Calm down." Chris said trying not to laugh and he was trying really hard. He gave J.D. one of those looks that broke no argument even though he did not feel the intensity he was attempting to convey. "Give it a rest Buck." He said good-naturedly as J.D. settled down at Chris' insistence.

"Just keep your ears open." He replied. "Eventually, women like that will tell you what you want to know. You just got to hang in there."

"Mr Larabee," Ezra continued, now that the comic relief was over. "I think the pattern of how the Klan works, we may need to keep a closer eye on Alexandra."

"He's right." Josiah spoke before anyone could say a word. "Lamont didn't just pick her out of the crowd. He went after her for a reason."

"She is a pretty lady and a lot of people know how close she and Nathan are. If Serfonteine wants to get back at Nathan, Alex might be the way he's going to go." Buck added in complete agreement with Josiah assessment. "And if they were looking for someone who is known and respected in the community and not white, Alex would be the one. She's high profile."

"I'll tell Vin to keep an eye out for her." Chris agreed. They were right of course. The attack on Alex today proved that Ezra's statement had some validity. If they were willing to do that in full public view, it chilled Chris to the bone what they would do to her if they ever got their hands on her alone.

"She ain't gonna like it." Buck pointed out. "You know how she is. She's almost like Mary when it comes to being guarded."

"Well, fortunately that ain't our problem." Chris said with a slight grin and was pleased to know he wasn't the only one suffering the strife of a stubborn woman. "Its Vin's."

*********

"We, the Order of the Ku Klux Klan, reverentially acknowledge the majesty and supremacy of the Divine Being, and recognize the goodness and providence of the same. And we recognize our relation to the United States Government, the supremacy of the Constitution, the Constitutional Laws thereof, and the Union of States thereunder."

Under the dark light of the moon, Nicholas Serfonteine listened to the chant of words from the group of men and women who chose  to embrace the doctrine he spent most of the night preaching. He had made his selection well for almost all those he had invited to this little gathering in the woods had opted to join them and were now reciting the words making them part of a cause greater than themselves. Like all those before them, their commitment showed in their eyes and the sparkle of understanding now that all things were made clear, gave him a rush of excitement.

Lamont, whose face was partially hidden beneath an uncomfortable looking bandage across his nose, stared at Nicholas who stood at the head of the group and motioned his leader to begin now that pledge was made among the new recruits. Although he was still rather bitter about the injury inflicted upon him by Alexandra Styles's champion and no doubt lover, the Nighthawk's mood seemed to improve during the course of the evening. The gathering had gone well and they were standing before a varied collection of individuals, from all walks of life, united only by the colour of their skin and the determination to have things they way they once knew. Before the Yankees brought their world to such a state of decay.

"The floor is yours, Grand Cyclops." He nudged as Nicholas took centre stage in the clearing. The moon and the torches burning brightly in some of the gatherer's possession illuminated his face.

"Thank you, Nighthawk." Nicholas replied because they did not use names when they were congregated like this. The enemies who would destroy them were cunning and known to speak deceptively to gain their trust. Nicholas trusted no one who was not Klan and so the rule was no one would speak their names and this was the last time anyone of them would see each other's faces.

"Having recited the pledge, ladies and gentlemen, you have taken a great step. You have stepped beyond the realm of what is into what can be. It is a difficult path you have chosen and there are enemies all around us. I am the Grand Cyclops and these are my two Nighthawks. Everyone of you has the chance to be more than you are for the Klan is an army and like all armies of God, we reward those who are willing to sacrifice it all. For the moment however, you are all ghouls but you will not be for long, if the fine stock I see is any indication of what lies ahead."

Micawber who was a veteran Klansmen immediately broke into applause and was quickly followed by Nicholas's captivated audience. The clapping broke out like thunder and rumbled through the tranquillity of the woods with such force that animals inhabiting the area took flight, scampering from the noise that no doubt promised menace as noises produced by humans always did. Nicholas always had the edge. Even in the war when Micawber was forced into service beneath the younger man as his sergeant, Nicholas Serfonteine's ability to command presence was unmistakable. He was not the coward other officers tended to be in the face of battle and raised his saber higher than anyone when he ran off to face the Yankees, always leading the charge either on horse back or on foot.

Micawber would die for him a dozen times over and knew without doubt he would follow Nicholas into death if required.

The applause died down as Nicholas prepared to speak once more. His oratory was carefully written and he had definitive things to say. He could see the commitment in their eyes and felt no fear. Clearing his throat, his eyes moved over the faces that were staring at him with expectation of what he could say that would change their lives so irrevocably.

"My friends, we are at a crossroads in our nation's future. You see the problem all around you even though you think it is so big now, so rife and powerful that nothing can stop it. It is everywhere and it comes from all directions. Our forefathers fought the Indians, the English and anything that would stop us from taming this land and they did so without hesitation because they were going to build us a New World. In more recent years, we have bled blood, sweat and tears to achieve what we have until outsiders decided it was time to change our way of life. What is an abolitionist anyway? What do they know about anything? Most of them had been Yankees who had no idea what a paradise the south was. They hated our beauty and culture! They hated our land and their inability to possess it!"

He paused long enough to see the agreement in their faces, the slight nods and quiet whispers among themselves as his word sunk deep into their consciousness, until it dissolved like fluid and permeated their bones. It would soon run into their veins, the self-righteous wrath that would propel them to commit any act of savagery because the end result was worth dying for. Hell, it was definitely worth killing for.

"Your town is an example of this corruption. You have braved the Territory and built a beautiful community only to have the impure swarm upon it like a plague of locusts! They eat at your restaurants and they shop at your stores! If you allow them to fester they will breed until their number becomes uncontrollable and you will be outcasts in your own land!" Nicholas stopped and glanced at Lamont. The Nighthawk met his gaze, knowing what was next on his fiery speech and allowed himself a smile because he was about to be vindicated for his injuries.

"I have been in Four Corners and it is my privilege to say I feel I know it like my own home." He gestured to his heart as if he had been truly touched by the experience even though Nicholas would not hesitate to leave this flyblown carcass of a town if he thought he could destroy Nathan Jackson any other way.

"I am shocked to see that complacency has allowed you to permit a wanton into your homes, to touch your children, to mend broken bones and press her filthy hands on your brow."

They knew he was talking about Alexandra Styles because the recognition registered in their faces even if they did not understand why she was referred to as a wanton. Nicholas smiled its just what he wanted and this was adequate reparation to Lamont's wounded ego.

"You may think the lady to be a saint but she is not! She trades her service for money like any harlot might do in a whorehouse. She masks her nature behind her supposed kindness but you cannot mask the ugly qualities of a wanton when it is so blatantly before you. Like all her kind, she is the enemy! For they are all Godless under the sky! She is not different! Never forget that for an instant. You know it for yourselves but hide the truth because you believe she is a healer! She does not heal! She corrupts! How many of you have seen the evidence for yourself? How many of you had been repulsed at the sight? I know I certainly do! No decent woman allows any man to touch her and yet she does. She rides away with her lover, no doubt to rut in the wilderness like the animals, before coming back with the musk of their sin wafting through the air. She brings it into your homes and she bathes your children in it! How many of you have seen him sneaking out her door, like a thief in the night? How many of you want to see a child borne of such a union? To see a mixture of such wanton disregard intermingled with the innocence of one of our own? Can you imagine the monster that will be birthed?"

The rumble of dissent throughout the grove indicated his audience did not wish to see such an eventuality form. He could see the ugly suspicion starting to form in their eyes and was pleased that the power of suggestion had so much ability to promote a thing that might or might not be true. He had personally heard no blemishes on the lady's reputation but the implantation of suggestion was far more effective than real evidence. Right now, he could almost hear the thoughts rumbling through their minds as they replayed every incident they knew of Alexandra Styles and Vin Tanner together, seeing more into it than it really was. Very soon, they would actually believe they had seen the venerated doctor having commit the acts of which she was being accused.

"We cannot allow this abomination to continue and though we should not spill blood in our quest to rid this evil from our presence, the Lord has given us a Bible in one hand and a sword in another and we must make use of it! You must decide whether you want a harlot to heal your children, knowing that she reeks of the devil in her touch! She may disguise herself in her innocence but we know don't we? We know how they touch because we've seen it. A wanton cannot hide her true nature behind an impressive title, for eventually the instincts will surface and she will burn with the same heat of that drives a bitch dog to rut. She brings that evil into your homes where you sleep and where your children play. I say no more! I say that it must end! Decent folk must be able to stand with dignity and so we must act now. We must put an end to this outrage before it taints us all! Before their union of mixed spirits becomes a new breed of creature that will usurp us in our home!"

"Drive her out!" Someone finally shouted as the tension finally broke and feverish heat of moral outrage swept through the crowd like water swirling in on them.

"Drive her out!" Another voice added itself to the fray.

"She's a whore!" Someone else cried out.

Finally the cries eclipsed one another, until the convergence of sound and emotion became a rhythmic chant that seemed to make the night darker and the silence overwhelming. Nothing else could be heard around them as their voices screamed in protest at the evil that had snaked itself into their lives and the belief it must be ferreted out at all costs.

Nicholas allowed himself a smile as he exchanged glances with Micawber and Lamont, reveling in the three words that became the group's mantra. The words became the only sound in the world that mattered.

"DRIVE HER OUT!" 

Chapter Six
The Night of the Long Knives

When Nathan Jackson returned to Four Corners in the early hours of dawn, he was almost glad to see the dusty collection of buildings on the flat strip of land upon which the town was situated. The week he had spent in the Seminole village had gone a long way to dispelling some of the anger he felt towards Nicholas Serfonteine because his lover Rain had been philosophical about how he should deal with that enmity. Nathan found it extremely hard to refute anything the young woman said because her personality was tempered with such unbiased honesty her words spoke the truth no matter how much he despised to hear it. Rain's advice had been simple; Forgive but never forget.

Nathan knew he would never forget how Rebecca died in his arms or what she meant to him. Those memories were burned into his mind like a branding iron whose mark would never fade away, no matter how much time passed. Rebecca in her short time on this Earth shaped him the way only someone truly extraordinary could ever hope to do. However ugly the crime Serfonteine had committed in taking her away from him, Rebecca's effect on his life was eternal and with that realization, Nathan began to give Rain's words some credence.

He returned to town feeling slightly better because even if Serfonteine was here, Nathan knew with confidence he could endure the man's presence. He was not going to give Serfonteine the satisfaction of knowing he was something malleable under the man's savage grip. The days when Nicholas Serfonteine had that much influence over his being was over and Rain was correct in telling Nathan he did not need to give his former master that advantage again.

Besides, what Chris and the others had tried so hard to convince him of, was right. He had a life now. Thanks to Alexandra Styles, the possibility of becoming Doctor Jackson was within his reach. He had people in his life he cared about, a future requiring the sacrifice of his revenge to see fulfilled and not to mention Rain whom he wanted as his wife more than anything else. He wanted to marry her one day when he was finally a doctor. Nicholas Serfonteine was not worth risking his whole life.

Rebecca of all people, would understand that reasoning.

He wondered what had happened in town the past week and hoped Miss Julia was feeling a great deal better. Understandably, Miss Alex had not asked for his help when she was treating the young woman and in light of the situation, Nathan could appreciate why the doctor had asked for Mary Travis's assistance instead.

Losing a child was no easy thing for a woman to bear and sometimes the best medicine was a little bit of empathy. Mary of all people, knew exactly what Julia was going through and could offer the woman the compassion she needed to get through this difficult time.

Of course, Nathan wanted to see how Ezra was doing. Even though he had not seen Ezra before he left, Nathan now realized why the gambler was so preoccupied in the days before. Even though Ezra would have them all believe Julia was just another woman to him, the rest of the seven knew better. No one discards someone like Alexandra Styles for a woman as questionable as Julia Pemberton for no good reason unless some genuine affection was at work.

Nathan remembered how Ezra had been at the Seminole village during their first adventure together and recalled how the children had flocked around the southerner as he entertained them with card tricks and other amusements. He gave the impression to everyone present that despite his jaded facade, he liked children and enjoyed their company. Losing a child might be a painful thing to Ezra as well and Nathan reminded himself to pay a call on the man after he got settled at home.

Upon entering the town, Nathan made his way to the livery first and stabled his horse. Nothing in Four Corners ever seemed to change even though the place rarely seem to enjoy any prolonged periods of calm. There was an energy about the town, native to most places that was on its way to becoming something else. Four Corners had evolved significantly since the seven had arrived and the presence of law and order brought about a relative boom of prosperity with people unafraid to settle down here rather than fleeing at the first available opportunity. Nathan was glad he was a part of all that. Commerce that was now finding this town a viable venue for establishment, brought work and progress that might never have been before that fateful moment when Chris and Vin had decided to save his life.

After ensured his horse was stabled, fed and watered, Nathan left the livery and made his way to his infirmary and home, carrying his saddle bags and looking forward to a few hours sleep after the lengthy ride. He left the village not long before dawn had broken and had not broken his journey in his desire to get home. It was early afternoon in Four Corners and no one paid him much notice as they hurried along on their own way. He supposed at this time of day, the seven would most likely be in the saloon and it did not appear as if there had been trouble while he had been gone.

Passing by the hotel, he took note of Lars Johannsen replacing the glass on the window of the saloon and attributed it to some bar room altercation which was a way of life around these parts. He guessed he would hear all about it when he saw the others,  if there was anything worth hearing about the event.

Nathan approached the old building that was his current residence and the location of his infirmary where he traded his medical services to the good folk of Four Corners.

He made his way up the creaky stairs his front door since his part of the building was on the second floor. Mary Travis had talked Mr Rosken who owned the hardware store below, to let him lease the space since he was the only sawbones in town at that point and needed a place to see patients. He rarely had anything to do with Rosken, seeing the man only when it was necessary to pay his leasing fees.

Nathan arrived at the top of the stairs and fumbled for his keys, not an easy procedure when he had heavy saddle bags slung across his shoulders.

He did not see the note pasted sloppily across his door with glue until he had found his keys and was preparing to open the door. As his eyes skimmed over the contents, Nathan thought this had to be someone's idea of a joke.

NOTICE TO EVICT

*********

That's the fifth one today.

Alexandra Styles glanced at the clock on her wall and decided that Mrs Wallace was half an hour late for her appointment and was most likely not coming.

Canceled appointments were nothing new, they were part and parcel of a having an office. People often felt uncomfortable about consulting a doctor and were known to falter at the last minute, no matter how resolved they were to get medical aid. Still, five cancellations was not the norm and Alex could not help wondering why this was so. It was not to say she had not seen any patients today but the ones who were absent left her concerned.

Needing some fresh air, Alex closed her appointment book and stepped out from behind her desk. Outside, the sun was shining and was telling her despite it being autumn, she had no business being confined on a day like this. Her next appointment, if they showed was almost an hour away and Alex decided she might as well spend the time running some errands. Locking up the door to the clinic behind her, Alex stepped into the afternoon heat and relished the warmth on her skin.

Her face still throbbed from Lamont's attack but at least the swelling had gone down and she hid her eye underneath a pair of dark glasses she had bought during her last trip to the city, which was before making her arrival in Four Corners.

She wondered what Vin was doing today and gathered he would no doubt be at the saloon or the jailhouse. Wherever he was, she had no wish to intrude like some clinging woman. He promised to take her out to the creek near Nettie Wells's place for a bit of moonlight supper and Alex could wait until then to see him.

For a man used to such a rough and tumble existence, Vin could be exceedingly romantic when he wanted to be.

Alex had made her way into the heart of town when she first noticed a few strange looks she was receiving from some of the townsfolk. At first, the odd behaviour slipped past her because for every odd stare there was also a pleasant greeting from someone walking in her direction or simply coming across her path as people tended to do in small towns like this. However, when she noticed more than one or two people glaring at her with what appeared to be hostility, Alex started to pay attention.

Then she noticed the whispers.

At first they were not very loud and certainly not spoken by everyone she happened along. However, as she began taking greater stock of what was going on around her, Alex saw the furtive glances in her direction by some men but mostly women, who spoke in hushed tones as she happened by them. Alex was becoming decidedly uncomfortable as she stepped onto the boardwalk taking her to the general store where she had resolved to do some shopping. Suddenly, she caught sight of Frannie Jacobson who had been one of her appointments that had not shown. Mrs Jacobson was a stern faced woman, devoutly religious and hardened by a lifetime as a farmer's wife.

"Mrs Jacobson," Alex said as she approached her. "You missed your appointment with me."

Mrs Jacobson who was accompanied by her young daughter Susie, held the child close to her as Alex stood before them, almost as if she were attempting to protect the child from harm. Judging by the grip around the young girl's shoulder Mrs. Jacobson was adamant Susie stay where she was and not stray from that position. Susie, whom Alex had treated for measles some months ago, seemed apprehensive about offering the doctor a friendly smile and Alex met her mother's gaze to discover the cold stare she was receiving from Mrs Jacobson.

"I'm sorry, Doctor." Mrs Jacobson said sharply.

"Doctor?" Alex looked at her with surprise. "I thought we had gotten past that Mrs Jacobson, you had agreed to call me Alexandra." Alex had been too informal for Mrs Jacobson's taste and they had reached a compromise with Alexandra.

"I'm afraid I'll be taking my business to Sweetwater from now on, Doctor." The woman all but ignored Alex's earlier remark.

It took a moment for Alex to guess what she meant by business and then it dawned upon her what Mrs Jacobson was telling her. "You're seeing a doctor in Sweetwater?" Alex said in a calm, measured voice, hiding how much Mrs. Jacobson's manner was upsetting her.

"Yes," the woman said stiffly. "I prefer to see another doctor."

Alex swallowed and asked quietly. "May I ask why?"

"May I be frank?" Mrs Jacobson looked at her with hard eyes.

"Certainly." Alex answered deciding she had to hear this. Suddenly, she felt a bombshell about to drop right into her lap. She almost refused but was too curious to keep Mrs Jacobson from speaking her mind. Besides, if the woman felt that the quality of service she was receiving from Alex was less than adequate, Alex would like to know why.

"I do not wish to be associated with someone of your questionable morals." Mrs Jacobson announced with clear distaste in her voice.

Alex thought she was joking but the expression on Mrs Jacobson's face showed the woman was nothing but completely serious about her outrageous statement. "Questionable morals?" Alex stammered, almost unable to respond out of utter astonishment and stunned disbelief.

"A Christian woman does not lay with a man that is not her own and certainly not before she is wed. I do not want that kind of wanton anywhere near my Susie." Mrs Jacobson said with no attempt to be kind. "Now if you will excuse Doctor, I think this conversation is over."

With that, Mrs Jacobson turned on her heels and walked briskly away in the opposite direction, dragging little Susie with her and leaving Alexandra Styles too shocked to say a word in light of her abrupt departure.

It took a few minutes for it to sink in and when it did, Alex suddenly understood what those looks on the street were all about. A few more minutes passed before she had presence of mind to continue walking, although she was almost moving in a dazed stupor. The shock had still yet to fade from her encounter with Mrs Jacobson as her mind descended into chaos of trying to understand what had just taken place. Eventually, Alex tried to think how this could have happened. She and Vin had been very discreet when it came to their intimate relations. Vin always ensured no one saw him coming and going. While it was commonly known they were courting, Vin and Alex had been careful by not allowing anyone to assume their romance had progressed into the bedroom.

She continued walking towards the general store, no longer paying attention to the people who might or might not be staring at her with accusing eyes. Why would this surface now? Alex thought to herself, oblivious to everyone around her. She and Vin had been sleeping together for months now and Alex found it beyond the realm of possibility any impropriety should become a point of contention now. Had all her cancellations today been due to the fact the entire town considered her some sort of wanton?

"I always knew that there was something strange about her." Someone said.

Alex heard the voice state clearly as she neared the main entrance of the shop. It snapped her out of her reverie and made her stop in mid step. The group of women who were congregated together and gossiping like a gaggle of geese did not see her and continued speaking, offering colorful insights into the subject they were discussing with such passion.

"I mean do you see how she behaves around him?" Another woman added. "I wonder how long its been going on?"

"For months I hear." The first woman answered. "I mean first she took up with Ezra Standish until of course he wised up and left her for that nice Miss Pemberton."

"I would suggest you ladies keep your vile opinions to yourself." The voice of Mary Travis spoke up and silenced the others immediately. "Alexandra Styles has always comported herself with complete propriety and you should all be ashamed of yourself. There was never any hiding her relationship with Vin Tanner and those of you who have made it more than it appears to be, are the ones who have behaved improperly!"

Alex had turned away, uncertain she was willing to face a friend right now, even one who defended her so ardently. Her privacy was something she guarded fiercely and to hear her relationship with Vin was being discussed with such contempt and likened to some tawdry dime store novel was more than she could stomach. She heard Mary's footsteps behind her and realized with dismay she was not going to escape unseen.

"Alex." Mary exclaimed seeing her hurrying down the boardwalk. Mary threw a venomous look at the women who had been speaking so callously about Alex, with no knowledge the doctor had heard every word of their conversation. Mary did not wait to see their reaction and went after Alex, who was no doubt  mortified by what was being said about her.

It did not take Mary long to catch up with Alex, who did not look up as she neared her. Instead, Alex seemed determined to ignore Mary and everyone else around her.

"Leave me alone." Alex said as she walked towards her clinic, distress in every step she took.

"Alex, please stop." Mary implored, knowing how hurtful it was to hear all those awful things said by those insipid collection of troublemakers.

"Is everybody talking about this?" Alex stopped long enough to ask of Mary. Her face was almost pale through her dusky colouring. Mary had never seen her so bereft of composure and it shook her to the core.

"I don't know," the pretty blond widow confessed. "The first I heard of it was in the store just then."

It was the truth but it was not a truth Alex could listen to and frankly Mary could not blame her. Alex was an extremely private person after the very public way she and Ezra had parted company. Since then, she kept her relationship with Vin on a discreet level and while the affection between them was obvious, it was no more than to be expected of two people who were openly courting.

However, Mary was well aware of what vicious rumours could be spread by people with nothing better to do. In some ways, the smartest thing Mary Travis had done was to come out in the open about her own relationship with Chris Larabee for it finally put to rest the innuendos people had been making for the lack of any real knowledge.

Still, none of that was of any help to Alexandra Styles who was moving so fast she was quickly leaving Mary behind as she continued her journey back home. Mary noticed not everyone was placing the doctor under scrutiny and only a few local gossips were taking note of her distraught state. Alex professed to not care about her reputation but like Mary, her livelihood depended on her standing in the community. People thinking she was a loose woman were going to damage her credibility substantially.

She lost sight of Alex as the young woman rounded the corner into the street where her home and clinic was situated. Mary was afraid to leave Alex alone and wondered if fetching Vin was not a bad idea. However, no sooner than the thought crossed her mind, Mary realized it would only succeed in giving those who cared, the fuel to feed the fire of Alex's supposed indecency. For the moment anyway, there was no need to give the scandalmongers of town any more ammunition.

Mary rounded the corner and saw Alex frozen in place a few paces before the front door to her clinic. The doctor's eyes was fixed on a point only she could see and only when Mary neared the building and was able to follow her line of sight, did the widow realize what captured Alex's attention so completely. Scrawled in angry red letters across the door of her clinic and some of the wall, was one word.

But it was enough.

WHORE.

*********

The lawmen had spent most of the day on a particularly notorious piece of land which unfortunately was in the path of a cattle trail that led to prime grazing land. Ranchers usually tried to avoid taking this route because of all the rustlers who were known to frequent this area because of its high canyon walls and good vantage points in which to launch an ambush. Sometimes, however, the detour could not be afforded and the herd had to be taken through this dangerous route. On this particular occasion, the rancher in question had approached the seven to provide escort as he moved his herd across this perilous terrain.

With the exception of Nathan who was due to return from the Seminole village today and Ezra who wanted to remain close to town in case Julia needed him, the whole group had occupied their day on the dusty trail. They had kept an eye out for rustlers that might be lurking in the shadows until the herd was safely delivered to its grazing pasture before they returned to Four Corners as the sun began to set behind them.

Vin was supposed to take Alex to supper by the creek at Nettie's when he decided to stop by the clinic and let her know that he would come for her after he had a bath because the trail had left him covered in bull dust and sweat. Although he normally took the stairs at the side of the building to her kitchen door, Vin would still have to pass by the entrance taken by most of her patients through the front door. What he saw as he strode past, made him stop short.

The letters were faded now but there was still indelible enough to read clearly. Thanks to Mary Travis, Vin no longer had as an acute a reading problem as he used to when he first arrived in Four Corners. Mary taught him how to read and although the lessons were not as frequent as they used to be, Vin now could read well enough to get by as opposed to not at all. In this instance, however, it was a mixed blessing because the words scrawled on Alex's door that had been obviously scrubbed in an attempt to remove it ,made his stomach clench with anger.

After reading it, he ran up the stairs without further hesitation wondering what Alex must be thinking after finding the vicious message clearly meant for her. Her door was unlocked when Vin burst through and found her seated at the kitchen table, nursing a cup of tea in her shaking hands. She was clearly distressed but as always, was attempting to hide it beneath a practiced mask of personal detachment.

"You read it." She said quietly guessing from the look on his face.

"What happened?" He demanded pulling up a chair and sitting down. The pain he saw in her eyes forced much of his anger away and he reached for her trembling hands, enclosing them with his as he tried to offer comfort.

"They know about us." Alex responded, trying not to cry. She had spent a better part of the afternoon trying to scrub that vile mark of her front door which left its stain upon the paint as if someone had wished to put a branding iron to her skin and found it to be the next best thing. "They think I'm a whore!"

Vin grimaced as the words passed her lips, knowing this was not a simple matter of her reputation, it was her livelihood. If she could not doctor in Four Corners, then she could be forced to leave the town. "That ain't true." 

This was too much of a coincidence for Vin to accept. After what had happened with Lamont and the trouble that Nicholas Serfonteine was stirring up in Four Corners, Vin was certain this was the result of some form of attack by the men who were too cowardly to come at them directly.

"Its Serfonteine." Vin said firmly, without conviction or doubt.

Alex met his gaze. "You think he started these rumours?" She asked somewhat horrified anyone could go to such lengths to destroy her reputation.

"I'd bet on it. Once we run them out of town, everyone will know they've been listening to lies by men who got more to hide than anyone. This will pass Alex," he reassured her with a smile and a genuine belief it would indeed happen once Serfonteine had seen his last of Four Corners. Secretly however, Vin made a mental note to tear the man's tongue out of his head for casting such aspersions on Alex's reputation during that final departure.

Alex wanted to believe him and it was difficult not to when she stared into those perfectly blue eyes that held the belief with such conviction,  it was impossible not to be swept away in it herself. "You think so?" Alex smiled, unable to feel better that he was here and telling herself firmly she did not regret any of it. She loved him and everything that he was. There was no shame in that, no matter what people might say.

"Now, you got any paint around here?"

"Some." Alex answered, remembering the half full tin she had in the basement of the building. "Why?"

"I thought I might do some painting on your front door." He replied with a warm smile as he held her hand to his lip and showered it with a small kiss.

"That would be good." Alex said brightening up a bit. "Although, people might talk about what you're doing there. After all, its not like there's any formal understanding between us or anything."

Vin looked at her strangely and then asked in a quieter voice. "Would you like there to be?"

Until now, they had never really discussed what this thing was between them. Obviously, they were in love and having an affair but no formal declaration had been made and perhaps it was the ambiguous nature of their relationship that was partially responsible for this.

"I don't know Vin," Alex sighed, uncertain of whether she wanted things to change between them now that she was faced with the possibility. As much as she wanted to believe that he was right, that things would change once Nicholas Serfonteine was banished from Four Corners, Alex was still concerned. If Mrs. Jacobson's reaction was endemic of the entire town than her entire future would here would have to be reevaluated.

A future that might not involve Four Corners.

*********

"You should have just let me shoot him." Nathan Jackson declared as he sat inside the jailhouse, still seething in rage over what Nicholas Serfonteine had done to him. He should have guessed Rosken would only be compelled to evict him if he had been offered a great deal of money by someone who liked nothing better than to use his affluence to inconvenience Nathan as much as possible.

Chris Larabee sighed, knowing that there was little he could say to pacify Nathan at this point. In truth, he could not blame the healer's sense of outrage. Driving a man from his home was no easy thing to swallow and Chris could not be so certain he would not be similarly infuriated if someone had done the same thing to him. Still, empathizing with Nathan's situation certainly did not help it. "We'll think of something, Nathan. I promise." Chris tried to sound reassuring but knew that was not one of his best qualities.

"I can't believe Mr. Rosken would do such at thing." Mary exclaimed, in almost as much shock as when Nathan received the news and the discovery he was being evicted on the account of Nicholas Serfonteine.

The pretty widow sat at the edge of the desk, next to Chris's chair shaking her head in disbelief. It was Mary who acquired Nathan the premises to begin with; realizing how unlikely it was that Four Corners would get a real doctor any time soon and the town needed the services of a healer. She convinced Mr. Rosken that he would be performing a public service by allowing Nathan to set up a clinic of sorts in the unused premises above his hardware store. She could not believe he would be so willing to forget all that just because someone waved enough money under his nose. While she knew he had been reluctant initially to have a tenant who was a Negro but with Nathan becoming one of the town's protectors, Mary thought Rosken would overcome that particular hurdle.

"Every man has a price." Buck frowned, unhappy Nathan would be treated in such a way after all the help he had given this town before Alexandra Styles arrived. Buck could not even count the number of times Nathan had gone off to fix someone's broken leg or help some trouble child into the world. How could people's memory be so short as to forget all that good work just because one varmint creeps into town and starts stirring up old prejudices that should have been wiped out with the last war. "I guess we know what Rosken's is."

"I say we go down there and beat the crap out of him." J.D. said heatedly, seriously offended anyone could treat someone he admired so greatly so reprehensibly. "We ought to pound him silly until he gives that Serfonteine his money back and let's Nathan stay."

The older people in the room, smiled faintly at their younger counterpart's enthusiasm and while they could not do what he asked, every one of them shared his sentiments. "It's a nice idea J.D.," Josiah smiled. "But that ain't the way to beat this thing."

"No," Chris shook his head in agreement. "There's only one way to stop men like Serfonteine and that's to bring him out into the open."

"Yep," Josiah answered. "Men like these use the shadows to do their dirty work. Hiding makes them feel safe to do whatever it is they do without worrying about who is going to point the finger. Even when they don't wear masks, they're still hiding behind the law or carefully placed words that don't stand up too much under scrutiny. To stop them, we're going to have to find out who they are."

"That's where you come in J.D." Chris responded. "You've got to get Serfonteine's sister to talk to you about who he's seeing around town because sure as hell he's recruited by now."

"Yeah boy," Buck teased. "You're going to have to turn on that charm double."

"Buck." Chris glared at him and stopped his old friend from antagonizing J.D. because what they were discussing was serious. "I mean it J.D., you've got to make her talk to you. You need to find out who in town that Serfonteine thinks enough to see more than once. I'll stake my life that he's already got people joining his little group. We need to know who they are and expose them."

"You can convict a man on his beliefs." Nathan pointed out.

"That is true," Ezra spoke for the first time. "However, riding around in the night and hurting people is a coward's game and no one likes a coward, especially in the Territory. It is one thing to say the things you say and do about someone. Unfortunately, it is not so easy if they know you are saying it and you have to look them in the eye every day with that knowledge. Then it becomes harder to live with. Expose these Klansmen to their neighbours and to the town and you will find that the membership for the local chapter will drop significantly."

"Well we need to do something." Mary retorted. "They're crucifying Alex's reputation with the rumours they've started."

"I know," Buck grumbled. He had almost gone to blows with the talk he had been hearing from some men across town about Alexandra Styles. At the moment, she was considered little better than a harlot and with the same disregard that Mr Rosken had given Nathan, Alex was being similarly vilified and all her works in town since her arrival was blatantly ignored. "I don't know what's more sickening to hear; that she's a harlot because she's sleeping with Vin or the fact she might produce babies with a white man."

Chris's jaw tightened at that remark and said quietly. "That has definitely got Serfonteine's hands all over it."

"I would say it's a little homage to his buddy Lamont after Vin almost kicked his teeth out." Buck added.

"He's doing it because of me." Nathan said quietly and immediately captured everyone's attention with disbelief.

"That's not true." Josiah replied automatically. "He's doing it because Alex is a doctor and she's not white. It's a purely racial thing. That's why Lamont went after her. If there's any non-white in the community who is in higher standing than you, its Alex. Its just strategy."

However, Nathan would hear nothing about it. He knew better and he understood why Serfonteine targeted Alex in particular. It might have something to do with her altercation with Lamont and it might have something to do with how Vin Tanner defended her. It was even possible in an abstract way, it could be conceived that her standing in the community had something to do with this, but Nathan knew better. Serfonteine wanted to take away the only other woman in his life he had loved like Rebecca.

"He's doing it because he knows she reminds me of Becky." Nathan uttered a small laugh devoid of any humour. "First time I met her, she reminded me so much of my sister, I just couldn't help feeling something for her. Don't get me wrong, I don't love Miss Alex the way I feel for Rain but Miss Alex always had this special place in my heart cause she is so much like Becky used to be. Serfonteine has been asking around and he knew what me and Becky was like before so he guessed that's how things are with Miss Alex too."

"Bastard." Buck found himself saying. He knew exactly how Nathan was feeling. Wasn't that what Victoria Kendall had done to him by orchestrating the kidnapping of Inez all those months ago? The woman had known he lost Alice because of the rape she endured at Damien's hands. As a result, Victoria had tried inflict the same pain on him by doing the same to Inez, whom he cared for like no woman since Alice, was the ultimate in vengeance. Serfonteine was doing the exact same thing to Nathan, to make him endure watching another woman he cared for endure the same pain.

"It's a good thing that Vin is with her." Josiah stated. After Nathan's statement and how Lamont had come after Alex in broad daylight and now with her reputation all but destroyed, there was no telling what else Serfonteine had in mind for Alexandra Styles.

"That does not help Alex's situation." Mary pointed out. "How can you expect her to hide away and let this just happen to her, waiting for you seven to protect her? There are some awful things being said about her and we know even if Serfonteine leaves town, its not going to change. You should have heard some of the townsfolk talking about her."

"Alex is a fighter." Ezra declared. "She is far too strong to be intimidated by waving tongues and I believe once we expose Mr. Serfonteine for the villain he is, those who were so quick to accept intelligence from him may be forced into re-examination once that happens."

"I hope you are right." Mary replied, unhappy by what lay ahead for her close friend. "I know what gossip is like, I've seen it destroy good people and while I may have avoided that particular minefield, Vin and Alex have a greater hurdle to face then just her reputation. Serfonteine has brought to full ugly light the possibility of racial integration. People may find the idea of them having children offensive, no matter how Christian they may think themselves to be."

"This is so sick!" J.D. said standing up from his chair and pacing the floor like a child who has been told there was not going to be any dessert following supper. His stomach knotted at the talk of such things because he had believed Four Corners was beyond such nonsense.

"Let's deal with the problem at hand first," Chris quickly spoke up because tempers were starting to get frayed. He himself wanted to go with J.D.'s suggestion about beating the crap out of these bastards, he wanted to pound them into lumps of bloody flesh until such dangerous rhetoric was driven completely from Four Corners. This was the world Mary had wanted to bring Billy into and he could see from her face that she could not do this thing now, not like this. She wanted her son back badly but not to a place that believed in such evil ideas.

For Mary alone, Chris was willing to kill the entire Ku Klux Klan and bury their way of life under a ton of earth.

"We're going to stop them." Chris said with a confidence he did not feel. "Sooner or later, they'll overplay their hand, they always do."

Unfortunately, nobody wanted to know what more could go wrong.

*********

Night descended over the town of Four Corners like a damp, mist moving over the moors of some bad Gothic novel. It crept through the empty streets, snaked through the meandering alleys and drifted into homes, ever unseen yet always expected. Tonight, the dark and the cold seemed thicker somehow, as if there was something carried in the moist air and the feeling of dread permeated the atmosphere of the town like the harbinger of something terrible awaiting emergence in the blackness.

It was at its most silent, when even the saloon's usual noise and bustle had died down to a few drunken stragglers on the verge of being ejected from the premises that the slight rumble of hooves could be heard against the dirt ground. The town was asleep and so the midnight riders were unseen as they thundered into the heart of town, their white robes flowing behind them. Anyone who witnessed the arrival might think Four Corners was being intruded upon by a collection of ghosts escaping from some ethereal plane of which they had no understanding.

The riders came into the centre of town; all armed with torches that created orange streaks against the canvas of the scenery. They converged in the centre of Four Corners, across the street from Gloria Potter's store and the Clarion News. Lingering for a moment as their principals barked orders among themselves, while their horses stamped their hooves beneath them in impatience, the group soon divided themselves into smaller numbers.

The main group thundered towards the Standish Saloon, only a few hundred yards away from where they had chosen to confer. At this time of night, the establishment would be seeing off most of its last customers for those who had chosen to move against the place had done their research well. There was no need to kill just yet. That strategy would be utilized soon enough, however for the moment the purpose was not to injure but to warn.

Inez heard riders outside in the street and paid little attention to the noise.

She was far more interested in helping the last two customers presently passed out on the floor of the saloon, onto their feet and into the rooms above the bar. There was no way either man could attempt to ride home in the present state of inebriation and knew they were more than capable of affording lodging for the evening. Both were regulars she had seen from time to time and other than an overindulgence of drink, were mostly harmless.

"Come on Senor," Inez puffed as she pulled one of the men from under the table. "You need to rest up to pay the bill tomorrow." She groaned as she heaved his large bulk from where he had passed out. Her customer was in such a complete state of intoxication he did nothing but mutter incoherently as she dragged him across the wooden floor, his body creating a trail of dust and cigar butts.

Suddenly the horses she had given deemed inconsequential at the time, seemed to be right outside the door. She could hear their hooves stamping against the floor boards of the side walk outside and looked up to see shadows moving past the bat wing doors.

"What the hell. ." She started to say when suddenly something smashed through the window with such abruptness she lost her grip on the drunk and fell backwards in shock. The wooden torch moved clumsily through the air after making its dramatic entry through the window, trailing glass and broken wood in its wake. It landed on a table already wet with liquor spilt and immediately set the piece of furniture on fire. Inez had barely time to breathe when a second torch made a similarly noisy arrival, sailing over the front doors to land next to a wooden beam.

"Madre mois!" Inez exclaimed as she yanked off her apron and started beating out the flames that nearly engulfed the table. Flames were moving down its four legs, setting alight the litter of hay and other flammable material, using these to reach the chairs surrounding it. The alcohol on the table gave the fire sufficient fuel to gain momentum until Inez's attempts to kill the flames became more than she can handle.

She heard a gust of heat behind her and spun around to see the wooden beam almost completely ignited in an amber glow casting flickering shadows across the saloon. She heard the dull thud of something landing on the awning outside and something else. Instinctively, she ran out of the door into the night air to see what it was and call for help because it was starting to become evident to her that she would soon need it.

As she burst through the swinging doors, she stopped abruptly at what lay waiting for her when she did emerge. Her jaw went slack with a mixture of horror and confusion at what these four men were supposed to be. They wore their white robes and their pointed hats, looking like wraiths against the black of night. They sat on their horses watching the destruction they had wrought, with guns in their hands.

Inez had no idea what to make of them but could feel the sinister intent in the way they regarded her. In the distance she could hear breaking glass that did not come from the saloon and the sound of men and horses moving through the streets. Suddenly, it occurred to her these white robed strangers were not alone. Whatever havoc they were attempting to create, they were not confining their activities solely to the saloon.

"Who are you?" Inez demanded, unable to keep herself from asking as her fury started to escalate at this cowardly attack. "Why have you done this?" She rushed out on to the street, glancing over her shoulder long enough to see that it was another torch that they had thrown on the awning and the fire was quick to spread over the breadth of the canopy. There was no time to deal with these men, she had to get help and quickly before the entire saloon was razed to the ground.

"FIRE!" Inez screamed at the top of her voice. "FIRE!"

"Shut up you Spic bitch!" One of the men rode over to Inez as she continued to call for help, having deemed these riders a secondary importance. He kicked out one foot which struck Inez in the chest and sent her to the ground. As she hit the dirt, she could hear them laughing.

"You and the rest of your kind ain't wanted around here no more! Four Corners is for decent folk, not for scum from south of the border." He shouted and as if to make his point clearer, he aimed the double barrel shotgun he was carrying in her direction.

Inez felt her heart stop as she stared down the barrel of the weapon and saw him pull the trigger. She clamped her eyes shut and waited for death as she looked up at the unwavering direction of the gun. She was not going to beg for mercy, especially from the likes of him who would not grant it anyway, if she was to die, she would do so with her dignity intact. The explosion of sound from the gun tore through the air made Inez instinctively cover her head with arms but the bullet did not find its mark on her person, instead she was pelted with uprooted dirt and soil as the ground he had fired upon.

"Remember!" He hissed again. "Or the next time won't be a warning shot!"

"Come on!" She heard another one shout and noticed Four Corners was coming alive with townsfolk waking up from their beds, lights were appearing in windows and excited voices could be heard in front and behind her. Some of them were coming from the saloon itself, where the working girls and their customers were soon discovering that the building in which they were enjoying such rapture was burning down around them. The other shouts came from the rest of Four Corners, from townspeople who emerged to investigate and seen the danger. Nothing inspired greater fear in any community than the word 'fire'.

In any case, the men who created such destruction had no intention of remaining to see the chaos ensured by their handiwork. No sooner than one of them had made the call to withdraw, the white garbed collection of wraith like riders dug their heels into their mounts and rode away into the night, like specters disappearing into the mist. Inez watched them go, feeling no confidence to turn her back on them until she was sure they were well and truly gone, unable to deny the chill that run down her spine at the sight of these men. This was just a warning for her and her kind. What were they capable of when they truly wished to harm someone?

It was a question she rather not delve into too deeply and in honesty there was no time for it. Inez spun around and ran back up the stairs into the saloon, even though the awning was burning out of control and the covering above the boardwalk was now a canopy of flames. There were still people inside the saloon and with a great deal of effort, perhaps they could save the saloon before it burned completely to the ground. The fire was not out of control yet, it almost was but there was still time.

"Inez!" Buck Wilmington exclaimed, as he stood at the foot of the steps, ushering a number of working girls out of the establishment. Most of them were barely clad but were decent enough not to offend as they ran frantically down the stairs, emerging from their rooms. "Are you okay darling?" He asked as he left the stairs and ran to meet her in the middle of the room. "I thought I heard gunshots." He was clearly relieved to see she was safe.

"You did," she nodded quickly, "but I'm okay. Can you help me with these two men? They're out cold."

She referred to the two drunks she had been attempting to help to bed when she was so abruptly interrupted. They were still lying on the floor, drunk to the world with no idea around them, they were sleeping their way to a fiery death.

"Jesus!" Buck said shocked. He had been so busy evacuating people from the upper floors he had not seen them at all. He dreaded to think what would have happened if Inez had not told him. .

Without another word, Buck ran forward and grabbed the first man on the floor, he was lying under a table that was ignited and was about to collapse on his face. Carefully, Buck pulled the man from under as the flames in the room seemed to get higher and the smoke was no longer something that exerted its presence merely by smell, but by sight. Thick clouds of grey drifted through the room as Buck hauled the man up to his feet and dragged him towards the door.

Inez went for the second man who was leaning against the counter, the top of which was covered in flames. The surface of it which had been weathered alcohol seeping into the grain of the wood burned easily with the substance as a fuel.

The fire ran across the counter, into the narrow passageway where Inez moved from one end to the other and was snaking up the bottles of liquor behind it.

"Inez!" J.D. Dunne burst through the batwing doors and searched through the cackling of flames and the thickening smoke to find her. The young man had just run into Buck who ordered him to come in and help Inez with the second man as Buck tended to the first. The smoke's effect on J.D. was immediate and he started to cough a little. Like the rest of the town, he heard the commotion and his first thought was to reach the saloon where Inez and Buck would still be.

"I'm here J.D.!" Inez cried out as she tried to pull the drunk she was trying to save to his feet. Unfortunately, she did not possess Buck's strength and so the endeavour was proving to be harder than she envisioned. It did not matter before because she had the time to slowly help him upstairs but now with a virtual wall of flames forming before her, she was starting to panic as any creature would panic in the face of such an old enemy.

"I'm coming!" J.D. called out as he waved the smoke out of his face in a futile gesture. He could feel its harsh fumes stinging his lungs as he tried hard not to breathe it in. Relatively small in frame, J.D. was nonetheless spry and in seconds he was next to the bartender and helping her with the man who was too drunk too know how close he was to dying. Suddenly, an explosion of glass erupted behind them, sending shards in all directions. Inez squealed and covered her eyes, while J.D.'s heavy jacket protected him from most of the spray of glass and liquid.

"It's the liquor!" Inez declared as the bottles of alcohol on the shelves had been superheated to such temperatures that they could no longer be contained in their glass receptacles. The fire enveloped the shelves were bubbling the fluid within the bottles to critical mass and the explosions that they created were only sending more fuel into an already raging fire.

As she spoke, another bottle exploded and another, until they were deafened by the sound of breaking glass that was creating new tendrils of flames to start where there had been none before. Inez and J.D. did not stay around to see the entire liquor collection do their worst and quickly made an exit. Hurrying out the door while coughing so hard because the smoke had made it impossible to see through the tears of their stinging eyes, Inez heard the heaving of something that was not the roar of flames of exploding bottles. Looking behind her, she saw the saloon whom she and Ezra worked so hard into success being destroyed systematically as fires completely engulfed the room. The heaving sound she heard came from the stairs and as she observed fires in every crack of wood in the structure, she knew its support structure was burned away.

No sooner than that thought crossed her mind, the entire stairway collapsed spectacularly. Flames forced forward by the displacement of air at the impact expanded outwards as sparks and embers flew in all directions. J.D. and Inez ran out of the doors at the moment, deciding they would not remain to see what the building would do for an encore. In the final moment as they were about to slip through the doors, Inez hoped no one else was in the building for with the stairs gone, they would be trapped on the upper floors.

"Inez! J.D. are you all right?" This came from Ezra who just arrived.

"Where have you been?" Inez demanded, wondering why he had not been here sooner. This was his saloon too and even though he did not lodge here, he should have been here sooner than this. Ezra was half-dressed, seeming not at all like Ezra without his jacket and hat, even though he still wore his customary waistcoat.

"This is not the only place on fire tonight, Inez." Ezra said quietly as his eyes fixed on the flaming building before them. "The entire town is mobilized to fight a war. There are at least four other places in town currently battling the same conditions as our saloon here."

"What!" J.D. exclaimed in horror because Inez was too dumbstruck to speak. Now she understood why there were so few people gathered outside the saloon trying to form the water brigade that included Buck and Vin.

"At this moment, Chris Larabee is battling a fire at Will Jefferson's place." Ezra informed dutifully as he took the arm of the man Inez was propping up and continued to the space where Nathan Jackson was presently examining people for smoke inhalation.

"The blacksmith?" J.D. asked, remembering Will Jefferson from the number of times he needed his horse shoed. It was hard not to remember an almost seven foot tall black man who made one feel like a dwarf. Jefferson always had a wide smile for him and called him Mister Dunne, even though J.D. pleaded with him to just call him J.D.

"No Sir, you're the Sheriff and I reckon you be needing all the respect you can get."

"Is he alright?" J.D. was almost afraid to ask as Jefferson's familiar words rung in his ears.

"He's fine," Ezra said grimly as they reached Nathan. "He managed to get his family out of the house before the fire spread too quickly but I am afraid his establishment took the brunt of this inferno."

"He taken in a lot of smoke." Nathan declared of his patients as he put down his stethoscope and regarded the next patient that they were bringing him. The man he regarded was still very much unconscious but the ragged breathing they heard for coming from him seemed to prove Nathan's prognosis that the man was probably suffering the effects of smoke inhalation. "Since I don't got no infirmary any more, we're going to have to move him to Miss Alex's."

"This man was lying next to the fire for a long time Nathan," Inez replied as Ezra and J.D. set the man down. "I do not like how he breathes."

Nathan nodded and quickly started unbuttoning the man's collar and shirt, to get at his chest unencumbered by fabric. The healer worked deftly with the three of them watching in mild fascination as Nathan made a quick check of the man's breathing passages. The man's breathing was laboured, almost as if he was an eighty-year-old wheezing for his next lung full of air.

After a moment, Nathan looked up and found himself agreeing with Inez's. "You're right ma'am," he nodded. "This one's taken a lot of smoke and I don't think enough air is getting to his brain. We need to move him right now. J.D., you best help me." Nathan instructed. "I reckon the rest of you will be needed here to deal with this fire. The one at James Freeman's is out of control and it's almost razed completely."

"Not Jimmy Freeman's too!" This was getting too much for J.D. Unlike most people in Four Corners, who sometimes felt it inappropriate for the black and white community to become too personally involved, J.D. did not believe in such conventions. In his opinion, Nathan was the standard by which he judged all black people, even though he thought to himself, he should not be doing that at all either but he did know Jimmy Freeman who was the local carpenter. They had gotten to know Jimmy when the man was building some shelves for Mary Travis since Chris confessed to being lousy at that particular chore. Jimmy was a nice man whose wife Bernadette owned a bakery that had the nicest pies, according to Alexandra Styles who could not bake to save her life.

"They're attacking all the black people." Inez declared.

"Unfortunately yes," Ezra nodded, since it was pretty damn evident now.

"I knew this was going to happen," Nathan said in a quiet voice. "The moment Serfonteine came to town, I knew this was going to happen." Nathan wished more than anything now he killed the man even if reason told him that it was wrong. After everything that happened today, Nathan's previous calm had fled him and he wanted his revenge so badly he could taste it.

"Take it easy Mr Jackson." Ezra warned. "The situation requires a healer at this moment, not a vigilante. As much as I hate to admit this, we have no proof Serfonteine was responsible for this. Now you have a patient, I say deal with him first and leave Serfonteine and his bunch of arsonists for the moment."

"You're right." Nathan said being filled with renewed vigor now that he had been reminded that his true calling was not that of a murderer. "Come on J.D., help me him." He replied as J.D. stepped forward to assist Nathan with the patient that was lying on the dirt, with his chest exposed and his breathing sounding even more thready than ever. "We'll take him to Miss Alex's, I think she has a respirator there."

Ezra and Inez watched Nathan and J.D. disappear into the night towards the direction of Alex's clinic when Ezra remarked still staring at Nathan. "He wants Serfonteine so badly, he can taste it."

"Can you blame him?" Inez returned. "There are some things that cannot be forgiven Ezra, not for anything."

"I know that." Ezra sighed, turning away and meeting her gaze. "But there comes a time when a man has to decide whether his pride is more important or the future of his life."

He was not prone to such philosophical mutterings and Inez wondered if his own troubles with Julia lately had been the cause of such soul searching.

"Ezra I saw them." She responded, wishing in part to tell him what she knew and also to move him from such melancholy thoughts for the moment.

His eyes widened. "Let me guess, they were in white robes?"

Now it was Inez's turn to be surprised. "Yes!" She exclaimed in shock. "How did you know?"

"Jefferson described the men riding away from his place to look like ghosts." Ezra stated, remembering how the man described the arsonists. Jefferson was uneducated, as most former slaves tended to be disadvantaged in such things and somewhat prone to superstition and Ezra supposed it was not such an unreasonable description. "I think they are appropriately called ghouls."

"It doesn't sound much better." Inez deadpanned.

"Ezra, Inez," Buck stepped forward from the long chain that was formed between the saloon and the nearest water pump. "We're gonna need all the help we can get if we're going to save the saloon."

Inez and Ezra turned their attention to what Buck had been up to since depositing the drunk at Nathan's feet earlier. The tall man had organized people into a chain as close to the fire as possible without endangering the lives of the firefighters. Buckets were being passed along as those assembled struggled to contain the fire. Among the number present, Ezra could see Vin Tanner and concluded, Josiah must be helping Chris Larabee with the fires on the other side of town. Buck had even enlisted the working girls he had pulled out of the burning building to join in the battle. At the moment, the ladies were attacking the fire with blankets, attempting to stave out the flames that were to far from the main chain.

Ezra looked at the bodies working to save his saloon and felt somewhat overwhelmed by the sight of all those people trying to help for no good reason other than they were needed. It touched the core of him such solidarity existed in the same world where men wore white robes and felt the need to spread so much hate in a twisted litany of racial impurity.

Unfortunately, the appearance of the ghouls tonight was just a preview of things to come. Without knowing how he knew, Ezra was confident that things were about to get a great deal bloodier before any end was in sight.

God help him, he was going to get just as dirty to bring that about.

*********

Nathan and J.D. arrived at Alexandra Styles's clinic and noticed the entrance to the clinic was wide open. The vile letters that Mary Travis had described to them earlier were still etched from on the wood; despite Alex's bests attempts to eradicate its stain from her home. Nathan's stomach hollowed seeing those words and knew the only reason this was here was because Serfonteine was somehow responsible for promoting the rumours branding Miss Alex a wanton. He also knew Serfonteine had been asking questions, gathering all sorts of information. He had struck at Alex because he knew how much she meant to Nathan.

"Those bastards." J.D. found himself swearing with uncharacteristic venom as they came upon the door.

"Yeah," Nathan agreed with a slight nod but he was more interested in the door that was wide open. It was conceivable that Miss Alex had forgotten to lock it and was probably out and about in town at this moment, rendering aid the way only healers with the calling could do when people were in need. "They're just trying to get to us." Nathan responded and did not add this was more directed at him then anyone else. He supposed however, it could be true Lamont wanted revenge after Vin had put him through a glass window and broken the nose of that now 'not so pretty' face.

"It's working." J.D. grumbled, wishing he had more progress with Serfonteine's sister. Violet had successfully manage to hide their liaison from her brother, which was just as well for he did not need to know she might be a source of information to his enemies. Still, Violet was starting to talk more and more about her brother's dealings and J.D. did not think it would be very long before she started talking about his Klan affiliations. Chris was more interested in the membership of the group in Four Corners more than anything else. Since Nicholas had visited almost every white person in town about the Klan, it was difficult to pin who might be a member or not.

Chris believed the key to unraveling the entire movement was unmasking these men who preferred to ride in the night, committing all kinds of heinous crimes with impunity mainly because their identities kept them safe. If it were not so, if they were made to face their victims unmasked and exposed, Chris believed they would fade away into the night, like cockroaches scurrying in the light. Even Nathan was forced to agree with this assessment and once again, J.D. was reminded why Chris Larabee was their leader.

The two men stepped into the open door of the clinic with their patient and immediately made their way in the darkness to the clinic's infirmary. In the same bed Julia Pemberton had occupied a week ago, Nathan set down the man. While Nathan settled his patient into bed and started looking for the lamp to illuminate the room, J.D. noticed something.

It was quiet.

Not merely silent as if no one was speaking but the kind of quiet that seemed sinister in the light of the darkness that pervaded this room. "Nathan," J.D. asked as he went up the stairs, feeling the floorboards creak as he made his way into the home where Alex Styles resided whenever she was not healing.

"What?" Nathan asked as he finally got some light into the room when the lamp under his ministrations started to burn brightly, illuminating things with an amber glow.

"Have you seen Miss Styles anywhere?" J.D. asked as he disappeared up the staircase.

The question made Nathan pause immediately. Suddenly, his heart began to fill with dread and he left his patient without a second thought and ran up the stairs in pursuit of J.D., who was investigating upstairs. The kid was right, he had not seen Alex at all. He had assumed she would be where Chris was but then Vin had said nothing about it and so Nathan's mind began to see more terrible possibilities.

When he reached the top of the stairs, the signs of violence could clearly be seen. Alex had given whomever intruded her home a good fight. The broken furniture and upturned table was certainly evidence of that. A curtain rail hung precariously, where it had been snapped in two and the hallway mirror was smashed to pieces.

J.D. met his gaze and could only say in hushed tones. "Nathan, Alex is gone."

Chapter Seven
Initiation

J.D. had no idea how he had managed to keep Nathan calm enough to seek Chris Larabee out with the news about Alexandra Styles. When they left the doctor's home, the healer was so enraged by her disappearance, it made J.D. wonder how Vin Tanner was going to react when he was told. Wisely, J.D. had enough presence of mind to know it would be much better coming from Chris. Particularly since the gunslinger would be the only person who could keep Vin from going completely insane once the tracker learned the woman he loved was in the hands of the very men who had turned Four Corners into a war zone tonight.

When J.D. and Nathan arrived at the Jefferson place, they found the main house standing although the blacksmith shop was completely engulfed. The firefighters managed to keep the flames spreading to the residence but there was little to be done for the business premises. As columns of black smoke streamed into the flame illuminated sky, J.D. could see the structure barely managing to remain erect and was not far from complete collapse.

Chris was at the head of the chain with Mary manning the pump to fill the buckets that reached her. Among the slew of faces between them, J.D. saw Josiah working alongside Will Jefferson and his family with Gloria Potter also lending in a hand as bucket after bucket was passed along to stamp out the fire. All of them were covered in sweat and soot, with determination on their faces to keep this inferno from becoming any more rampant then it already was.

Suddenly, the sound of heaving wood overcame the cackling of fire as the blacksmith shop finally burned away everything keeping it standing. Embers of heat floated in the air as the structure started to sway uncertainly on its decaying beams until one piece of wood snapped and tumbled to the ground.

"Everyone get back!" Chris shouted on top of his voice.

Buckets were immediately discarded as the group withdrew quickly, the tidy chain scattering like the ants on a hill set upon by mischievous children. They retreated to a safe distance as the snapping wood beams and collapsing roof made the building shudder with eminent destruction. When it finally caved in, a roar of crumbling wood and fiery embers filled the world until nothing else could be heard, not even the rumble of disappointment from those who tried so hard to save the blacksmith's store.

J.D. searched for Will Jefferson in the crowd of onlookers who watched the flames almost as if they were standing present at a funeral pyre. The tall black man was next to his wife Bernadette, staring stoically into the fire, trying to hide the sorrow in his face. J.D. felt his heart sink at the sadness on Will's proud features, knowing the fire was destroying not only something that belonged to him but the enterprise in which he put so much of himself.

"We've got to keep going!" Chris barked, mobilizing the firefighters to work once again. Although the structure collapsed, the ruins were still burning and therefore still a danger to the house.

"Chris!" Nathan hurried forward, immediately drawing Josiah out of the group.

Chris looked up and saw his two comrades approaching with grim expressions on their face that had a great deal more to do with just a fire. Instinctively, he glanced in Josiah's direction. The preacher stepped out of his place in the chain and the townsfolk absorbed his absence as the buckets started moving once again.

Chris Larabee seemed exhausted, J.D. noted as they approached the gunslinger. The blond man was sweaty and covered with dirt. He had been at the head of the chain and J.D. could almost see the slight tinge of red where his skin was baked by his close proximity to the fire. He stepped away from the head of the line and was mildly pleased to see his absence being taken up by the others in the chain.

"I hope the saloon is doing better than this." Chris grumbled as Josiah joined them.

"Chris, we've just been up to Alex's." Nathan said not wasting any time with coming to the point. "She's gone."

Chris's eyes hardened in an expression the seven knew all too well. His jaw tightened and immediately, the  same predatory gleam crept into the powerful gaze. It was a visage that had the gunslinger poised for attack, the way a wolf smelled the blood of something dying in the distance. "Where's Vin?" He said simply.

"He's with Buck, trying to put the fire out at the saloon." J.D. said automatically. "We haven't told him yet."

"Shit." Josiah swore under his breath, knowing as well Chris how the tracker was going to take this. "They must have taken her just after the alarm went out."

"Probably guessed no one would think them stupid enough to stay in town after what they did." Chris ventured a guess.

"Serfonteine would." Nathan retorted. "He was just waiting for the moment."

No one could refute that statement because he was right. Serfonteine waited for the right instant to kidnap Alexandra Styles, knowing full well their attention would be fixed upon dealing with the chaos the Klan had created in Four Corners tonight. Even now, they had no actual proof that would hold up in any court Serfonteine was responsible for Alex's abduction and if they should kill her before the seven were to reach her, it made his conviction even more difficult to effect. Suddenly, Chris felt it was not just imperative they find Alex Styles before the Klan killed her or worse but she might be the key in finally ridding Four Corners of Nicholas Serfonteine once and for all.

*********

The teenager hurried to Ezra who was passing a bucket to Vin in what was second nature to them now. The gambler could no longer remember how long he had been standing in line, fighting tooth and nail for his saloon, that was at this moment languishing under a wall of flames. Financially, its loss would mean very little to him. Maude insured the place to the hilt because in a town like Four Corners where trouble seemed to lurk behind every corner, it seemed the intelligent thing to do. Perfectly aware her son and his companions attracted constant danger in their capacity as the town's lawmen, Maude Standish had taken precautions to protect her investment.

Still, Ezra did not want to see the saloon destroyed, even if he could just as easily build another one. He had sentimental attachments to the place that no amount of fresh paint or a new building could ever replace. Next to him, Vin handed another bucket which he passed along to the next link in the chain of firefighters battling the fire. Realistically, they knew the building was beyond saving now but dogged determination and blind stubbornness refused to let anyone give up on it just yet. Buck Wilmington stood at the head of the line, attempting valiantly to douse the flames while barking orders at the working girls who were stamping out the flames with blankets at parts of the building the water would not reach.

When the boy approached him, Ezra was too busy to take notice, focusing more on the saloon rather than the young man in his worn clothes and his plain features. He peered at Ezra from under a tweed hat sported by most young boys his age.

"Mister, I've been told to deliver this message." He said distracted by the activity taking place around him. The orange glow of the fire captured his attention as he forgot momentarily why he had sought the gambler.

Ezra met Vin's gaze and the tracker nodded in understanding. "Go on Ezra." Vin replied and then called one of the onlookers to take his place. Ezra stepped out of the chain, still surprised by all the people who answered the call in the saloon's hour of need. He recognized one of the faces as Mr Rosken, the man who had unceremoniously ejected Nathan from his infirmary. Rosken wore a decidedly contrite look on his face, perhaps suspecting that his newfound tenant might be responsible for what was happening in town tonight.

"Well young man," Ezra stepped away from the line and led the young man away. "What is this message you have for me?"

The boy handed him a piece of paper and quickly hurried away no sooner than it had passed onto the gambler's palm. Ezra looked at him disappearing into the crowd and suddenly felt a knot of concern forming in his chest as he quickly unfolded the note.

Ezra,

I Need Help

Julia

There were only two lines to the whole message but it was enough to start him running. Ezra bolted forward and hurried through the people on the street, making a beeline to Julia's house behind the Emporium. Her state of mind had been precarious to say the least and there was an edge of desperation in her note that struck him with cold fear. Although he had to admit that her asking for him was a good sign since it appeared that lately, she had trouble even looking at him. There was the unconscious fear perhaps she blamed him for convincing her the pregnancy was a child instead of the nuisance she originally perceived it to be. After all, as soon as she started thinking of it as her child, she had lost it.

Once he escaped the immediate vicinity of the saloon, the crowds started to thin and Ezra guessed the main body of Four Corners citizen were presently engaged in dealing with the fires raging across the town. He broke into a run over the boardwalk, hoping the note in his hand was not as serious as it seemed to be. With everything happening in town at this moment, this was not a complication he needed.

He was about to step off the boardwalk when suddenly out of the shadows, Nicholas Serfonteine emerged with his companion Mr Micawber, barring his path.

The two men were not dressed in robes of white but did appear to be garbed in travelling clothes suited for a more nocturnal past time. With winter fast approaching, the nights were getting steadily colder and it seemed Serfonteine was preparing for an evening in the great outdoors.

"Mr Serfonteine." Ezra tried to sound casual even though he was disturbed by this sudden appearance. Like Chris and the rest of the seven, it was more or less a foregone conclusion Serfonteine was responsible for what transpired in Four Corners this evening, proof or not. "I'm afraid I do not have time to talk. I am required somewhere else."

"I must apologize for engaging in some minor subterfuge," Nicholas replied, eyeing Ezra closely. "It was I who was responsible for that note."

Instinctively, Ezra's fist tightened around the piece of paper which he crushed in his palm. "That was not exactly neighbourly Mr Serfonteine, my Julia has been in a precarious state of health lately and that was a message to give me cause for some trepidation."

"I am sorry," Nicholas responded once more, attempting to wear his most sincere expression of remorse as he made his apologies. "I did however, need to speak to you alone and could be assured you would proceed without hindrance."

"Well you have managed to reach that end." Ezra sighed, pretending to dispel his annoyance with a faint smile. "What may I do for you on this most calamitous night."

"I am most horrified by the violence that is taking place in your fair town," Nicholas continued, satisfied Ezra bore him no ill will by the false summons. "I certainly did not endorse the actions taken by my more exuberant acquaintances and I wish your help in bringing the situation under control. You alluded to wishing to assist the cause some days ago, am I to assume that is still how you feel on the subject?"

"Of course." Ezra answered without hesitation. "I for one would like to take account with the man who chose to burn down my saloon."

"An unfortunate occurrence," Micawber commented. "We will see the perpetrator who did this held responsible. You have our word on that."

Ezra nodded, refusing to believe him for a second but chose to display sincere belief since it served the gambler's purpose to do so for the moment. "How may I help?"

"It is time you joined the fold Mr Standish," Nicholas smiled. "If you would accompany us, we require you to take part in the ritual to ensure your loyalty to us and bring justice to this fair town once more." Nicholas gestured to the horses  tethered in the distance with every intention of having Ezra accompany them on whatever journey they had planned for him.

Unfortunately, Ezra could hardly refuse, not if he wanted to bring an end to this man and the others with him. However, the fact was, none of the seven knew where he was going when he left so abruptly and should he go with Serfonteine, he would be utterly alone and have no one to cover his back if he should get into any difficulty.

"I am hardly dressed for such a grand occasion." Ezra glanced at his clothes soiled in dirt and soot. "Perhaps if you would allow me a change of clothes. ."

"Nonsense," Serfonteine wrapped his had around Ezra's arm, indicating to the gambler in his narrowed eyes that he was not going anyway, despite his attempts at civility. "You are perfectly attired for what we have in mind."

"If you say so," Ezra answered quietly, unable to do much else. "I am at your disposal."

*********

The streets were frantic with activity. People were banding together in an unprecedented show of unity to fires. The fires had been brought under some measure of control but nowhere close to being completely extinguished. Men and women formed lines to the water pumps while others attacked the flames with blankets to stamp out the flames where it was out of reach from the water. There was so much to do and in the centre of it all, was the burning effigy of the cross left by the arsonists, serving notice to the town's 'undesirables' this was just the beginning.

When Vin saw Chris Larabee walking purposefully towards him with Josiah, Nathan and J.D. wearing grim expressions, he knew instinctively something was wrong. Before the gunslinger even approached him, Vin stepped out of the chain and was crossing the gap to meet his comrades. As he made the journey, he cast a brief glance at the saloon which was more or less in gutted, even though the firefighters staged a valiant effort to save it. Against all odds, the fire was subdued to manageable levels and the chain was concentrating its efforts on the small fires still burning at certain parts of the building.

Buck Wilmington noticed Vin's departure and took note of where the younger man was headed. Deciding someone else could take his place now since the fire was mostly under control, he hurried forward, perfectly aware the stormy look in Chris's eyes indicated something had transpired that did not involve a fire. Buck could not possibly imagine what could be worse than the destruction wrought in town tonight but Four Corners had a strange knack of exceeding normal standards for trouble at regular intervals.

"Vin," Chris started to say and hoped the tracker would not fly too much off the handle. Of course, if it was Mary in the same position, Chris would be in even worse state than Vin. Tonight alone was enough to wear his normally cool demeanour. Fires were the one thing that could make Chris Larabee's blood run cold.

Vin paused and suddenly saw something else in the gunslinger's face that made the problem all the more serious. "What?" He asked almost quietly.

"Its Alex." Chris answered, having decided there was no way to make the delivery of this news any easier. "She's gone. Nathan and J.D. went to the clinic. There were signs of a struggle and it looks like she gave them a good fight but they took her."

Vin remained calm. It was the only thing he could think to do even though his insides were fisting with fear. He closed his eyes and forced himself to stay centered and not lose his head as he was prone to do whenever such situations arose. Meeting Chris's steely gaze, Vin responded with a measured voice. "Do we know how much of a head start they got on us?" Vin inquired.

"No," Chris shook his head slowly. "Nathan and J.D. only discovered her missing a short time ago."

Vin forced himself to keep his mind on the issue at hand. There was a part of him that was like a bottle waiting to be uncorked but letting the full flow of his panic overtake him would serve no purpose. He cast his mind back to the last time he had seen her, working under the assumption he was the last one to have seen her. The alarm had just sounded there was trouble and when it was made clear it was a fire, Alex told him to go on. Being the doctor she was, Alex assured him she would only be a few minutes behind him because she had to get her medical bag. The urgency of the situation forced him to leave her against his better judgement. Vin pulled back from the memory before he started wallowing in the recriminations of that act.

"They must have taken her straight after I left her then." Vin answered, meeting Chris's steely gaze. Despite himself, he tried not to let his voice waver as he asked his next question. "Was there any blood?"

Chris's gaze darted to Nathan's immediately because the gunslinger did not know. Nathan shook his head automatically, since it was the first thing he sought out when J.D. discovered Alex was missing. "No, not a drop. She fought pretty hard though," he remarked. "Lots of things broken but no blood. They took her out of the house unhurt."

Nathan's last remark was meant to pacify Vin but it did nothing of the kind. "I need to look at the house." The tracker said abruptly and prompted the group into movement when he started towards it.

"Vin, you okay?" Buck asked, seeing through the brave mask Vin was wearing and discovering the pure terror being carefully hidden, despite his attempt to stay focused.

"I have to be," Vin said as they left the main street and took the familiar path towards Alexandra Styles's clinic. "I'm no good to her if I ain't."

With that Buck dropped a few paces and let Vin leave him behind. He had to admire Vin's ability to keep his cool. In that way, he was very much like the way Chris used to be before the fire that killed Sarah and Adam. Buck sincerely hoped nothing would happen to Vin to change him in the same way.

"Buck," Nathan's hand rested on his shoulder as the healer came up behind him.

Nathan was surprisingly quiet since Chris Larabee delivered the news about Alex. Buck knew that Nathan also cared for Alex just as deeply for Vin even though his affection was of a completely different nature. If Vin felt terrible fear for Alex's safety then Nathan felt guilt with equal intensity. The only reason Alex was targeted like she had the past few days was because of her close friendship with Nathan. Serfonteine was doing exactly what Nathan said he would and Buck was starting to wonder if there was any way to end this situation without getting bloody.

"What's up Nathan?" He asked, seeing the darkness in his friend's eyes.

"Before we get to Alex's, I need a little favour." Nathan replied, drawing him further away from the others without their noticing.

Buck looked at him with a mixture of curiosity and caution. "What sort of favour?"

Nathan explained quickly and Buck felt his chest tightened at what the man was asking him but Nathan made a good argument for his point of view and Buck could see no reason to refuse him. Perhaps from the instant Nicholas Serfonteine rode into town, Nathan Jackson had been tumbling towards this particular moment. Sometimes, there was no avoid destiny, whatever the good intentions.

"Are you sure about this?" Buck asked quietly, knowing from personal experience how bad this could be.

"It's the only way for it to be over." Nathan replied with honesty, deciding Buck deserved that much at least.

"Okay," Buck finally conceded. "I just hope you know what you're doing."

The truth was, Nathan did not know anything at all, about himself or what he was set upon doing. All he could say for certain was he tired and weary and to get on with his life from this point onwards, there needed to be an end to this.

*********

Julia Pemberton knew about the fire but saw no reason to leave her home since there was little she could do about it. At the moment, she felt there was nothing she could contribute to the fire fighting efforts of the town folk and in truth, she could not bear being around so many people at this time. Instead, she was content to watch most of it from her bedroom window since she did not sleep well these days. Julia was somewhat aware of what had been going on in town with the arrival of Nicholas Serfonteine. Ezra made some attempt to tell her about it and she now felt a little guilty remembering how uninterested she had been at the time.

Julia sat on her window sill and watched the bodies moving outside her window. They were hurrying from one place to another, trying to keep track of each concentrated glow of amber in the night sky. Clad in her nightdress, the woman stared past the glass with her chin resting on her knees as she watched the world moved past her, oblivious to the anguish hidden beneath the surface of her eyes. Over the years, Julia and guilt had very little to say to each other. She felt twinges of it sometimes, allowing it to infect her conscience with its whispers of reproach. However, for most part, Julia paid it very little heed.

Now all she seemed to feel was guilt and looking Ezra in the eyes and keeping the truth away from him was becoming harder by the moment. Alexandra Styles had sought to help her by feeding Ezra the lie about the baby. For that, the doctor had won Julia's undying friendship and loyalty, a thing she gave to almost no one other than Ezra Standish. Alex had no reason to help Julia and every reason to see her humiliated but Alex had not done that and saved her. The shame Julia felt for taking Ezra away the way she had burned into her along with the rest of her numerous sins.

Alex believed she was doing the right thing and at the time, Julia saw no reason to argue with her. However, Julia made a promise to Ezra when they had consummated their love for the first time, that there would no secrets and this one was a secret he needed to know because not telling him was killing her.

Julia caught sight of J.D. Dunne moving past the Emporium and realized the young man was on his way to her house. There was concern etched in his face and the degree of it immediately placed Julia on guard.

Quickly, she climbed off the window sill and hurried to her bed where her dressing gown was slung over the end bed post. Slipping the silken material over her skin, Julia padded across the room and made her way to the front door. She was hardly garbed appropriately for visitors but she neither had the energy or inclination to go rummaging through her wardrobe for what was most likely a five minute encounter with the young Mr Dunne.

Julia reached her front door and held it open by the time J.D. stepped onto the path leading to the front porch. "What can I do for you Mr Dunne?" Julia asked as he approached her.

J.D. took his hat off in a gesture of politeness and responded. He tried not to notice she was still in her night clothes and was confused Ezra had not come out to greet him, particularly after what Vin said about Ezra's hasty departure after receiving his message. "Good evening ma'am, I was just looking for Ezra."

Julia looked at him blankly. "I thought he was in town dealing with our little inferno."

"No ma'am," J.D. shook his head. "Vin said he got a message during the fire and he left pretty quickly. We thought it must have been from you."

"I did not send any message." Julia frowned.

"That's weird." J.D. replied, looking confused. The others were certain Ezra would be here since no one had seen him for some time. With all of Julia's health troubles lately, they assumed the message he had received from her indicated some new problem but the woman before him seemed fine. More than fine actually, in her nightgown that accentuated every curve on her body. Suddenly, J.D. felt another deep longing to see Casey.

"Has anyone seen him?" Julia asked, feeling her own concern for her lover mount at this unexpected news.

"Not since he got that message and took off." He replied. It took a further instant for him to realize why she was so worried for if Ezra was not with them and he had not arrived here, then where was he? "Chris sent me to fetch him because of Miss Alex."

Her eyes met his sharply. "What about Alex?" 

"Someone's kidnapped Alex. Chris is pretty sure that its Nicholas Serfonteine."

Julia's blood chilled with the realization that Alex might be in the hands of the men who were willing to burn down a town for their cause. She remembered the stories of the south, not to mention the abolitionist literature about slave owners and of course the book by Harriet Beecher Stowe. If even half of them were true then Alex was in very grave danger indeed.

"Come in." Julia ordered firmly. "I'm going to get dressed."

J.D. was about to offer a note of protest but the look he received from the fiery redhead was enough to freeze the word into submission. As she disappeared behind the door, J.D. took an exploratory step inside the house and shut the door behind him.

Miss Pemberton was the one he least understood among all the women who held the hearts of his friends. She was dazzlingly pretty and even now, when she was disheveled and not properly attired, she put Violet Serfonteine to shame with all that young lady's finery and lace. However, there was something wild and dangerous about Julia Pemberton that warned any man in her proximity to approach with caution. She was always nice enough to him though, J.D. had to admit and she even offered advice sometimes on what to buy Casey on the occasions he entered the Emporium looking to buy his girl a gift. She never made fun of him like Buck and the others and J.D. wondered what it was about him that made women like Inez, Mary and even Alex to some degree, feel the need to provide him with nurturing support.

J.D. had to admit he liked the smell of Miss Pemberton's house. For some reason, it reminded him of his mother's bedroom. There was always a faint whiff of perfume in the air, telling him most definitely despite all the hard work and scrubbed floors, there was still a woman beneath her weathered exterior. Miss Pemberton's home had the same comforting aroma.

She appeared a moment later, dressed in navy blue dress, her red hair piled on top of her head and held in place with pins and clips. Julia's jaw seemed set as she walked towards him. "Let's go."

"Begging your pardon ma'am but there ain't much you can do." J.D. pointed out.

"I'm not going to be biting my finger nails in this house, waiting for some news whether Ezra or Alex is alive or dead." She declared in a tone of voice indicating she was hearing no argument on this matter. She walked past him and headed for the door, leaving J.D. no choice but to follow her as she prepared to lock it.

"So do they have any idea at all where Alex might be?" Julia asked. At this stage, it was too soon to assume Ezra was missing, not until a proper search of the town was made, even Julia knew that.

"Not a one." J.D. replied gravely. "We know Serfonteine has been making a lot of friends in town and I don't think he'd be fool enough to stay here if he's got Alex."

Julia tended to agree. "So we're just going to sit and wait?"

"Vin's at her house now, trying to find some tracks to give us some idea of which direction they might have gone."

That did not sound very optimistic to Julia. Although the tracker's skills were reputed to be impressive, it would take time to use that method to find Alex and time was a commodity they were sorely lacking. "Is there no other way?"

"Vin will find her." J.D. said with utter confidence in his comrade.

"I'm sure he will," Julia replied as they walked towards town.

"This wouldn't have happened if I could have just got Violet to talk." He grumbled under his breath. "It was such a good idea at the time, getting to know her. I thought I might be able to get her to tell us what we wanted to know."

"Who is Violet?" Julia asked confused. Ezra's reluctance to trouble her with anything that might cause her undue stress the past weeks kept her unapprised of many things. Getting him to talk about Serfonteine was difficult enough and because Julia got the impression Ezra found the whole subject distasteful, she did  not press him to tell her.

J.D. proceeded to tell the Emporium owner all about Violet Serfonteine and how he struck up a kind of friendship with her during her stay in Four Corners. He intended Violet to provide him with a source of information regarding Serfonteine's activities but all it had served was his learning everything there was to know about Georgia high society.

Julia could tell by the manner in which J.D. spoke he was most disappointed by his lack of success and the more he told her about Violet, the more Julia began to understand the young woman. She was a typical society debutante, trading on her looks to get by and using her charm to hide what lay underneath. The parallels gave Julia some cause for amusement. The more J.D. spoke about Violet Serfonteine, the more Julia Pemberton knew her and suddenly the means to get the information they needed to find out where Alex and possibly Ezra were, presented itself to her.

She glanced at J.D. wondering if the young man would be willing to help her do this thing. Although J.D.'s determination to help his friends could never be questioned, Julia knew he had a strong streak of right or wrong and what she planned on doing most definitely fell into the category of really, really wrong. However, if either Ezra or Alex were in the hands of the Klan then their survival depended on how quickly the rest of the seven could reach them. If there was to be any rescue, it had to be done now, before any more time was allowed to pass.

"J.D., if Violet knows where her brother is, I can get it from her." She said quietly.

J.D. paused and looked at her, skeptical at first.

"Ma'am?" His disbelief showed in his face. "How?"

"Do you trust me?" Julia asked, staring into his uncertain eyes.

J.D. did not know what to say because he did not know her well enough to trust her and from what he knew of her from other sources, Julia had not exactly behaved accordingly in the triangle involving her, Alex and Ezra. However, if there was even a chance she could get Violet to reveal Serfonteine's location, then it could not be wasted.

"I don't know you enough to trust you ma'am." J.D. replied honestly. "But if you can make her tell us what we need to know, I'm willing to try anything."

"Good," Julia smiled, deciding while it was not the answer she hoped for, it would simply have to do. "Now take me to her. Miss Violet and I need to have a good talk."

*********

Violet Serfonteine slept soundly even though outside her window chaos was ensuring. She slept the sleep of the blissfully ignorant and had no conscience to speak of that could ever be bothered by all the destruction being wrought by her absent brother. Hers was a world of cotillions and parties, of expensive ballroom gowns and Europeans designer labels. She had been waited upon hand and foot from the moment of her birth and was bred to be nothing but beautiful and to have contempt for anything that was not as picture perfect as her or as white.

When she heard the door knocking in the small hours of the night, she had not even been aware half the town was awake and desperately attempting to put out the fires raging in differing locations at the same time. Violet climbed out of bed, wondering who on Earth would disturb her sleep at this hour and knew it could not be Nicholas for he had his own keys to the suite of rooms they occupied, and would know better than to wake her this way.

As she got dressed, she glanced out the window and saw the chaos in the street below. Violet allowed herself a smile knowing Nicholas had created all this discourse and knew he struck a decidedly vital blow in the name of their cause. Violet completely supported the Klan movement and agreed wholeheartedly with Nicholas vision of the future. She wanted things to be the way they once were in the South, the way her mother had spoken of it so fondly when niggers and other mongrel races knew their place in the world.

"I do declare, whomever you are had better have a good reason for this late intrusion." Violet grumbled as she swung open the door and found herself standing before Julia Pemberton and J.D. Dunne. It was J.D. she recognized first even though it was Julia who stood at the door first. J.D. nudged himself past Julia as he stepped forward to greet Violet for this late visit.

"I'm sorry Violet," J.D. said quickly. "We don't mean to bother you so late but we have need of your help?"

"Really?" Violet responded, making no attempt to let them into the room. It was plain improper to let J.D. inside and she did not know this woman who was watching her through narrowed eyes like a cat about to spring.

"May we speak inside." Julia made herself heard. "I am Julia Pemberton," the older woman introduced herself. "I own the Emporium in Four Corners."

"It is late..." Violet started to protest when Julia cut her off.

"It is essential to your brother's life that we speak to you." Julia replied, leaving J.D. confused at the tactic the woman was taking to deceive her way into Violet's room.

The possibility Nicholas might be in any form of danger did capture Violet's attention and for a few seconds, the young woman bit her lip trying to decide what to do. The expression in Julia's eyes and J.D.'s nervousness did indicate they had something important to tell her and Violet could not endure having this conversation in the hallway much longer. Finally she relented and opened the door wider to permit the duo entry.

J.D. had been given very specific instructions by Julia before arriving at the hotel to allow her to do most of the talking. Julia knew exactly what it took to make Violet talk and she did not want to prolong the experience any more than she had to endure it.

"What is this about?" Violet asked, her patience quickly dwindling. "What do you mean Nicholas is in danger?"

Julia drifted carefully to the doorway, barring it should the young woman try to make an escape when the game was afoot. "Nicholas is in danger if the law catches up to him. At this moment, he is responsible for arson, kidnapping and possibly murder of two people. Now you can make it easier on yourself by telling us where he has gone or you can be charged as an accomplice."

"What?" Violet almost laughed at the notion. "What is this J.D.?" She turned her gaze to the town sheriff. "You have no proof of anything Nicholas has done, even if I did know what you were talking about. I can't believe you would come here spreading such vicious lies!" Her blue eyes started to well with tears and J.D. looked decidedly uncomfortable.

"Oh please Violet!" Julia almost laughed. "I know that trick well and I'm better at it than you are to be fooled by any performance you might attempt. Now, I think your brother has captured a dear friend of mine, not to mention the man I love because of the twisted belief he has of white being better. I don't give a damn about those ideas or anything else you and your racist bunch of moronic friends may have to spout, but I do give a damn about Alexandra Styles and Ezra Standish so you better tell us what you know."

"I don't have to tell you anything!" She hissed, her eyes narrowing and suddenly J.D. realized she knew exactly where Nicholas was as well as everything her brother had done in the name of the Klan. His stomach hollowed, thinking how he could have been so blind by thinking her innocent of her brother's insane ideas. Julia walked towards Violet, her eyes shifting to the side table next to the door long enough to see the letter opener sitting at the edge of it. In a flash, she snatched the object from its resting-place and was on Violet before J.D. could even blink. The young man watched with his jaw open as Julia slammed Violet against the nearest wall, with her forearm pressed into the southerner's throat and the edge of blade against Violet's cheek.

J.D. took a step forward when Julia stopped him with a look. "Stay where you are." 

"How dare you!" Violet squealed. "Are you insane?" The young woman looked to J.D. for assistance but the young sheriff was torn. He knew this should not be allowed to continue but as much as he disliked her methods, he was compelled to let Julia finish because they did need to know where Alex and Ezra were. Julia was just doing this to frighten Violet into telling they what they needed to know, wasn't she?

Julia turned her attention back to Violet, her emerald eyes blazing. "He's not going to help you and I may be insane or maybe perfectly reasonable but that's not your concern. All you need to understand is I do not care about your cause or your brother. All I care about is Ezra and Alex and where they are. Nothing else matters to me, Violet."

"What will you do kill me?" Violet bit back even though she was very afraid, but there was still enough defiance left inside her to resist.

"I won't kill you," Julia said coolly and immediately saw the relief flood the girl's eyes and J.D.'s as well. The boy was torn between doing what was right and loyalty to the friends who were in danger at this moment. Julia did not care what his conscience was doing as long as he did not interfere with what she needed to do.

"I won't kill you," Julia repeated. "But I will make sure when I'm through with you, no one will ever forget your face."

Violet's eyes widened with stark terror, as she understood the threat being made. "You wouldn't." She said in a strangled whisper of fear.

"Trust me, if we do not leave here with what we need to know, I will personally tear your face apart until the only way you can walk through the streets without twisting people with disgust, is with a veil!"

Violet felt the blade bite into her skin...

*********

Five minutes later, J.D. and Julia were on their way to Alex's clinic where the rest of the seven were congregated as they prepared to begin their search for Alex. At the moment, none of them were aware Ezra was missing as well but J.D. was comforted by the fact at least he would have something to present Chris Larabee when he delivered that news. A part of him was still astonished by how Julia managed to get the information that would now lead them to Alex and Ezra,  if he was indeed under the ministrations of Nicholas Serfonteine.

As they walked down the boardwalk, J.D. could not help but give Julia a look bordering on surprise and fascinated horror. "That's an approach I would never have thought would work." 

Julia smiled faintly and knew she had shaken the young man considerably with her actions. However, the past week had brought out her mean streak and it was time people remembered what it was to interfere with Julia Pemberton and her own. "Of course not, you're a man."

J.D. tried not to be offended because she did succeed in what she set out to do. "How did you know that would get to her?" 

"Its easy," Julia shrugged. "It would get to me."

*********

Some miles from Four Corners, Mrs Jacobson was staring at an orange sky that did not come in the direction of Four Corners, but from a familiar grove located on the Jacobson spread. She was tempted to leave her home and investigate the source of the fire but knew to do so was to invite the wrath of her husband who was at this moment entertaining company at that very location.

Margaret Jacobson did not like her husband Paul's new acquaintances but as a God fearing Christian woman who believed in the Bible without question or doubt, she had to admit that some of Nicholas Serfonteine's words struck a chord. Perhaps she was not as certain as she wished she could be about Serfonteine's words regarding the Negroes and other races in town but her husband believed and thus she was duty bound to do so as well. Besides, the immorality of Alexandra Styles' behaviour could not be denied.

"What's going on mama?" Susie asked, the sounds of horses and loud voices in the distant having driven her from her bed.

"You just go back to bed!" Mrs Jacobson barked. "There's nothing out there you need to know!"

Susie turned away, hurt shown in her stung face as she retreated back towards her bed room and Mrs. Jacobson returned to her observations through the window, not bothering to turn around to see if her daughter had gone because Susie knew better than to be insolent. Mrs Jacobson saw the flames in the distance and repeated to herself even more quietly.

"Nothing out there anyone ought to know."

*********

Ezra knew where he was, unfortunately being unable to tell anyone else made the information little more than useless to him. He recognized the Jacobson place from the numerous times he had ridden past on the way to Sweetwater and was gratified to some degree at least, they were not too far away from town if anyone were to come looking. He met Paul Jacobson on occasions in the saloon and sometimes saw him around town. There was nothing to indicate Jacobson had the  kind of hate buried inside of him waiting Nicholas to unleash.

Still, the argument was academic as they rode onto the property and towards the clearing in the distance that seemed to be the place to be tonight if one was a Klansmen.

He wished he was able to tell Chris and the others about this place but supposed he should be grateful Nicholas was finally making an effort to involve Ezra in his affairs. Perhaps now, they would be able to put an end to this odious affair and be rid of the Klansmen once and for all. Ezra wanted that very much for Nathan Jackson and Alexandra Styles. It surprised him just how far he had come in his beliefs since meeting these two extraordinary individuals.

When Ezra first met Nathan, he could barely offer a civil word to the healer, let alone consider him a friend and equal. If it was not for what Nathan had taught him, he would never have come to care for Alex the way he had. They entered the grove on horseback and saw at least a dozen men in the space surrounded by trees with a healthy bonfire burning in the centre of the clearing. All were garbed in white sheets, with their faces hidden beneath the masks allowing them to commit all kinds of acts without fear of discovery. Ezra could not help thinking that every one of them were cowards because they did not even have the courage to show their faces in light of their supposedly pure belief. The atmosphere was one of celebration, no doubt for the destruction they caused in Four Corners tonight, at having struck a blow for the white man. He saw bottles of liquor being passed about the group who taking greedy swigs as they pulled up their masks high enough to drink.

"The occasion seems quite festive." Ezra commented as he watched the revelries.

"We have much cause to celebrate." Micawber replied as they rode their horses to where the other member's animals were corralled. "While things may have progressed a little out of hand tonight. Essentially, we achieved much of what we set out to do."

"That is something I suppose, although it is hard for me to appreciate your victory when my saloon was one of your targets." Ezra was unable to hide the resentment from his voice.

"Now, I understand your distress Mr. Standish," Nicholas assured him. "It was merely an unfortunate circumstance that allowed your business to be attacked. However, you must understand having a woman and a Mexican as your business partner is hardly appropriate."

Ezra showed no reaction to the obvious jibe to provoke him. Nicholas was attempting to discern his loyalties and to Ezra refused to bite. With a measured voice, he looked the man square in the eye and replied with his best poker face. "My mother hired the young woman in question, I had no choice in the matter."

"My mother used to be similarly wilful," Nicholas admitted as they dismounted to join the party being held. "You have my sympathies."

"Thank you." Ezra said graciously as Nicholas led them past the robed ghouls who were drinking prodigiously and becoming more intoxicated by the moment. Some were having difficulty staying on their feet and Ezra swore inwardly at being unable to get word to Chris about this little gathering. It would be a simple matter of apprehending all of them in the state of inebriation they were presently in.

"So where is your friend Mr Lamont?" Ezra asked as he followed Nicholas past the main body of celebration to a wood shed lying just beyond the edge of the clearing and shrouded by tall elm trees. "I have not heard you mention him all evening."

Nicholas glanced over his shoulder and met Micawber's eyes with a smile that immediately put Ezra on guard for some reason. Something about the question was a source of great amusement to Nicholas Serfonteine and it made all the hairs on the back of Ezra's neck immediately stand on end. Suddenly, Ezra was visited with a strong premonition something was about to hit him with the force of a locomotive and whatever it was, it would not at all be pleasant.

"Mr Lamont had a special project to undertake tonight." Nicholas answered, still wearing that wide grin on his face as he continued walking out of the clearing and approached the woodshed. Ezra could see a light burning through the small window in the structure but could hear nothing of what might be transpiring inside.

"That sounds intriguing." Ezra said distractedly, more interested in what was happening inside the shed than anything the man might be saying.

"It should be," Nicholas grinned even wider now. "It was done in your honour."

Ezra froze, not liking the sound of that at all. "Whatever do you mean?" He said flawlessly hiding his surprise once more except this time, that ominous feeling returned with a vengeance and was twisting his insides into knots from the sheer anticipation of what these men had waiting for him inside that shed. A terrible suspicion was starting to emerge inside him like the stench of foul water rising from some bayou bog.

They paused outside the shed and he could hear the laughter of two distinct voices. The crack of light beneath the door revealed the bodies moving inside with the shadows that fell across the illumination on occasion. Nicholas turned to him at that point and responded. "Its not that we don't trust you Mr Standish, but I think I'd like to have your guns."

Ezra stiffened at the suggestion, disliking the  idea with almost as much passion with what was inside that shack. "I'd like to keep them on me if you do not mind. In my line of work, its not wise to be unarmed."

Nicholas's expression hardened and while he still wore that amiable facade, his eyes told a different story. "You are in no danger here, Mr Standish."

Ezra glanced behind him at Micawber and noticed the older man's hand to be poised over his own gun. He nodded at Ezra to fully express how serious they were about this request and Ezra could not hope to draw without Micawber blowing a decidedly large hole through his back. While most men considered this a most odious form of attack, Ezra knew the type who would burn down a building with women and children inside would have no trouble shooting a man in the back.

Reluctantly, he had no choice but to capitulate to their demands and hoped it would not cost him his life. Slowly, he unbuckled the clasps and let the gun belt slacken around his waist. Freeing himself of his weapons, he handed the entire arsenal to Nicholas Serfonteine's expectant hands. "I am wounded by this lack of trust but I suppose if that is what it takes."

"It will take a little bit more than disarmament." Nicholas answered and turned towards the shed. He twisted the knob and entered the doorway, confident Ezra would follow him inside, not just to satisfy the lawmen's own curiosity but also because Micawber was not about to let him leave.

It was time to see exactly where Mr Ezra Standish's loyalties lay.

*********

Alex was crouched in a corner of the room, staring at the man called Francis Lamont in a mixture of terror and pure hatred. She felt blood running down her split cheek and tasted its salt in her mouth from the torn corner of her lip. Her jaw ached and she did not have to see the bruise to know there was swelling. She could feel it under her jaw line, throbbing with a heated pulse only she could hear or feel. Absurdly, she thought what a sight she must have appeared and wished he would at least take off his ring if he was going to hit her again.

He watched her closely as he walked across the room back and forth, pacing the floor as he kept her under close observation. His eyes never left her face and Alex could almost see the traces of the psychosis making him a psychopath. If it was possible for him to start foaming at the mouth, Alex would almost have believed it. Whatever was holding him back was diminishing fast and Alex could tell just by the way his eyes glared at her the moment was fast approaching when he would come after her unrestrained. Alex could tell from the look of him he wanted to hurt her so badly he could almost taste it.

Unconsciously, she remembered what state she found Inez in after the men who raped her were done. The terror that struck the doctor's heart knowing this man intended to do that to her and worse was enough to drive the reason from her mind and tear the scream he wanted so badly to hear from her. Alex had so far denied it to him, no matter how much he had hit her, no matter how much he ran his hands over her body, probing places that almost made her wretch from the disgust of his touch. She endured it the best she could, feeling revulsion in every second of torture she was forced to suffer because pride refuse to let her beg for it to end. Allowing him that indignity was even worse than all the threats he made since they dragged her kicking and screaming from her house.

"Soon," he said coming towards her. "Soon, we can really play."

Alex did not speak as she saw him approach because she was too busy steeling herself for the next series of abuses at this man's hands. Lamont came right up to Alex, kicking away the remnants of the dress he had torn off her back. She was dressed in her underthings, knowing he was itching to do worse to her but was held back by instructions given to him by Serfonteine. Alex could not fathom what was the reason for the delay but any extra time before he was allowed to satisfy his desires was welcomed.

The second man in the room was hidden behind his white robes but Lamont did not seem to hold any fears she might identify him later on. Because of this, Alex knew with certainty he could only be so bold if there was never any intention of her being freed alive. Without doubt, she knew when they were done with her, she would die. Despite her attempts not to show her fear, Alex knew she was starting to tremble with fright when Lamont dropped to his knees before her.

"You're not so uppity now are you?" He said with a smile. He was all swagger and arrogance, perfectly aware if she were to fight, his friend behind him would be upon her in a moment, holding her down as he taught her the error of her ways. Grabbing hold of her hair, he pulled her off her feet and Alex had no choice but to stand up with him. She felt his breath on his skin as he held her face before his, determined she was witness to everything that would happen to her. This bastard wanted her to endure it and he also wanted her to see it.

"Where's your tracker now?" He hissed cruelly, content in his belief Vin Tanner would never reach her in time to save her from what he had planned.

Alex did not answer because he was doing this to taunt her and a response was the least she could keep from him. When she did not speak, Lamont pressed his mouth against hers, in a kiss that was meant to be an act of humiliation for her rather than pleasure for him. Lamont would have pleasure when Serfonteine finally made his appearance.

Alex felt his tongue probing inside her mouth and felt her stomach heave in disgust. His breath smelled of the alcohol and tobacco and made her push away. Although her hands were tied up in front of her, she still had enough flexibility to shove him aside roughly while at the same time biting down on his lower lip. He cried out as he stumbled backwards and Alex allowed herself a slight measure of satisfaction to know she had drawn blood. Lamont wiped his stinging mouth and saw blood where her teeth had broken skin. Lashing out, he swatted her aside with a backhanded blow across the face.

She fell down just as the door swung open and Serfonteine walked into the room. Lamont halted his approach towards Alex at the arrival of his leader. "Its about damn time!" He exclaimed, his speech slightly slurred because of the liquor he had consumed in the past hours.

Alex felt her heart started to pound because until this point, the only thing  holding back this rabid animal from doing his worst was the absence of Nicholas Serfonteine. She scrambled across the floor back into the wall, as if being in the corner would allow her to be forgotten by this men. However as Nicholas entered the confines of the small shack, Alex saw he was not alone.

Ezra was with him.

*********

Oh Jesus.

It was the first thought that crossed his mind when he walked into the shack with Serfonteine and Micawber. It was soon to be followed with a violent surge of anger as he saw Alex cowering in fear at the corner of the room, having clearly suffered the worst excesses of Francis Lamont's sadistic pleasures. Her dress was nothing more than tattered remains on the dirt covered floor and she was cringing in her undergarments, her face covered in blood and the bruises to her skin was apparent despite her dark colouring.

Ezra was speechless as he stood there staring at her and feeling his heart shudder by the sheer desperation in her eyes. A part of him was furious Vin could have let his guard down long enough to let her be taken away to endure this savagery. His hands against his sides clenched into fists as he turned his glare on Lamont who was obviously enjoying every second of this experience. Ezra never wanted to kill anyone so badly in his life and took some comfort in the fact that his own rage would pale in comparison to Vin's when the tracker learnt what happened. If Lamont had his head attached to his body after that encounter, Ezra would be mildly surprised.

"Now Lamont," Nicholas responded as he took a closer step towards Alex to observe how she was treated at the hand of his comrade. Her eyes were still focused on Ezra and Nicholas did not miss the look of hope in her face. "Do not be so impatient." He turned to Lamont who was itching to get a taste of the woman. In fact, having seen how she looked before this evening, Nicholas could admit to having a certain desire to sample the goods himself.

He knew it would certainly impressed Nathan Jackson to learn he had.

"We had a deal." Lamont strode up to him, slightly unsteady on his feet. "She was supposed to be mine."

"Things change." Nicholas said glancing at Ezra who still looking at Alex and was trying to hide his shock. For once, Nicholas observed, he did not manage to hold his expression as neutrally as he would like. "She is an offering to our guest here."

Ezra blinked and met his gaze directly. "I beg your pardon?"

"This is your initiation ceremony," Nicholas said grandiosely. "Come now Mr. Standish, you did want to join the fold did you not?"

"I want to join the fold," Ezra found his voice. "But I do not rape women."

He was trying very hard no to lose his temper because he had to get her out of here and Ezra needed the time to think of plan to do that. Whatever happened to him was inconsequential. Alex could not be allowed to remain here any longer. He could see precisely what these men had in mind for Alex and Ezra would not permit it. He would not permit it because Vin would never forgive himself and because Ezra could not live knowing he stood by and let this atrocity take place.

"She is hardly untouched." Nicholas nodded a gesture at Lamont who immediately staggered forward and wrenched Alex from the corner she was taking up refuge. Dragging her to her feet, Ezra tried not to react as Lamont dragged her across the floor towards them. Alex did not struggle and Ezra was relieved she was smart enough not to provoke them. As he met her eyes, he hoped she could read his expression to know he was not going to let anything harm her.

"From what I understand," Nicholas replied, running a hand across her cheek while Lamont held her in place with his arm locked across her neck. "You and she have a history together have you not?"

"That was a long time ago." Ezra said quickly, thinking hard over what he should do. There were four of them and only two bullets in the derringer secreted up the sleeve of his shirt. Outside there were a dozen more men who were well armed and help was nowhere in sight. The odds were not good, not good at all. A gambling man knew it was not wise to play against the house with those cards in hand.

"I will do whatever you require me to do to join your organization but I will not rape anyone, whether or not she is willing or untouched." Ezra replied firmly knowing they were waiting to see what he would do. Of the four in the room, it was Micawber behind him and the fourth man in the robes that were armed. Serfonteine probably had a weapon on him but it was not where to be seen at the moment. Ezra estimated it would take time for him to retrieve it from inside his coat. Lamont on the other hand was unarmed and was obviously drunk. Whatever Ezra intended to do to free Alex, Micawber and the other would have to be taken out first.

God, he hoped he was that fast.

"If you don't have the stomach for this," Lamont caressed his cheek with Alex's hair. "I'll do her and you can watch or is that too much for you as well?"

"You will watch Mr Standish," Nicholas said firmly. "You will watch and you will be present for every scream and every whimper for then and only then, will I know that you are with us completely because you will be an accomplice to whatever takes place tonight."

"I am willing to do that." Ezra pretended to agree and saw Alex's eyes flare in panic, fear was starting make her doubt him. Ezra tried not to be wounded by the  assumption and knew she had every reason to feel fear. That she was not a quivering wreck by this point was a testament to her resolve but he could see it starting to dwindle.

"Well," Nicholas turned to Lamont. "Francis, it does appear you will get your wish after all. She is yours." A truly evil smile stole across Lamont's features as he was finally given permission to indulge in what he had desired for so long. With that sinister gleam in his eyes, Ezra knew time had finally run out.

He had to act and he had to do it now.

With reflexes that were known to even best Chris Larabee at times, Ezra spun around and produced the derringer carefully hidden under the sleeve of his shirt. Without having to think twice, since he knew who his targets were and more importantly where they were positioned, he fired at Micawber first.

Micawber who was standing directly behind him took the tiny bullet in the centre of his forehead, killing him instantly. Before anyone could even react, Ezra moved to his next target and pulled the trigger just as swiftly.

By the time Micawber's lifeless legs buckled underneath him, the Klansmen in the robes had met a similar end. Serfonteine was going for his gun when Ezra spun around and slammed the small gun in his face. There was sufficient steel in the tiny weapon to sent Serfonteine staggering back and Alex having pushed to the brink, sunk her teeth into Lamont's arm. The man screamed and released his hold of her.

"Get out of here!" Ezra ordered, knowing it would be less than seconds before the others descended upon the shack because the derringer though small, when fired its compact bullet masked nothing. The men outside would have undoubtedly heard the shots by now.

"But..." Alex stammered, torn between her desire to escape and her concern for him.

"Alexandra go!" Ezra ordered sternly. "NOW!"

She needed no further encouragement than that before whirling around and doing as he asked. Ezra did not even look to see if she cleared the door before he noticed Lamont and Serfonteine had recovered enough. Ezra never intended on escaping, despite his strong desire for self preservation. If he could keep them busy for awhile, Alex could put enough distance between herself and these bastards to reach safety.

"Stupid." Serfonteine snarled as he finally produced the gun hidden inside the folds of his jacket and was not fast enough to retrieve before Ezra managed to kill Micawber and the other Klansmen. "I thought you would have been worthy of what we had to offer."

"I am happy to disappoint you," Ezra sighed, allowing the derringer with its empty chambers to drop from his hand.

"You coward!" Lamont rose to his feet and struck Ezra across the jaw.

Ezra wore the blow easily and merely shook it off because Lamont was drunk and there was not much strength to it. Its effect would mostly be felt on unarmed women.

"This changes nothing! I am still going to have her!"

"Then you'd better get going Francis." Serfonteine said sharply without even looking at him. His eyes were too filled with hatred and disgust for Ezra to warrant giving his friend a second look.

"If you don't mind," Lamont sneered derisively at Ezra. "I won't bring her back straight away," he paused and took a step closer to the gambler so there could be no mistaking what he intended to do if he found Alexandra Styles. "She and I have some quality time to spend together."

With that, Lamont hurried out the door. His departure coincided with several other Klansmen making their entry into the room. Within moments, Ezra was completely surrounded as their arrival destroyed any possibility he might have of overpowering Nicholas Serfonteine and making his escape.

"Now Mr Standish," Serfonteine glared at him with cold rage. "We'll show you what we do to nigger lovers."

Chapter Eight
Waking the Dragon

He supposed it was always going to come down to this.

From the moment he saw Nicholas Serfonteine step out of the stage coach carriage into the town of Four Corners, Nathan Jackson saw this moment flash before his eyes even though he did not understand the significance of it. The past had been making itself felt most profoundly since the arrival of his master and long buried hatreds forced into submission because Nathan wanted to be a better man, had emerged with a vengeance.

Perhaps Fate allowed no one escape no matter how good the intention. When he held Rebecca in his arms that terrible night, watching her life bleed into the soil, Nathan knew in a way only to those who experienced it could know, this point in time would arrive. No matter how much he changed in the journey to becoming a man, at the heart of everything he was, was still that grief stricken boy who helplessly watched his sister die. On that night he made a vow to call no man master and the more secret oath, which he told no one, refusing at saner moments to admit it existed even to himself, to have his retribution.

The years taking him from that day did not change the vehemence of that secret desire. When he was first free of bondage, it used to warm him at nights and at times when death was so close he could smell it, the vow had kept him alive. He could not go, not before Serfonteine understood it was more than just a slave he raped and murdered but a person, a human being who deserved life more than he ever would. For a long time the unconscious need for revenge seeped into his being until everything he did was a challenge to Serfonteine and those like him, that a man with black skin could be better than them in heart and in deeds. Nathan was a healer and later on when Chris Larabee decided to save him from those drunken Texans hell bent on stringing him up, he became part of something even greater.

The six men whom he rode with were more than just his friends even though getting any of them to explain it would be just as difficult for them as it was for Nathan. They were all in some way, outcasts in a world changing so rapidly it was hard to think what place it would have for them one of these days. Still, in their exile they found brotherhood and the family emerging from that first bonding still endured and drove away the need for vengeance that dictated so much of Nathan's existence.

When he woke up that first time and saw Alexandra Styles looking over him, Nathan's heart practically leaped into his throat. She stared back at him with Rebecca's eyes and the more he came to know her, the more he started to believe Rebecca had come back to him somehow because Alex was just like her. Nathan loved her but not as Vin Tanner loved her. He loved her as the sister that somehow crossed time and space from the place beyond where souls went when they died, to return to him. Alex recognized it too because their friendship was far deeper than anyone understood. When he was given her father's copy of Grays Anatomy, he realized how much she cared for him. She once said he was like her brother and it took everything for Nathan not to weep because he told no one about Rebecca. Josiah suspected but he did not know for sure because the pain of Becky's death was something impossible to speak of when he was first freed. Even now, he could not voice it with any detail.

Serfonteine effected Alex's kidnapping because he wanted Nathan to relive that nightmare again. He wanted his slave to know he could keep doing the same evil thing over and over again because he was white and he was better. Nathan listened to what the others said and had forced his vengeance away because they were right, he did indeed have a life that was far better than fate would follow him if he gave in to his desire. It was hard swallowing his pride and a lifetime of anger for a sensible course but he had managed it because he did want to be Doctor Jackson. He did want to have Rain as his wife and his friends in attendance when he danced at his wedding. Nicholas Serfonteine was not worth ruining his entire life and so Nathan had walked away.

Except Serfonteine was not prepared to let him do that. He had pushed and pushed, striking at the one person he knew would break whatever resolve remained inside Nathan to keep from taking this final step into oblivion with no idea it would be Serfonteine himself that would be tumbling over the abyss, not Nathan. Like all men of arrogance who thought themselves better than another simply because of physical attributes, in this case skin, Serfonteine had crossed the line.

In his stumbling through the dark of Nathan Jackson's soul, he awoke the dragon.

*********

A huge droplet of rain impacted on Buck Wilmington's hat as the six lawmen rode out of Four Corners, leaving the fires to the townsfolk to tend to because elsewhere in the night, an even greater atrocity was awaiting occurrence, if it had not taken place already. He glanced at Nathan Jackson who was on his left and saw the healer deep in thought and as he stared ahead on a path, Buck was certain they were not seeing the same track ahead of them. He glanced instinctively at the length of  wooden case attached to Nathan's saddle and wondered if any of the others noticed its existence.

Vin Tanner did not see anything, could not see anything other than the woman he loved. Now more than ever, Buck realized just how young he was. The fear in his normally impenetrable eyes was obvious because he was no longer controlling it for the benefit of his comrades. Vin did not look so much older than J.D. now as they thundered along the trail, with the rain gaining as much momentum as their mounts were closing the distance between themselves and their destination.

Speaking of J.D., the youngster had not said much after he and Julia Pemberton arrived at the clinic while they were searching for tracks left by Alex's abductors and presented them with the information the duo had garnered from Violet Serfonteine. J.D.'s discomfiture was noticeable to everyone because the kid was an awful liar and Julia had done all the talking. Although Chris was a little skeptical about the information provided, Julia was most adamant what Violet told them was the truth. Buck had seen J.D. shudder slightly when Julia had declared how certain she was regarding the validity of the information.

Chris finally accepted it after J.D. made a quiet plea to the gunslinger to accept what the Emporium owner was telling him. Although Chris did not believe Julia would lie since it now appeared Ezra might be in the hands of the same men that had taken Alex, Chris did not wish to waste time on a wild goose chase if they were wrong. Time was of the essence here, they all knew it but somehow Buck knew Julia was not wrong and only J.D. could explain with any clarity why that was.

"J.D.," Buck asked as he inched his horse next to the young man's. "Level with me, how did you get Violet to talk?"

J.D. glanced at Buck briefly and then looked ahead once more. "You don't want to know Buck." He said loud enough to be heard over the rumble of hoof beats but still more quietly than usual.

"Come on J.D., it can't be that bad." Buck insisted.

J.D. was not about to tell anyone what had transpired inside the room with Julia Pemberton and Violet Serfonteine because he was still ashamed he allowed it to happen. He was not proud of the part he had played in acquiring the location of where Alex and Ezra might be held even though it was for a good cause. "Let's just say, only a woman knows how to get another woman to talk."

Buck partially understood and realized Julia Pemberton was more talented than any one of them might have realized. Looking up into the clouds above, the grey cumulus had more or less overtaken the night sky. Buck could not see any stars above his head, just rain teeming down from the heavens above. He thanked whatever he believed in for the rain because it would make short work of the fires in town. He knew two of the inferno's had been brought under control but the other two buildings were still blazing in destructive rage. When they departed town, it was with the knowledge it was possible, if the fires were not subdued, for it to spread into the rest of town. There was not enough water in all of Four Corners to save it, if that happened.

"At least we don't have to worry about the fire!" Buck cried out to Chris and Josiah.

"That's something." Chris barked back  but his mind was not on the fires. Buck could see Chris was mostly concerned about Vin's present state of mind. The tracker was holding himself together, despite his fear. However, if anything happened to Alex, both Chris and Buck were aware of what it would do to Vin.

Buck had seen something similar before and Chris had lived it.

*********

Alex ran because she did not know what else to do.

The shack was far enough away from the main concentration of Klansmen to make her escape into the woods unnoticed. She fled from the scene like a terrified child, wearing nothing but her underclothes and bare feet, feeling inordinately ashamed for having abandoned Ezra Standish to those monsters. Yet she had no choice and he had wanted her to go because he knew what they had planned for her.  Ezra was too much of a gentlemen to allow her to endure that torture. She ran through the bushes and trees, so frightened out of her mind by everything that happened since Lamont broke into her house and tore her from it her reason had snapped into a thousand fragments. In her frantic thoughts, she was struck with the awareness she become what she always hated. A terrified woman running for her life. She ran as fast as she could, oblivious to the fact the branches clawing at her were digging into her skin as she ran past or the rain beating down on her was chilling her to the bone. Alex did not even notice the jagged rocks and broken twigs underfoot tearing into the soles of her feet with each step she took.

All she knew was she had to keep running because he could still be behind her.

She was a healer by nature and thus rarely hated anyone so much she wanted them dead. With Randall Mason, it was a matter of self-preservation because she knew she could not have a moment's rest in her entire life if he were alive. His passion for her had driven him mad and the only way to stop a mad dog was to put it down. However, with Francis Lamont, despite the terror that kept her running, the emotion he evoked was darker and certainly more intense. She wanted to kill him. She did not know how but she wanted to make him twist and scream with pain before he died.

She could only hope Vin would be willing to do that for her.

Alex paused for a moment in the clearing of land, drawing deep breaths as she stood surrounded by trees, an assortment of scratches and cuts marking her skin as if the bruises inflicted by Lamont were not enough. She was clad in nothing more than a chemise, a corset, a petticoat and pantalets which were now soaked and clinging to her skin as the rain increased in its intensity.

Surveying the terrain before her, she did not know where she was going only that it had to be away from the direction she had come. It was all thick wood before her and behind her was more or less of the same. Man had cleared this patch of land because she could see the nub of tree stumps protruding from the earth, covered in moss and weeds. Whatever purpose the land had been readied for had never eventuated for it was mostly overgrown.

Alex looked in the direction she would have to keep going and saw little past the large droplets of rain like a wall before her. It battered down against the ground relentless, forcing loosened drop of sand and dirt into the air with each pelt of rain. It was nearing winter and so the raindrops were like icicles on her skin, biting into her with cold. As she panted, the heat of her breath condensed into swirls of mist with each exhausted exhale of air.

"Come out, come out wherever you are!"

The voice made her stand up right immediately and sent her heart pounding with even more speed than before. Alex recognized the voice and knew it was not far away. Despite herself, the sound of Lamont approaching forced tears of fright from her as she realized he was coming after her to make good on the promises he had made earlier, before Ezra had arrived.

Ezra...

The realization Lamont was here and Ezra was not brought forth a small whimper of anguish as she realized her one time love might be dead.

Although she no longer feel emotion for him any more, Ezra had become her friend and his place in her heart was still closer than she liked to admit. She prayed he was still alive and merely incapacitated.

"I'm coming for you Doctor!" Lamont's voice called again and forced Alex to forget the gambler for the moment. Not wasting another second, Alex started running again. She disappeared into the thick growth, knowing she had to lose herself within the dense woods because it was her only chance of eluding Lamont. The man was a pure psychopath, the kind she had read about in textbooks at medical school but had been fortunate enough to avoid for most of her life. It was bad enough he was sadistic by nature as he proved when he attacked her on the street but coupled with the fact he was now drunk, there was no telling what he was capable of doing to her before he finally killed her.

Alex had no intention of finding out.

*********

*********

Alex did not know how much farther she could keep going.

Thanks to his shouting obscenities and posturing threats at her, she knew exactly how far behind Lamont was. Unfortunately, this information gave her little advantage. After being abused both mentally and physically for hours, without an end in sight or hope for that matter, Alex was nearing complete exhaustion. The only thing pushing her forward was adrenalin and her fear of what Lamont would do to her if he caught up to her.

She was moving blindly through the trees trying to lose him but he was relentless, half driven by rage and an overpowering need to satisfy some sadistic lust for her. Her skin was stinging in pain as cuts acquired by overhanging branches and sharp twigs were bathed in blood and rain as she ran. Alex felt her legs starting to falter and the realization drew an anguished cry of frustration from her. The soles of her bare feet cut and bloody were screaming out in protest and she wondered how much longer she could keep ahead of him.

Alex was so focused on where he was she almost did not see where she was going. She almost ran into the structure before she realized it was there. Alex skidded to a halt as she came to a stop at the foot of the stone well she stumbled upon. It was covered in moss with wooden pulley above the covered in vines and lichens. By the looks of it, no one had drawn water from its depths in quite some time. Even the rope that disappeared into the chasm appeared frail and worn, ready to snap if it were require to hold any weight at all.

Rolling over and scrambling to her feet, Alex continued past it, disappearing into the cover trees once more. In front and behind, it was dark and the rain made it even more difficult to see. After a while, Alex started to panic because she had no idea where she was going and what was ahead of her. No sooner than the thought had presented itself in her mind, Lamont appeared out of nowhere.

As if an animal trapped the sights of a hunter, she froze. He slowed down, breathing hard as he took tentative steps towards her, wearing that sinister leer promising plenty of harm. "You are spirited Doctor," he said panting. "I'll give you that."

Alex did not wait to hear any more than that when her senses returned and she bolted forward, hoping to get past him before he could think to react. Lamont was not that drunk and the chase made him alert enough to down her in one swift tackle. Both of them slammed down on the muddy ground hard with Lamont rolling on top of her. The weight of him on her drove her into a frenzy and she twisted sideways hard, hoping to throw him off her body. However, he grabbed her flaying arms and was staying where he was no matter what she did.

"If you stay still I promise it won't hurt to bad!" He sneered and then added. "Maybe you should struggle just a little bit."

Alex brought her knee up and missed his groin by a few inches. It caused enough pain for him to move his weight off her body.

"You bitch!" He stopped her with a vicious blow to her cheek.

Alex clutched her face in pain and looked up at him as he lowered his face to hers. "I'll kill you Alex but not before I give you something to remember me."

His hand slid under the petticoat and made contact with skin. It snapped Alex's reason completely and she threw a balled fist into his face, sending him sprawling backwards as she scrambled to her feet with more agility then she ever possessed in her life.

Alex paused long enough to looked him in the eye. "If you put anything inside of me that's yours, I swear to God I'll kill you myself!"

She bolted backwards from the direction she had come, knowing there was an avenue of escape and her even considering it, showed how desperate she was to escape him. Alex knew she had something of a head start but not much. The rain and dark would hinder him but not the sound of her moving through the woods, snapping twigs and branches with every step forward giving him some idea of which direction to take it his pursuit.

Alex returned to the patch of clear land where she had run into the well. She stopped at the stone edge, feeling distaste in what she was about to do but finding no other choice but to take this last avenue of escape. Vin was not coming and even if he was, she doubted he would find her in time to keep Lamont from doing what he intended. This was the only way. Swallowing hard, she climbed over the edge and tugged the length of rope disappearing into the darkness experimentally. The wood heaved in protest as she pulled at it and tiny strands of hessian fibers strained at the tension.

Alex looked into the darkness and felt her heart pounding in her chest so hard she could barely stand it. She had never tolerated dark or enclosed places very well and that she was even considering this, was a testament to how terrified she was. However, to remain here was not an option. Lamont would do more than just kill her and Alex was willing to overcome this particular fear to avoid that nightmare.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes as she lowered herself over the edge and descended into the darkness. As the walls of black enclosed around her, Alex immediately felt childhood terrors crawling up her spine and it did not help she could see nothing below her and the sky above was grey with falling water.

Please Vin, she thought as she disappeared deeper into the chasm.

Please find me.

*********

Once the six lawmen arrived on the Jacobson spread, it was not difficult to see where the Klan gathering was taking place. At first, they thought the  sound to be the howling of wind which was not unusual in such inclement weather but as they neared it and were able to hear it with more clarity, they realized with hollowing stomachs what that awful noise was or who.

It was Ezra.

At least they thought it was Ezra because the screams descended into shrieks of mindless agony and all familiarity was driven from it completely. Chris Larabee dug his spurs deeper into his horse, unable to forget that terrible cry as they penetrated the fence line of the Jacobson spread. The rain splattered underfoot as they rode past the main house, knowing now in which direction those screams originated. Chris felt his jaw tightened at the torture inflicted upon the gambler to drag that scream from him and the rage frothing inside him  could know no end until he found those responsible.

Like the others, he unbuckled the flap on his holster and retrieved his gun.

Checking the chamber carefully as rain dribbled off his hat onto the chrome finish of the Peacemaker, Chris saw the weapon fully loaded and had every intention of using all his bullets to put an end to Nicholas Serfonteine and his Klansmen. The horses rode up the track and even in the darkness, Vin could see the obvious signs of a trail leading to those they sought in the muddy ground beneath them.

"This way!" Vin pointed his Winchester in the direction of a clearing they could see in the distance.

Chris squinted as he stared at the place Vin was indicating and realized the tracker was as always correct because he could see the white robes moving about, no doubt alerted to their presence by now.

"Listen up!" Chris shouted as they approached. "We're going to do this hard and fast. Go in there shooting. We don't know how many there are, so we are going to stay on the horses for as long as we can."

"What about Ezra?" J.D. exclaimed, having heard the screams and no longer feeling any guilt about what he allowed Julia Pemberton to do.

"We can't help him until we've taken care of those bastards." Chris retorted and then turned to Nathan because he was the one  who gave Chris the most concern, even above Vin's current state of mind. "Nathan, we do this together!"

Nathan met Chris's eyes with an expression the gunslinger could not fathom. It was not quite compliance but not exactly disobedience either. "We do this together." Nathan nodded, confirming that much at least.

"All right," Chris nodded as they closed the distance. "Let's do it!"

Nicholas Serfonteine heard the sound of horses on fast approach too late. The rain masked most of the sound because he was too busy savouring every delightful moment of hearing Ezra Standish scream as with the rest of his Klansmen. As they saw the six riders breaking through the line of trees encircled the clearing, the group scattered in all directions, white robes flowing behind them as they ran for their guns. Those who had them already began firing immediately but they were wide in the open and easy targets for men who were better at it than they were.

Nicholas took refuge behind the same tree Ezra Standish was dangling unconscious from. The gambler made no movements to give his position away as Nicholas hid and decided to make a run for it. He did not know how they had found out the location of this congregation but he did not intend to stay and be apprehended, or worst yet killed especially when they discovered their comrade in his present state.

Nathan saw Nicholas Serfonteine because as he entered the clearing, there was only one face he sought. Even though he was true to his word, shooting anyone who raised a gun to him as they rode forward, his only interest was in finding the man who was responsible for more sins than Nathan could begin to count.

A Klansmen aimed a rifle at his direction but Nathan barely saw him as he rode towards Serfonteine. Pulling the trigger with cold ruthlessness, he sent the man tumbling to the ground with a well-placed bullet through the chest.

Tonight, he was no healer.

Tonight, he was Rebecca's brother coming to claim retribution.

*********

Chris saw where Nathan's attention was focused but instead of simply seeing Serfonteine as Nathan did, Chris was more interested in the bloody figure tied to the tree. He had to blink to contain his fury as he saw the gambler leaning against the tall elm tree, his back a mess of ruined flesh while his head hung back lifelessly, unconsciousness allowing him a merciful respite from what must be agonizing pain. Chris cleared a path to Ezra, shooting anyone who was foolish enough to raise a gun to him. He dropped two Klansmen in midstep, killing one instantly when he went for an ever reliable head shot and delivering to the other a more prolific chest shot signalling his death in a widening stain of crimson against the white robes he was willing to die for.

Chris's horse more or less trampled the bodies as he rode past them. He saw Serfonteine running into the woods with Nathan in close pursuit. As much as Chris wanted to stop the healer from killing the man, seeing what had been done to Ezra was enough to force such good intentions away. Serfonteine, like all men who was only as strong as the fools willing to believe in his dangerous litany of hatred, was running in a desperate attempt to escape. The gunslinger reached the tree and saw Vin Tanner taking Peso off in a completely different direction.

A shack lay in the distance and Chris guessed if Alex was being held anywhere it was as good as any place to begin the search.

"Buck!" Chris shouted at Buck who along with J.D. was firing at a particularly persistent lot of Klansmen who were attempting to escape into the woods by covering their retreat with a hail of bullets. "Cover me!" 

Buck immediately left J.D. and Josiah to deal with the Klansmen when he saw what Chris was attempting to do. The tall man came riding up in seconds as Chris dismounted, ensuring his old friend's back was covered as Chris went to help Ezra. Chris made sure that his horse stood between him and Ezra as he climbed out of the saddle and hurried to the tree. Buck rode his own mount close by, keeping an eye on any Klansmen who were still foolish enough to make an attempt to fight it out instead of fleeing like the rest of their companions. The clearing was starting to become covered in bodies garbed in robes of white now stained with dirt and blood.

Chris felt his inside fist in anger as he approached Ezra. The wounds on his back were next to barbarous and the gunslinger could not see how deep they ran because of the blood, literally soaking Ezra's skin. Ignoring that for the moment, he quickly cut the gambler free and Ezra more or less slumped to the wet ground, his clothes becoming even more soiled from the interminglig of dirt and blood.  A chill run down Chris's spine as he saw Ezra's blood seeping into the water on the ground and creating pools of crimson that meandered away from them.

"Ezra can you hear me?" Chris asked amidst the sound of gunfire in the background.

There was blood running down the corner of his lip and Chris blinked away his fury when he realized it was coming from where Ezra had bit his lip in an effort to control the pain.

"Come on Ezra," Chris tried to find some sign Ezra was still with them. "You can't go just yet remember, you're not facing God with empty pockets."

Gunfire ceased and Chris looked up long enough to see that most of the Klansmen were either dead or scattering into the woods, obviously six armed men were more of a challenge then an unarmed one tied to a tree. He made a mental note to take the bodies back to town and unmask them because it was the only way to convince people how close to home the problem was. This did not end here. The hatred Serfonteine had infected Four Corners with would not disappear completely, no matter how odious it might be to most of them. It would linger as these things lingered, waiting for someone with enough hatred to bring it forth again.

"Mr Larabee."

Chris dropped his gaze and saw Ezra looking at him. "As always your timing is impeccable. Do you think in this instance you might have arrived just a little sooner than usual? I would have appreciated it."

"Chris," Buck arrived, leaving J.D. and Josiah to continue pursuit of the Klansmen who had run off into the woods. "Is he alive?"

"Barely," Chris replied and did not need to explain when Buck's eyes widened at the sight of so much blood flowing from the two men at the foot of the tree. The puddles of rainwater almost took on the biblical appearance of a river of blood. "Where's Nathan?"

"He went after Serfonteine." Buck answered as if that were a surprise to anyone.

"Ezra," Chris looked down at the gambler whom he was holding, "did you see Alex?"

Ezra was fading in and out of consciousness but that snapped him back to clarity. "She's out there! Alexandra is out there with Mr Lamont. You have to find her..." he strained to say as the pain started to penetrate the haze of his exhausted mind, "you did not see what he tried to do to her..."

"Go." Chris ordered and did not even need to finish before Buck was on his feet, running to find Vin.

*********

Vin burst through the front door of the shack and paused at what lay inside the small confines.

He saw Micawber's body where it had fallen, a large puddle of blood having formed under his head where Ezra put a decidedly large hole with a small bullet. On the far end of the room, another Klansmen in robes was in a similar state of health. However, none of this captured his attention as much as the scraps of cloth in the middle of the room. The tracker ran forward and saw the tattered remains of the dress he saw Alex wearing the last time they were together. He blinked slowly, trying to tell himself it meant nothing. There was no body or evidence what he suspected had befallen her. All he had was this dress.

Vin dropped to his knees and picked it up, almost afraid to touch it for a moment as he held the fabric to his face and could still smell the faint scent of her perfume in the pattern of roses embroidered upon it. Deny it as he might, what lay before him was too much to ignore and the idea she was dead caused his mind to descend into a well of ice from which there was no return. His hands clenched into fists around the cloth as his brain started shutting down from the sheer despair she might be gone. He did not believe in God or any of the deities the Indians believed in but at this minute he was willing to beg them all for her life.

"Vin!" Buck's voice boomed into his consciousness instead of the Almighty giving him his answer. "We need you to find Alex, Ezra says she out there somewhere!"

Vin was on his feet in seconds, the dress completely forgotten as he ran towards Buck so the older man could explain this miracle. "Where is she?" He demanded, never more relieved in his entire life.

"I don't know," Buck confessed.

It did not matter because if she was out here in the woods somewhere then Vin could find her and he would. Furthermore, wherever Lamont might happen to be at this moment, Vin hoped the man had made his peace with his God because Lamont would be making a personal appearance soon enough. 

*********

Get me out! Get me out! GET ME OUT!

Alex started screaming inside her mind as she felt the walls inching closer and closer to her, until she did not know where they began and where she ended. She looked up at the sky and saw no stars she could cling to for comfort, only a canvas of grey raining down on her. She saw the puddles forming on the floor of this dried out well. Suddenly she was struck with the fear of what would happen if it rained for forty days and nights, like it had done in the Bible. What if it rained that long and she was still here, trapped inside these walls, unable to decide whether rape was any worse than what she chose by entering this black hell.

What happened if nobody found her?

Alex started to shake as the thought gripped her already terrified mind. Her resolve to remain inside snapped as she scrambled for the rope dangling in the centre of the floor, offering salvation in its worn strands. She did not care any more what happened if Lamont found her, she just knew she could not stay in here! Wrapping her trembling fingers around the rope, she tugged at it once, testing its strength before attempting the climb to get her out of this place. 

It broke.

Alex watched in horror as the length of rope tumbled towards her after snapping off at point far beyond her reach. As it landed in the ground, Alex snatched it up again and examined the fray end dooming her to this unfilled grave in the middle of nowhere. It began to dawn upon her what kind of a lingering death this would be as she saw a spider crawling slowly up the brick. It was oblivious to her plight and seemed to mock her with its ability to scale the wall while she was left trapped like some animal. Her ears picked up the sound of movement on the floor, as crawling things moved about in the darkness.

Alex dropped to her knees; her lips quivering in fright as this darkness tightened its deathly grip around her mind and forced all sanity from her world. She started screaming, out of sheer desperation. Anyone who heard her might have thought at animal was in pain or dying, crying out is death knell it a pitiful wail of terror before the end finally descended. Alex screamed until she was hoarse, praying someone would hear her because she could not bear this. She would happily endure anything except death in this cold, dark place.

"Well hello there." A voice responded.

Alex looked up and saw someone at the top of the well staring down at her.

"Help me please!" Alex begged, not even caring that it was Francis Lamont  peering down at her because she could not stand being inside this place any more. She had no idea what possessed her to think she ever could! "Please get me out of here!"

"Are you asking for my help Doctor?" Lamont laughed as if finding this extraordinarily funny. "I think I ought to leave you in there." He grinned, unable to see her but being able to tell from that frightened voice just how desperate she was.

"HELP ME YOU BASTARD!" Alex shouted in fury, tears running down her cheeks. "Please I'm begging you, get me out of here!"

"I don't think so." Lamont smiled, leaning over and digging his hand into the moist ground softened by rain and retrieved a handful of mud. "I don't have the time or the inclination to go to all that trouble." With that, he released the clump of wet soil into the well.

It splattered on Alex's shoulder and she squealed as he started throwing more mud into the well. Alex started screaming again, whatever strength left in her fragile psyche, shattering completely as mud and water rained down on her, threatening to bury her alive.

*********

Vin and Buck looked at each other as they heard the screams.

Unlike Ezra's which were filled with pain, this one was even more desperate if such a thing could be. It was not difficult to track Alex down even through the rain once Vin knew she was out in the woods. Telltale signs of footprints in soft mud and rips of white material crusted with dirt and blood pointed the direction she had gone. Vin saw both two sets of footprints quickly dissolving with the increasing rain and was able to follow the other signs of where Alex was headed and how closely behind her pursuer maintained the chase.

When he heard the screams, he knew Lamont had reached her and he started running blindly, not even caring to look for her tracks, requiring nothing now he had that terrified scream to guide him. Buck followed closely behind, keeping Vin in his sights because there was no telling what the tracker would do when he found his lady or the man who caused her to cry out with such fear. Alex was always  the one thing that could make Vin throw caution and good sense to the wind. Not that Buck could not blame the young man because if it was Inez, he would be no different.

They broke into the clearing and saw Lamont standing at the edge of an old well, throwing lumps of earth into its depths and the echoing scream ascended from it could only belong to Alex. Lamont turned to them and narrowed his eyes as he saw Vin approach. He stepped away from the well at that moment, wiping a wet strand of hair from his face as he regarded the tracker.

"Alex!" Vin called out.

The screaming stopped abruptly. Both Vin and Buck held a breath as they waited in anticipation for an answer, all the while staring at Lamont, daring him to make a run for it in the interim. The southerner did no such thing for he knew there would be no escaping this particular confrontation.

"Vin...?" Her frightened voice called out.

"Yeah Darling it's me." Vin replied, never feeling so grateful for anything in his entire life. Buck saw the relief drain into his face as he was exhaled loudly, closing his eyes in sheer gratitude she was still alive. It took no more than a second before that relief was replaced with something else and Lamont who recognize the gleam in Vin's icy coloured eyes, knew with complete certainty what was coming.

Vin ran forward and downed the man before Lamont could even blink. They both landed on the wet ground hard with Vin having the advantage. "I warned you!" Vin hissed as the full vent of his fury escaped him like a cascade of fire. He did not know what this man had done to Alex and in truth he did not care because Lamont made her scream and that was enough for Vin to desire inflicting a most painful lesson on the son of a bitch.

"Buck, help Alex!" Vin emerged from the red veil of rage long enough to shout.

Taking advantage of his momentary distraction, Lamont threw a punch in Vin's jaw. The tracker reeled from the blow slightly before shaking it off like he was shaking off water from his buckskins. His rage was such the jab barely registered and he slammed his fist into the southerner's rib, feeling bone crack as his knuckle met flesh. Lamont let out a cry of pain as he tried to fend off Vin's punches and to his credit managed to do so even in his drunken state but Vin was fired up with vindictive fury at what this man had done to the woman he loved.

Vin rammed his fist into the side of Lamont's head, hardly feeling the pain as his knuckles flared from the delivery of so many punches. However, he barely cared he was not pulling his punches because Lamont deserved no better.

Alex was everything to him and to hear her scream like that was beyond agony to Vin. She was the bravest woman he knew and understood only something truly awful could wring that cry of absolute terror from her. For that alone, Vin was prepared to kill this bastard. Vin ignored the rising pain in his limbs as he struck blow after blow. He felt his knuckles connect but the point soon arrived when the pain faded away. It disappeared to a distant place in his mind, just as forgotten as the ache in his body and any moral dilemma remaining  that this thing was a man. Not since Randall Mason had Vin encountered anyone as vile and he was damned if he was going to let Lamont live to do this to some other woman.

He finally stopped when Buck pulled him off the unconscious form of Francis Lamont who stopped fighting long ago. Vin stepped back, aware the man was alive but unrepentant that his face was now a complete mess of bloody flesh and the convalescence required to heal those wounds would most likely take place inside a prison hospital.

"Vin!" Buck shook some sense into the tracker firmly, knowing what compelled Vin to behave as he did but Alex did not need that right now. She needed him. "I can't get her out!"

"What?" Vin pushed away and hurried to the edge of the well. He could hear her inside, still screaming and remembered being once told about her fear of small, dark places. His heart chilled knowing what terrors she must be facing now and forced him to glare at the unconscious form of Lamont in hatred.

"The rope ain't strong enough to pull her out." Buck replied as he stared into the darkness Vin was trying to see into. "I've got to go back to the horses and get some fresh rope. You have to talk to her, tell her you're here."

"I know," Vin nodded quickly, reason returning to his mind when he realized Alex needed him calm instead of barking mad with vengeance. "Hurry Buck."

Buck nodded and ran off into the night as Vin turned his attention back to Alex. Her shrieks had dissipated into pathetic whimpers and he took a deep breath, steadying himself as he tried to reach that frightened soul lost in the dark. "Alex, its Vin."

"Vin, please!" She sobbed. "Get me out of here!"

Vin blinked, trying not to let her anguished cry effect him more than it already had. He had to be strong for her. "Darlin', listen to my voice. Calm down and listen to my voice. We're going to get you out but the rope's weak, we need to get fresh rope."

"I don't care!" She wailed. "I have to get out of here! Please Vin! Please get me out of here!"

"Alex," Vin said firmly, his nails digging into stone as he forced himself to stay focused. "For me Darlin', I need you to stay calm. Buck's coming back with the rope and I'm not going anywhere. Just listen to my voice and this will be over soon."

He could hear her sobbing in the darkness and wanted more than anything to put his arms around her and hold her close to him, so he could drive away all these terrors she was seeing there in the black. "Alex, I love you and I won't leave you, just listen to me and this will be over soon enough, I promise." He repeated once more, hoping that his efforts would allay her fears.

"Okay Vin," she said softly. "Just keep talking to me please, I'm not my best in the dark."

Vin smiled despite himself, remembering those words said during another time. Swallowing hard and forcing the emotion from his voice, he answered just as quietly.

"I think you'd do just fine in the dark."

*********

Nicholas heard the gunfire and the screams and knew he had to get out of here as quickly as possible. As he ran for escape through the teeming rain, he suddenly became aware of hoof beats closer than the clearing he just left.

He looked over his shoulder long enough to see the horse  bearing down on him. It took a second longer for him to realize that it was Nathan riding the animal. Nicholas faced front just in time to see a log stretched across his path but not in time to keep himself from tumbling over it, head first. He landed on the damp mud and leaves, scrambling to his feet as he saw Nathan's horse sail over head. Nicholas covered his head with his hands as the horse landed in front of him, splattering him with mud as its hooves dug deep into the moist earth.

Nathan watched Nicholas getting to his feet and brandishing the gun he believed would save him. Before the man could even raise the gun to fire, Nathan had aimed the barrel of his own gun in Nicholas's direction, shaking his head slowly and indicating to Nicholas to not even bother with the attempt.

"Throw it aside." Nathan ordered.

"So you can shoot me unarmed?" Nicholas shouted, furious at him for having the advantage.

"I ain't no murderer." Nathan repeated himself and waited until Nicholas reluctantly discarded the weapon before the healer would even dismount his horse. He had his own gun trained on the man in case Serfonteine made any cowardly attempt to flee as he had done when his Klan gathering was discovered. He stared at Serfonteine through the rain, thinking how he had for years thought the man to be some terrible creature in his nightmares. However, as Nathan looked down at him now, he saw nothing remotely like that. Nicholas Serfonteine was just a man.

"So what are we going to do now Ajax?" Nicholas asked just to bait the healer as they both stood in the rain, facing each other without any others present. "Are you going to take me to the law?"

Nathan shook his head again. "No," the black man said in a small voice. "There ain't no court that will try you, I ain't stupid. I know that."

Nicholas's eyes narrowed as he realized there was more on Nathan's mind then just arrest. "Out with it nigger, what do you have in mind?"

With his gun still aimed at his former master, Nathan unpacked the long wooden case  attached to his saddle. He tucked the polished wood box under his arm and approached a few paces away from Nicholas before dropping it onto the soft ground of mud and rotting foliage. It splattered slightly on impact but landed, as it should.

"Open it." Nathan ordered once more.

Nicholas had some idea what was coming and so he was not hesitant to obey the order, although he disliked being given it by a nigger nonetheless. He unlocked the latch on the side of the box and swung open the lid to find two rapiers gleaming in the dim light, their blades quickly moistening as the raindrops pelted its smooth metal finish. The blades were given to Buck after his infamous duel with Don Paulo and remained where they were since then, tucked inside with red velvet and polished wood on the outside.

"You remembered." Nicholas said as the memory of Ajax's role on Avalon returned to him. It felt almost like nostalgia if the implications were not so deadly.

"It's hard to forget I wasn't supposed to win." Nathan declared.

"I was better than you." Nicholas looked up in anger at that statement. How dare this insolent nigger claim he was anything that a master swordsman?

Nicholas had fought enough duels in his time to know he was good and Nathan was lying.

"There weren't no slave was stupid enough to be fencing partner to the master and try to win." Nathan reiterated. "I took my licks because a couple of cuts was sure better than a whipping if I had beaten you."

Nicholas could not deny that was exactly what would have happened if Ajax had beaten him during their sparring matches but that did not mean Nathan would have any ability now. Nicholas still fenced and although his sparring partners were no longer slaves, he still manage to let them know the price of defeat.

"Pick one up." Nathan instructed and it was an order Nicholas was most happy to oblige.

"You're throwing away your advantage Ajax," Nicholas sneered "You know I can cut you to ribbons this way." The Klansmen picked up the blade and felt the weight of it in his hands as he stepped back and took a few experimental swipes to see how well the weapon handled.

"Maybe you can," Nathan replied approaching the box once Nicholas was a suitable distance away from it. "But this is the way it's going to go. We're going to do this so we both have an equal chance of coming out of this alive. If you kill me, my friends will know it was self defense because Buck will remember I asked him for these blades."

"I will kill you." Nicholas said firmly. "Make no mistake on that."

"Perhaps you will," Nathan dropped to his knees, his gun still pointed in Serfonteine's direction as his other hand groped for the hilt of the blade. An instant later, his fingers enclosed the cool metal hilt and he rose to his feet once again. "If I kill you this way, it's not exactly murder and its not exactly self defense. I can live with that grey in between."

Facing each other with swords in hand, Nathan holstered his gun back into its holster and secured the flap, before discarding his gun belt altogether. To win, he had to be fast and the weight of the guns would only slow him down.

Completely unarmed except for the rapiers in hand, Nicholas and Nathan faced each other knowing instinctively, it would be for the last time. The rain came down on them was heavier but neither seemed to notice, as all they could see was each other.

Both men encircled each other without even being aware they were doing it. Nathan watched Nicholas closely, his rapier held to parry any sudden thrust the man made because it was amazing how old lessons returned to his mind as he stood in this familiar place once again. He remembered much about Nicholas's habits while sword fighting and Nathan had learnt enough about it on his own to know a defensive posture was always the best to take in the beginning. There would be no hot headed attack for Nathan Jackson in this battle; there would careful movements laced with deliberation.

Serfonteine lunged forward first as Nathan expected he would. The healer side stepped the thrust easily, blocking it and forcing the blade away as Serfonteine stumbled back slightly, surprised by the skill in the execution of that most basic manoeuver. Nathan waited once again as Serfonteine reassessed how he should come at his opponent, calculation etched in the man's face as he realized perhaps Nathan was not that unskilled.

"You've kept up your lessons." Nicholas commented as they circled again.

"I've been waiting a long time to have a shot at you Serfonteine." Nathan responded.

"Well its good to have the things you want before you die." He said snidely and then renewed his attack once more with a series of thrusts.

Nathan blocked these just as effectively although easy was no longer a variable. Serfonteine was fast and Nathan found his memories had underestimated just how fast the man had been. The clanging of swords followed every parry he made to deflect the blows and eventually, he was in a position to riposte with the same intensity. The rain was not making it easy to see but Nathan never took his eyes of Serfonteine as their swords met with murderous intensity. Nicholas tended to swing wide and every time he did so, Nathan took the opportunity to slow him down. As he ducked Nicholas's last swipe, Nathan dropped down low enough to kick the man's knee out from under him.

Nicholas hit the muddy ground and Nathan brought the blade down over his head. The man had barely enough time to roll away as the edge of Nathan's rapier swooshed the space his neck would have occupied. He rolled onto his knees and blocked the next blow Nathan delivered, holding the healer's blade pressed against his own as he threw a punch into Nathan's rib. Nathan staggered backwards but did not lose grip of his weapon.

Nicholas came at him again; knowing now this would not be a simple matter of gentlemen's fencing tournament. It had started to dawn on the southerner in the last few minutes of fighting, Nathan actually had the skill to win and winning would mean Nicholas's death. Realizing now he was fighting for his life had put an edge of fear to his attacks and he knew the time was past for toying with the opponent. It was time to put him down now.

As Serfonteine took the offensive, Nathan blocked all the thrusts coming in his direction, knowing there was almost a tinge of desperation nestled amidst this ferocious attack. He parried them easily, never taking the offensive because unlike Serfonteine, Nathan knew how to beat him. He had played this battle in his mind for so long, he was ready for it in reality.  Otherwise, he would not have challenged Serfonteine. Nathan knew he could win. 

All he had to do, was to wear the man down.

*********

Vin kept speaking.

It was the most verbalization he ever done in his life but it was necessary.

Alex had to hear his voice. He could not see her where she was inside the well but he knew she was listening closely because she was no longer screaming. He knew she never liked dark places and understood how much pure terror was in her heart to seek this place out as a refuge. Instinctively, he glanced at Lamont who was still very much unconscious not far from him and the well. Vin saw the blood running out from the wounds he inflicted upon the man and felt no remorse for anything he had done. As far as he was concerned, all of it was deserved.

Buck returned soon enough with a length of rope left over from their day escorting cattle. As the tall man approached, Vin called out into the well. "Alex, Buck's here with the rope. We're going to get you out of there Darlin'."

"How's Ezra?" Vin asked Buck quietly as he threw the edge of the rope over the stone edge and dropped it down into the darkness.

"Not so good." Buck answered, his jaw tightening as he thought about the state of the gambler when he last saw him. "They whipped him."

"Christ." Vin found himself swearing. "What about Serfonteine?"

"I don't know." Buck shook his head. "Alex, its Buck! I'm dropping a rope to you honey. I want you tie it around your waist when it reaches you."

"Thank you." Came a soulful whimper and Buck's stomach hollowed at the terror in that voice. It made him lower the rope even faster and the echo of relieved sigh drifted upwards when Buck felt an insistent tug on the other end.

No sooner than Alex tied the rope around her waist did Vin and Buck start pulling together, hoping to get the job done as quickly as possible. Alex had gone very quiet and judging by the tightening in Vin's jaw, Buck knew the young man was afraid for Alex's state of mind. The rope scraped along the stone as they pulled the doctor from the bottom of her own private hell. Strands of hessian left its mark at the edge as the robe was worn slowly away by the uneven brick surface. With Buck and Vin's strength pulling collectively, Alex's weight seemed light and very soon, they could her sobs of relief when she was treated to her first sight of them.

As Buck held on alone, Vin hurried forward and linked his arm around her waist as he pulled her towards the edge of the well. He tried not to be shocked at how she looked or the bruises and scratches over her body, or even the fact that she was clad in her underthings. Nothing mattered now that he had held her in his arms once more.

Alex wrapped her arms around Vin and refused to let go as she stepped off the well's edge. She held on to him and started to sob, weeping as he had never heard her cry before. He could only look helplessly at Buck as he tightened his hold around her trembling body, stroking her damp hair in an effort to convince her she was safe.

"Thank you for finding me." She whispered in his ear through her tears.

"I wouldn't have stop looking until I did." He answered, never more grateful for anything in his life at this moment.

She was safe and it was the only thing that mattered.

*********

Nicholas lunged again and like before, Nathan stepped out of reach of the thrust that would have been deadly to a lesser opponent. The rain and cold was starting to effect him as he felt the moisture in his clothes dragging at him like a dead weight. Nathan was still watching him closely, looking not at all effected by the weather and that further served to infuriate the southerner who renewed his attack. rage and savagery melding into a potent mix.

Nathan parried this latest series of lunges, making careful to avoid being cut even though he was in better shape than Serfonteine at the moment. The man had always gone on the offensive, fighting to win in the first few minutes of the game so his opponent would not have time to launch a formidable defense until the end came. Nathan's entire strategy was based on not finishing him off immediately but rather to allowing Serfonteine to expend all his energy trying to reach his own ends. Nathan exerted enough stamina to not get himself killed because he would need his strength when Serfonteine's finally faltered.

And that moment was drawing close.

"She was delightful you know." Nicholas paused as he withdrew for the moment to catch his breath. They circled each other, like two wolves about to fight for the last scrap of food, eyes blazing as they regarded each other as a lesser being, undeserving of life or limb.

Easy Nathan, the healer told himself, knowing Serfonteine must be desperate indeed if he was resorting to such jibes to provoke Nathan into doing something stupid. Once again, Nathan reminded himself to stick to the strategy he laid out when he chose to embark upon this final showdown with Nicholas Serfonteine.

"The best I ever had." Nicholas grinned, wiping more water from his brow even though his cuff was almost as soaked as the rest of him. "And she loved every minute of it."

"Then why was she begging you to stop?" Nathan retaliated, fighting to remember this was nothing more than underhanded tactic to make him abandon his so far calm and deliberate manner.

"They all beg to stop," the man replied with a smile. "Don't you know that about women Ajax." He met Nathan's gaze with a perfectly evil gleam in his eyes. "They beg to stop but the tone is different. She wanted me Ajax, she always did. She just didn't dare to say it."

"I'm sure you believe that too," Nathan shook his head with disgust. "Does it make you feel better knowing it was her tone that asked for it as opposed to the stinking animal that you are? At least your slaves knew when they were allowed to rut because you wouldn't let them unless you gave permission. I guess being the master means you don't have to control your own lust, doesn't it?"

"I gave my nigras everything!" Nicholas growled and swung his blade hard at Nathan. The healer raised his sword to counter the blow and the resounding clash of metal would have created sparks if not for the rain. "You were well fed and well looked after!" He swung again, driving Nathan backward with the force of the powerful thrust. "Becky wanted it! They all wanted it!" He swung again, determined to put an end to this insolent nigger once and for all. How dare he presume to call Nicholas Serfonteine, the master of one of the finest Georgian families, a rapist!

Nathan was almost driven to the edge of the clearing when suddenly, he parried the last powerful swing delivered by Serfonteine and riposted with an expertly delivered manoeuver which sent his former master in retreat. "They did not want anything?" He shouted finally, allowing a lifetime of pent up rage to escape from its long exile inside a forgotten corner of his heart. "We were well looked after and fed all right but that's all we had!"

This time it was Nathan on the offensive and the returning blows Nicholas was now struggling to fend was delivered with the fury of a thousand wounds.

Each impact of steel against steel was bringing to home just how close to the end Nicholas was reaching. In his rage, his opponent had become very fast and very strong, as if his anger was making him more agile instead of clumsy.

Nicholas could feel his grip weaken with each resounding impact of Nathan's rapier against his. In desperation, he was forced to sweep Nathan off his feet just to get a momentary respite.

The healer fell down on his rear as Nicholas raised his weapon to deliver what would have been a fatal blow through the chest if Nathan was not fast enough to roll onto his knees and block the attack. He shoved Nicholas back by sheer strength alone and panted hard as he spoke. "We had nothing, no name of our own, no dignity, not even the right to marry without permission and our daughters...God," Nathan felt the emotion well up inside of him. "Our daughters were your unwilling harem. It is better being a dog or a mule instead of being a nigger slave Mr Serfonteine because at least a dog or mule knows its mother or wife or its sister ain't going to be used as the master's whore!"

Whether or not Serfonteine could see the tears was beside the point, Nathan was weeping not only for Becky now but also for the mother who killed herself for the same reason Becky was now dead, because being a Negro slave was being less than human but not quite animal. Men like Serfonteine who strove to rekindle that sickness did not deserve to live and it was time to end this. This time it was Nathan who lunged and as he trusted the blade forward, Serfonteine attempted to fight defensively, a thing he was unaccustomed to doing. Normally in any sparing match, he usually went on the offensive because the slave he was fighting was not stupid enough to attack unless he had to. Nathan knew that from experience.

Nathan channeled all the rage into perfecting his blows, until not even all the parrying and riposting Nicholas Serfonteine could muster was enough to keep him from wearing his former slave down. Nathan waited as he fought, watching Serfonteine's movements getting sluggish as the exhaustion started to seep into him and with the fear of death suddenly thick in his nostrils, the man was becoming clumsy.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the others approach through the trees, no doubt having been attracted by the clanging of metal. Vin, Alex and Buck broke the line of leaves to step into the clearing and Nathan had only to glance at Alex, wearing Vin's buckskin coat over her underclothes and her wet face with tears and bruises to realize he had one more thing to fuel his anger. He only had to wait for the opening that would allow him to finish this. It came soon enough and Nathan had one last parting word for Serfonteine as he swung.

"Die."

The blade sliced through cleanly. Nathan was looking at none of his friends as he delivered that final blow. Serfonteine stood where he was, his hands dropping immediately the sword still in his grip. His eyes drained after the pain registered and then it emptied completely. Nathan stepped away from Serfonteine as the first drops of blood started to seep through the cracks of skin across the man's neck. It started as drops and then began to flow freely as the body tumbled backwards and Serfonteine's severed head landed a few feet away.

Nathan watched Serfonteine's lifeless form with little or no feeling. The ground was completely covered with his blood and Nathan turned away, his own rapier falling from his hands onto the ground. He met the gaze of his friends, uncertain of what to expect after what they had just seen.

"I had to do it." Nathan said softly, his eyes on Alex most of all, whose appearance upon closer inspection made him, feel doubly certain he had done the right thing. She looked so broken Nathan's heart went out to her and hardened his resolve that Nicholas and all those like him should be dead.

"We understand Nathan." Buck replied with typical understanding that only Buck was capable.

"If you didn't, I would have." Vin said firmly with enough intent in his eyes to convince Buck he meant it.

"I had to end it." Nathan started to turn away when suddenly, he heard Alex speak.

Nathan quickly turned to her and saw she had lifted her face away from the crook of Vin's shoulder long enough to whisper.

"Becky can rest easy now."

Nathan could almost believe it was true.

Epilogue
Ashes

Mary Travis wiped the rain from her face and stared at the effigy in the middle of the street, whose flames were extinguished by the rain pelting across the land, bringing salvation in every moist drop. The cross was meant to signify great many things to a great number of people. Yet as she stood before it now, with the night far from over and the fires set in hatred, finally dying under the assault of the rain, she felt her fury bubbling to the surface.

Four Corners was her home!

It was where she intended to raise a family. It was the soil in which Stephen was willing to invest his faith and for which he died. This was the world she intended to raise a new family with Chris and finally, it was the place to which she wanted to bring her son. This was her home and what transpired here tonight shook her to the core because she no longer knew this town or its community.

When the fire that claimed Will Jefferson's home finally died, Mary left the smouldering wreck of the man's business and house to return to her own home to rummage through the tool shed in the back yard, until she found what she sought. As she trudged across the street back to the effigy signifying the evil that blighted their town this night, she had no idea what was running through her mind because her anger was such she was no longer thinking clearly. As she approached the wooden cross, blackened by flames and cinders, people who were still on the street watched her with curiosity.

Mary glared at the effigy, furious by what it represented and the malice that lay behind its planting. She was enraged by all the hurt it caused to the town of Four Corners, not just to its Negro citizens but also to the solidarity that existed between friends and neighbours for so long. Thanks to this abomination, neighbours were looking at each other differently. Respected figures who helped make this town what it was were now being vilified by a web of lies and deceit, aimed at destabilizing the community and dividing it irrevocably. Mary had worked too hard and invested too much of herself to allow such a thing to continue any further.

Without saying a word, Mary swung the axe hard, the thick blade embedded itself deep into the wood with a loud whack. The sound cut through the rain, capturing everyone's attention as they turned to the sight of the blond widow, drenched to the bone, swinging away in unconcealed rage at the symbol that caused so much grief in town on this night. Townsfolk, both black and white paused to see the display as Mary swung again, determine to remove the obscenity from the street.

Mary did not care if this meant nothing to those watching. She cared not if the idea of racial impurity was so deeply ingrained in the mind of those who listened to Serfonteine's sickness that they would never be free of it. All she cared about was removing this thing from her sight. She kept swinging, ignoring the pain in her hands as she chipped away at it, knowing she did not possess nearly enough strength to fell it with one blow and wishing at that moment with all her heart, she did.

"Let me help you." A voice offered behind her.

Mary turned around and saw Mr Rosken behind her. His face was etched in sorrow and shame and she was tempted to tell him to go away when she realized he was here to help. Mary said nothing for a moment as Rosken approached swallowing hard.

"I didn't want this to happen." He whispered, the rain running down his face and the way he treated Nathan was reflected in his sorrow filled eyes. "I never thought it could be like this."

"It's always like this!" Mary shouted, not just to him but to everyone who could hear. She turned around and let her eyes scan all the faces, resting long enough on those who were guilty of this abomination to let them know she was aware of who they were. "How do you think it starts?"

She brushed a strand of wet hair from her face and glared in particular at the bystanders who had watched it all happen, not those who had come to help with the fires. She glared at Rosken who showed his affiliation by driving Nathan from his home, he stared at the women who had gossiped in the open about Alex Styles, trapped between their own gullibility and their prejudice.

"It starts with men like Serfonteine coming to you people and telling you stupid things about how things were.  How the hell would he know? Was he here when we were building this town, all of us? Not just the white folk but everyone!"

She saw some of them dropping their gazes to the ground with the same embarrassment Rosken displayed earlier, knowing in their hearts they were  guilty of letting a stranger pollute their minds with such unsavoury ideas.

"Mrs Ross!" Mary glared at a rotund woman standing under the awning in front of the hardware store. "Did you forget how Nathan mended your son's broken arm even though you had no money to pay him?"

Mrs Ross did remember because she was whispering to someone who stood beside her as she nodded in agreement with Mary's words. Her plump face seemed a little greyer when she conceded that point.

"What about you Sheila?" Mary flung around to one of the women who had been so callous about their opinions regarding Alex earlier that day. "I seem to recall your daughter getting into that school in Sweetwater, thanks to Alex's written recommendation? You obviously forgot when you were crucifying her in the street this morning.  I won't even ask which one of you cowards painted that disgusting message on her door? It's easy to forget when we had to go to Sweetwater or Bitter Creek whenever we were ill or injured. How many of us could have died if it were not for Alexandra Styles and Nathan Jackson?"

Obviously quite a few, if the contrite faces before her were any judge of how ashamed some of them were feeling. Mary offered no apologies for defending Alex or Nathan, they were her friends and damn near her family. She would tolerate this behaviour no more!

"This is our home and we have built this place into something we can be proud of, all of us! We've endured lawlessness, wealthy ranchers who tried to drive us away at the point of a gun. We've seen this land find a dozen different ways to kill us and not once, did it ever matter what colour the person standing next to us was! We never cared about race! The war is over! It ended years ago and a lot of men and women died so we can live together like this, not be divided the first time someone with old ideas of past glories comes to town and infect us with his hatred like a disease! We can't make it out here on our own! Haven't we proven that to each other enough!"

There were those who came to help when the fires were raging who were nodding in agreement with no doubt or hesitation with what she had to say. However it took a little longer for those who knew secretly they were guilty of her accusations. She could see it in their eyes as they wrestled with their conscience, perfectly aware to what depth their responsibility ran or how guilty they were for what took place tonight.

Rosken started chopping down the cross once more, adding more weight to the blows until very soon, the effigy tumbled to the ground, splattering water and mud in all directions as the structure collapsed upon impact. Pieces of wood scattered about as it landed and Mary stared at it dispassionately until she turned her back upon the symbol of everything the town had degenerated into the past day.

"You know the men who rode tonight." Mary spoke further not quite done with her fiery tirade against injustice. "You know who they are, who cry their cause behind white robes and claim they speak the truth but don't even dare to show their faces to do it! They sit next to us in church and they come to our houses for Sunday dinner, they wear the same faces we do. I just hope to God that doesn't make them one of us!"

Mary could not say whether her words touched those who were partially responsible for this climate of hatred and intolerance Nicholas Serfonteine ignited. She could tell she reached some people and perhaps that would be enough to bring Four Corners back to what it was. The truth was, the town had changed even if things went back to normal tomorrow and all sins were forgiven.

Serfonteine touched a nerve in all of them, not to be easily forgotten. By either those who believed or those who were indifferent to his prejudiced view of the world.

All Mary Travis knew for certain that tonight, something was lost and whether or not this community could ever regain it again was a question only the future could answer.

*********

"Hold him!" Alex told Nathan while they both stood over Ezra as the gambler writhed in pain and Alex was forced to apply the antiseptic to keep his horrific wounds from festering with infection. Although Alex was still shaky after her experience with Lamont, she knew the best medicine for herself was to get back to work immediately. Alex had not forgotten how Ezra placed himself in harm's way to save her so she was determined to return the favour. As she looked at the lash marks on his back, there was no doubt in her mind, had he not intervened and allowed her to escape, it would be she who was wearing those wounds now, not Ezra.

"I got him." Nathan declared as he tried to hold Ezra still. Ezra was moaning in pain, sending icicles of anguish to those who could hear him beyond the partition of Alex's infirmary. Alex could only imagine the pain he must be enduring after seeing the blood encrusted welts in his back. However, Nathan understood it all too well, having suffered the same torture a long time ago. Seeing Ezra like this only made Nathan wish he made Serfonteine suffer instead of making his death quick.

The pain was so considerable that for any treatment to be administered, he was going to need sedation. As Nathan tried to keep him still, Alex prepared the syringe to administer the sedative. Ezra had been lapsing in and out of coherence ever since the others found him because the pain was so intense the black state of unconsciousness was the only way he could cope with it. Alex herself was still covered in mud and bruises, which she had yet to tend to but she could not see past Ezra's pain at this moment. Sooner or later she would wind down and the terror she felt inside that dark well would haunt her with terrifying memories, but not right now.

She just did not have time for it.

"I want to see him!" Both Alex and Nathan heard Julia behind the partitioning, followed by Josiah's calm but soothing voice.

"He's still alive Julia," the preacher was telling the woman. "But he won't be if you go in there and disrupt the healing he needs."

"Alright, keep him still." Alex replied, shaking away the voices and pressing the needle to Ezra's struggling arm. With expertise gained from sheer repetition, she slipped the point past his skin, finding the artery to allow the concoction to take its fullest effect.

"What did you give him?" Nathan asked, watching the amber fluid disappear into Ezra's veins.

"Morphia." Alex sighed, stepping back as she removed the needle. "It should make the pain easier to bear."

"God I hope so," Nathan hissed angrily. "Those bastards got off too easy."

"They're dead Nathan," Alex said quietly. "That's good enough for me." 

"Miss Alex," Nathan said as Ezra's struggles started to subside once the morphia took effect. "You need to tend to yourself."

Alex passed by a mirror on the wall and stared at herself. For a moment, she did not recognize the disheveled figure in the mirror, covered in dirt, tears and discolored flesh. She did not want to pause because if she did, she would remember and right now, Alex did not want to remember anything.

"I'm fine." She said in a small voice.

"I can take care of Ezra now, Miss Alex." Nathan said gently, meeting her gaze so she understood how concerned he was. "Believe me," he glanced at Ezra who slipped into a blissful state of unconsciousness now the exhaustion and morphia finally broke the back of his struggles. "I know how to tend these wounds very well."

Alex had no doubt of it and she had to concede her state of mind was such, it was easy to make mistakes. She let out a deep breath and nodded in consent to leave but not before she went to Ezra's bedside and planted a soft kiss on the gambler's cheek. She stared at him for a moment, remembering for a brief instance the affection she once felt for him and how he had risked everything tonight to save her.

"He saved me Nathan," she whispered, meeting the healer's eyes with tears. "He could have escaped without a scratch but he saved me."

"He's a good man," Nathan agreed and place a gentle hand on Alex's shoulder. She was still wearing Vin's buckskin jacket because when she had saw what they did to Ezra, all thoughts about anything else was driven from her mind. "You need to tell Miss Julia what's happening," he prompted, knowing it would be easier to leave if she had something to do.

"I'll take care of it." She nodded quietly.

*********

Everyone was present except Mary Travis and Inez, who were still dealing with the aftermath of the fires in town, when Alex stepped out from behind the partition separating her waiting room from the surgery. Everyone who had yet to see her, could not mask their shock at her state. However, it lasted for only a second before she was bombarded with questions regarding the gambler's welfare, most notably from Julia Pemberton. She could understand Julia's concern, considering the state Ezra was in when he was brought back to town. It was enough to frighten anyone.

"Nathan's with him now." Alex quickly announced for the benefit of those assembled. "His wounds are bad but it looks worse than it is. I had to sedate him for the pain but the injuries are mostly musculature and not nerve damage so he should recover without any permanent effects. Unfortunately," Alex met Julia's eyes, "he will be in a lot of pain over the next few days."

A visible sigh of relief escaped Julia and all those present because although the news was grim, was not fatal as they feared it might be, when they had first seen all that blood. "It will be a while before Nathan is finished with him," she added further. "There's no reason for you all to remain. You should go get some rest."

"I'm not going anywhere." Julia said adamantly, green fire ablaze in her eyes at the mere suggestion.

Josiah dropped a hand on her shoulder and remarked gently. "No one expects you too. If you'd like I'll stay with you."

Chris nodded his approval at the suggestion because he had an idea if Julia were to remain here, she would only be a hindrance to the treatment Nathan was attempting to administer. At least with Josiah present, the gunslinger knew Julia would be kept from getting underfoot of the healer because it looked as if Alex was in no condition to offer comfort to anyone.

As if reading his thoughts, Vin quickly spoke up. "Come on Darlin'," the tracker took her by the arm. "You need to get cleaned up and have those bruises looked at."

"I'm alright, really." She said with a barest hint of a smile even though everyone in the room could tell she was not. Her ordeal at Lamont's hands left her shaken to the core and feeling more vulnerable than she ever felt in all her life.

"No you aren't." Chris replied automatically, perceptive as always. "Vin." He gestured to the younger man to get a move on. The doctor looked like she was about to drop where she stood and the state of her appearance at the moment, not simply in a physical sense was enough to give concern to all those present.

Although Ezra saved Alex from violation, she suffered enough abuses by the looks of her to indicate to them all, she was just skirting on the edge of her traumatized emotions.

Deciding she was in no position to argue with either of them, especially when both men wore those same determined expressions, Alex conceded the point. Besides, she wanted to wash and get the stink of that bastard off her skin. She could still smell the liquor from his breath and the scent of it almost made her want to vomit.

"Come on Darlin," Vin took her by the hand as he started guiding her towards the stairs leading upstairs to her home. Vin could see even better than Chris just how close she was to breaking down in tears and it was her usual courage and determination that refused to allow them to see her vulnerabilities. He loved her so much for that but was aware even she had limits at times.

"We better get riding to Sweetwater." Buck said to J.D. agreeing with Alex's assertion they could do nothing for the moment. "We'll need to take that trash out there to a doctor."

"Trash?" Alex looked at him, stopping in mid step at whom Buck could mean. Buck shifted uncomfortably as he exchanged glances with Vin whose expression hardened with cold hatred and the entire room felt silent.  Chris finally spoke up, because Buck did not know how to do it. Chris did not believe in standing on ceremony and quickly responded.

"Lamont. We need to keep him alive to stand trial for what he did to you and Ezra."

Alex felt like all the air was draining out of the room because she found herself faced with something she could not stomach and no one would rebuke her if she followed her impulses and let the man be damned. Unfortunately, she had made oaths herself and those oaths were to a higher ideal than the disgusting creed of hatred spouted by Nicholas Serfonteine and used by Lamont as an excuse for satisfying his own sadistic tendencies. She had already shirked those ideals once before and swore she would never do it again, even if she might want Lamont dead more than anything in the world. Still beneath all that anger and self sacrifice was a desire more selfish than courageous.

She was a doctor.

That's all she ever wanted to be and if Lamont made her turn her back just once, then he was taking away an irreplaceable part of her. Alex could not accept this state of affairs under any circumstances, nor would she let him damage her that way.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and steeled herself for the protests to inevitably follow. "Bring him in here, I'll take a look at him."

"Not a chance." Vin declared firmly, his blue eyes hardening to the point of resembling flints of cold ice. "He can go to Sweetwater."

"You don't have to do this." Chris replied, being the only one in the room save Julia who might possibly understand why she would wish to confront the man who almost raped her.

"No I don't have to," she snapped angrily at everyone present. "But if I turn away and not be a doctor when someone needs it, then he wins doesn't he?"

"Alex, you don't have to prove anything!" Vin persisted, not liking this one damn bit.

"Like hell I do!" She shouted at him, wishing he could understand and being in such a state of mind  she really cared little if he did not. "I am not going to spend forever wondering if the next person is worth saving because he might turn out to be a psychopath! I took an oath Vin, I took an oath to do no harm and to render aid when it is needed. I can't just disregard it whenever I feel! Now I'll put this son of a bitch together only to see him rot behind bars. I'm doing it because its what I do and because I'm better than him! So bring him in here and let me get on with it!"

With that, she swept out of the room and continued upstairs.

Vin was shaken at her vehemence and although he did not like it, he supposed he could understand what she was trying to tell him. Looking at the others in the room, he noticed Chris was holding back his opinion on the matter. The gunslinger who was more than accustomed to dealing with a strong willed lover was in complete sympathy with Vin but Chris tended to agree with Alex's reasoning.

"Let her." Julia stated finally. The woman was quiet during most of the discussion but her own worries about Ezra gave way when she remembered how badly Alex suffered during her kidnapping.

"Let her?" Vin exclaimed. "Look what the man did to her!"

"I am not blind Mr Tanner," Julia returned softly, comprehending his fear for Alex but not what was running through her mind. Julia supposed it just had to do with being an independent female, a thing none of the men present could really appreciate. "But Alex doesn't want to give this man any more power over her than he already has. Let her do this. She needs to."

"It's your call Vin," Buck remarked, wanting to know so he and J.D. could bring Lamont.

Vin swore under his breath and decided it was not up to him really. Alex took the choice out of his hands the moment she told them to bring Lamont into her clinic.

"Do it." Vin frowned unhappily. "But he makes so much as one move towards her, I'll finish what I should have done back there in the woods."

No one could disagree with him on that.

*********

The days following the fire and the death of Nicholas Serfonteine were gloomy ones for Four Corners. Mary Travis was correct in her belief something was lost in light of the taint the Klan brought to the community. The bodies brought back from the Jacobson place when unmasked, revealed Klan members who no one would have guessed to have such beliefs, if they had not seen it for themselves.

Among the dead was Paul Jacobson, the host to the nocturnal gathering that spawned so much violence. Some of the Klansmen had escaped that night and the seven had no clues as to their identity, however, with Serfonteine gone, they lacked direction and Chris doubted the appearance of another exhibition like this for quite some time. Still, the damage was done in Four Corners. No longer could anyone look at each other in quite the same way, for there would always be a lingering question as to how many Serfonteine actually touched with his doctrine of hatred and intolerance.

Fortunately, some positive elements did arise from the calamity of that fiery night. Will Jefferson was immediately offered refinancing by the local bank manager who was more than willing to help the blacksmith on his feet again. Similar efforts of aid were made to the other families who lost everything in the fire with the community rallying to their assistance. Of course, there were a few who were still poisoned by the Klan and stayed well away from the relief efforts, but there were plenty enough well intentioned townsfolk to balance their absence.

Alexandra Styles did treat Lamont with Vin standing close by every minute of the treatment. The man accepted her help begrudgingly but was not foolish enough to make any further abusive attempts in her direction, not when she held his fate in her hands and certainly not with the tracker keeping a vigil with a sawn off shotgun at his side. Once he received proper medical treatment, Lamont was promptly removed to the jailhouse for the rest of his stay in Four Corners. For days after the event, Vin stayed as close to Alex as he could; slipping in and out of her home at night discreetly to quell the gossip mongering incited by Serfonteine.

She slept badly those first two or three nights, with Vin having to wrap his arms around her and hold her close as her ordeal relived itself in her mind during her slumber. However, it aided to her mental recovery when her patients started making appointments again and while there were still plenty to keep the town's scandalmongers busy, it did not effect her practice enough to give Alex any further thought to relocation.

Violet Serfonteine returned home with her brother's body shortly after being told by Mary Travis should she attempt to pursue the matter of his death, Mary would in turn be forced to pursue the matter of his activities during his stay in Four Corners. Unless Violet wanted it known across Georgia society her brother was responsible for arson, attempted murder and rape, she would go quietly. Like all southern belles, Violet did not have the stamina to compete with Mary Travis when the widow was on a self righteous crusade.

*********

It was the first time in days Ezra had seen the light of day.

Although he could only view it from the guestroom of Julia's house, since it was scandalous enough she demanded he spend his convalescence at her home, it was good enough for him after the pain he was forced to endure the past few days. Ezra had spent most of his time lying on his stomach because Nathan would not tolerate anything else. Since the healer had first hand experience in this type of injury, Ezra was not about to argue with him. If there was any consolation to be had in all this, it was the fact Julia had taken personal responsibility of nursing him back to health and appeared more animated than he had seen her in weeks.

It was almost worth suffering what he endured to see his Julia back to her normal self. While she was not as fiery as he remembered, her spirit returned somewhat and it aided in his recovery to see that familiar sparkle in her emerald coloured eyes. He sensed that would change once she was finally ready to talk about the pregnancy and everything that came with it. While he spent his days recovering in her guest room, Ezra was visited by the rest of the seven who came by to tell him what had been transpiring during his absence. They kept him appraised of the goings on in town or dropped by just to play a hand of poker and keep him company. As the time went by, Ezra saw Julia ease enough to speak of what was buried so deeply within.

"Mr Wilmington has asked me to make a request of you." Ezra asked as he and Julia were having a late supper the evening after Violet Serfonteine finally left town. She still would not let him out of bed any more than he had to and dinners were usually served to him on a tray while she dined from her wing chair. It gratified Ezra to know she was lavishing such care on him and the tenderness she displayed was more than surprising. It was so unlike her, he was still becoming accustomed to it.

"Really?" Julia looked up from her plate as she took a bite out of her meal.

"Yes, apparently he is dying to know how you manage to pry the location of the Klan gathering from Serfonteine's sister."

"I'm surprised J.D. hasn't told him," Julia remarked with a faint smile, still somewhat pleased with herself for that little feat even though the events following it did Ezra little good at all.

"Mr Dunne had been surprisingly silent on that subject." Ezra met her gaze and confessed some curiosity to know how she had managed it himself.

"Well J.D. has enough problems on his hands," Julia answered. "The poor boy has been attempting to win back Casey's forgiveness after his dalliance with Violet. For some stupid reason he actually believed Casey was going to understand when he explained it to her he was just seeing Violet for information. Whatever gave him such a foolish idea?"

"I would not know," Ezra said with a completely straight face.

"I suppose you're dying to know?" She looked at him with a sly smile.

"I have so little to occupy my time." He smiled back, more pleased than ever she was showing her former acerbic manner.

"Alright," Julia sighed out loud and began to tell him how she realized what would be Violet's biggest weakness and how simple it was to exploit it for their own purposes.

Ezra stared at her with surprise. "Miss Pemberton, I had no idea you were so cruel."

"I was having a bad day." Julia admitted without a hint of repentance and still did not because, late as the seven were to arrive to prevent the terrible injury Serfonteine inflicted upon the man she loved, they at least kept Ezra from being killed. For that alone, she was willing to do anything. She had no idea she could love him as much as she did until the reality came so close she might lose him. Suddenly, she did not care about her reputation in the community or any wagging tongues that might be unleashed by having him stay here. After what he had been through, Julia wanted him close.

"Ezra," she let out a deep breath. The moment shifted from jovial to something else and she finally decided since they were speaking about truths, its time she gave him the most important truth she had been hiding from him. "I need to tell you the truth about the miscarriage."

Ezra swallowed, closing his eyes as he forced himself to say the words, almost relieved she finally spoke of it so he could finally say them to her. "I know it was not a miscarriage, Julia." 

"Do you see through me so easily?" She swallowed, her eyes moistening as she spoke.

"I love you my dear," Ezra answered. "I know everything about you and I also know Alexandra Styles may be able to bluff her way through a poker game, but she is a terrible liar when it comes down to hiding something of this nature. I'm afraid our past relationship gives me something of an edge."

"I am sorry," the words tumbled out of her mouth now the truth was out in the open. "I went there with every intention to have it done." She did not explain where it was because the details were unimportant. All that mattered was the truth she was attempting to tell. "I went there, all the while thinking about everything you said about how we could have this child together and when I actually got there, it hit me what I was going to do and maybe there was another way after all."

"Then?" Ezra looked at her with confusion, feeling no anger, not really because he more or less suspected the truth for quite some time now. When Alex told him it was a miscarriage and Ezra saw she was lying, he instinctively guessed this was what had truly taken place.

"He did it after I said no." Julia swallowed, trying not to feel angry at the man who did this to her because it was not his fault, it was hers for going there in the first place. "He knew I'd lost my nerve but the money was too good and so he shoved this rag in my face and the next thing I knew, I'd woken up in my own blood." She was not aware tears were rolling down her cheeks as she spoke to Ezra because the guilt and the self recrimination was almost all consuming.

Ezra's jaw tightened in anger as he thought of some back alley quack drugging his Julia into submission and performing the surgery that murdered his child, for the want of a few dollars. It infuriated him and also explained why Alex lied to him. If he did not know Julia as well as he did, her story would sound completely implausible but he did know her and there were no secrets between them. Deception was a game they both played with expertise but not to each other. Alex lied to spare Julia because Alex believed in her innocence in this matter.

"You should have told me Julia." He said after a long pause.

Julia released a held breath, thinking for one dark moment he would not understand and he would leave as she believed he would. "I had planned to but when Alex concocted the story of the miscarriage, the lie seemed the better solution."

"Not between us." Ezra repeated firmly. "Never between us."

He extended his hand towards her and it was with relief Julia reached for it and felt his hand enclose around hers. Looking into his sea green eyes, she saw he did not hate her for what she did and to a certain degree, he understood the torment she felt during the time she kept her silence. "Never again," she whispered, wiping the tears from her face.

Allowing him to pull her towards him, Julia slipped into the sheets next to Ezra and nestled in his embrace as they watched the sun set beyond the window, knowing everything in its own way, would heal.

*********

Alex stared at her reflection in the water and winced at the sight of the bruises on her face yet to fade away. She knew that when they finally healed they would leave no permanent scars or anything to remind her of the unpleasantness she endured at Francis Lamont's hands. Still, it was easy to forget, for the moment at least, that terrible night when she was sitting under a canvas of stars, her bare feet dipped in water to the ankles as she sat at the edge of the creek not far from the main house on Nettie Wells's property.

Vin was sitting behind her, his arms wrapped around her waist as he savoured the scent of her hair in his lungs. The business with Nicholas Serfonteine and the Klan seemed so far away now. Even though things had returned to some semblance of normalcy, Vin wanted to get Alex away from Four Corners for just awhile so they could spend some time together without the town scrutinizing their relationship. He realized of course, part of her reputation being sullied the way it had was partially his fault.

Alex never asked anything of him when it came to their relationship. She accepted his love without requiring any formal declaration or understanding. He felt somewhat ashamed he was sharing such intimacy with her and had never at any point brought up the question of marriage or even his intention in that direction even though they shared each other's bed as lovers.

"You think we ought to tell people we're courting?" Vin asked as he delighted in how soft she felt in his arms, enjoying every curve his hands were allowed to feel.

"Is it important to you that we do?" Alex leaned into him, enjoying how his body felt against hers and feeling a surge of desire as his finger tips danced along her thigh.

"We ought to do something," Vin pointed out. "I mean people know we're together." His lips brushed against the skin of her neck, tasting the flesh and sending tingles through her skin.

"And then some." She teased, brushing her hair back so he could have better access to her neck. 

"And then some," he paused what he was doing long enough to grin. "Maybe we ought to get engaged at least." His fingers slipped to the shirt she was wearing and began tracing lines on the smooth skin behind it.

"Maybe," she sighed breathlessly, reaching into his hand, allowing it slide deeper into her shirt.

"Maybe you better, if you're going to behave like a bunch of love sick teenagers." Nettie Wells's stern voice exclaimed. The widow stood before them both, hands on her hips, with disapproval clearly on her face as she regarded them like two badly behaved children.

Vin and Alex immediately straightened up and returned to more respectable positions side by side, scrambling like children who had been caught with their hands well and truly in the cookie jar. Alex blushed furiously while Vin simply went silent with embarrassment under Nettie's reproachful glare.

The older woman folded her arms and remarked with the barest hint of a smile. "I was just coming to tell you supper is ready and none too soon by the way you two were going at it."

"Thanks Nettie." Vin replied, unable to meet the woman's gaze.

"We'll be there in a moment." Alex responded, feeling very much like a little girl again. Suddenly, she had some idea of what having a mother would be like if the look Nettie was giving them both was any indication. It was easy to forget they were both full grown adults when Nettie was talking to them like this.

"I think you can come with me now Vin Tanner," Nettie ordered. She strode over to the tracker and leaned over before pulling Vin to his feet by his buckskin jacket. "No telling what you'd both get up to alone."

"But ma'am..." Vin started to protest only to have Nettie silence him with a look that would have sent Chris Larabee running for cover. Alex started to giggle as she saw the woman drag her lover unwillingly back towards the house, starting to see the absurdity of it all once her embarrassment wore off.

Somehow as Alex stood up to put her shoes back on, she had the strangest feeling if Nettie had anything to do with it, she and Vin were going to be engaged by the time they got to dessert.

*********

Nathan Jackson scraped off the remaining pieces of paper from the eviction notice he tore up days ago. from the surface of his front door. He forgot all about it until he returned from the saloon a short time ago and noticed the scraps still clinging to the wood with dried glue. The day after the fires, Rosken sought Nathan out in the saloon and apologized profusely for turning him out. The man apparently had no idea the true nature of Nicholas Serfonteine. He appeared somewhat frightened to the core he almost allowed himself to become embroiled in the same kind of hatred.

Rosken confessed he did not know whether his feelings regarding the coloreds would ever change, but he was willing to try and overcome that prejudice if Nathan would accept his offer to remain in the infirmary. The man's attempt at reconciliation seemed genuine and Nathan decided he was not too proud to be so self-righteous.  Not after he killed Nicholas Serfonteine that fateful night. As far as the town was concerned, satisfaction was demanded and granted in the old custom between the two men. Sjch things still had a tradition of acceptance not even the law could penetrate.

"You need hot water." Nathan heard a voice from the foot of the steps leading to his front door.

Nathan looked down and saw Rain smiling at him.

"Rain!" Nathan exclaimed, all thoughts about the door forgotten as he hurried down the steps to greet the young woman who was waiting below. "What are you doing here?" He asked before he wrapped his arms around her in a warm embrace.

"Josiah and Buck rode into the village yesterday and said you might need some cheering up." The young woman replied as she looked in the direction of the saloon.

Nathan followed her gaze and saw the preacher and the big man tipping their hat in his direction. The healer smiled and waved at them as Josiah and Buck disappeared into the establishment. Nathan was not surprised the duo would undertake such a journey to relieve him of his melancholy.

A part of him was still wrestling with his conscience for killing Serfonteine, even though it was something he had wanted to do for a long time. Strange, how a lifetime of wanting the man dead could be so hollow in the final realization of that desire.

"I'm cheered up plenty just seeing you," Nathan smiled as he held her close for a few seconds. After everything that transpired during the past two days, she was the tonic he needed badly. Once again, Nathan thanked Josiah and Buck in silence for bringing her to him. "It's been a hard few days."

"I know," Rain nodded in understanding when Nathan finally parted from her. "Josiah told me."

"I killed him Rain." He swallowed, referring to what he did to Serfonteine.

Try as he might, Nathan knew he would never be comfortable with what he had done in that clearing. Even though at the time, there was no other alternative left to him in light of Serfonteines actions. What the man was doing to his friends and home, needed to stop. Nathan understood it had fallen to him to end the madness threatening to tear Four Corners apart. Nicholas Serfonteine had brought hatred to the town and marked it with a stain that was forever.

"You did what you had to do, Nathan." Rain stated firmly, her faith in him was present in her warm brown eyes. "You always do what you have to because you are a good man. I believe that in my heart and after awhile, perhaps you will too."

Nathan hoped she was right. There would always be a part of him that would wonder if what he did that night was not out of vengeance. When he saw what Serfonteine was willing to do to destroy his home and everyone he cared about, Nathan knew it could not continue. The people in his life meant more to him than anything in the world, even his conscience. Nathan did not know if the trade would be worth the sleepless nights and the endless soul searching but for the moment, he was living the life Rebecca wanted him to have and that was enough.

He had survived.

THE END

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