She gave him a long look, then nodded slowly.
He waited until he heard Emma rummaging around in the living room, then said to Molly, “I told you that I was relieved that you weren’t the bad guys. We had visitors, two of them.”
Emma said from the doorway, a half-filled pillowcase in her hands, “Are you going to look at your leg, Ramsey?”
He’d forgotten. He should, just to make sure there was no infection. He nodded slowly. “I’ll get the tape,” she called.
“What’s going on?”
“Two guys stumbled out of the forest into the meadow yesterday, firing their rifles, pretending to be drunk. I got Emma inside and came back out with my rifle and handgun. I got hit in the leg, but I managed to hit both of them. One of them twice. They ran off. I have one of their rifles. Maybe the police can run a check on it.
“I don’t know who they were or why they were here. My feeling is that they were after Emma.” Then, Emma was standing there, beside him. He said easily, “Emma, hand me a sterile gauze.” He rose and pulled down his sweatpants. He heard Molly suck in her breath. He said as he sat back down again, “Let me get this tape and gauze up. There, that’s not too bad. It’s supposed to turn black and blue. Okay, Emma, give me the gauze. You know, I think the swelling’s down a bit.”
“I hope so, Ramsey,” Emma said, leaning close. “It doesn’t smell bad, so that’s good.”
Molly said as she watched the two of them work smoothly together, Emma handing him strips of adhesive tape, then helping him pull it tight over the gauze, keeping the flesh together, “How’d you know about that, Em?”
“I know lots of things, Mama. I watched an ancient history show, the one Mr. Spock does, and they talked about how this one phara-”
“Pharaoh?”
“Yeah. He had his leg rot and ooze because someone hit him with a spear, and then he died.”
“You mean gangrene?” Molly asked.
“Yes, that’s it. I don’t see any red, Ramsey.”
“No, I don’t either.”
“Is it still real warm?” She didn’t wait for him to answer, just lightly pressed her palm next to the bandage. “Yes, it is. How much longer will it be warm?”
“I don’t know. Not much longer. I’m a real quick healer.”
“But it is better, isn’t it?”
He heard the crawling fear in her voice, and came up with a big grin. He rubbed his knuckles on her cheek. “I’m nearly ready to go skiing, sweetheart. You want to go to Vail?”
“Mama likes to ski at Vail. I’m just learning.”
“You can be my mascot. I’ll carry you around on my shoulders. When I fall, I’ll toss you in a snowbank and you can be a snow angel.” Still, she looked profoundly worried. She lightly pressed a hand on either side of the bandage.
“It’s okay, Em, I promise. If I wasn’t sure, I’d be in the ER quicker than I could get the Jeep started.” ,
A small calm voice said, “He said there wasn’t a hospital close to here, just a nice big church.”
Molly and Ramsey stared at her, not breathing. The air in the kitchen seemed to dry up.
Ramsey sat forward. He’d wanted desperately to question her about the man who’d kidnapped and abused her, but he hadn’t. He had no experience in this kind of thing. There was no way he’d risk freaking her out. He said calmly, his voice utterly matter-of-fact, “Who said that, Emma? What man?”
She began shaking her head back and forth so violently the braid slapped her cheek. She said over and over, “No one, no one, no one.”
“It’s okay, Em.” Molly went down on her knees and pulled her daughter against her. Emma was leaning heavily against his thigh, pulling her mother with her, but he didn’t feel any pain from the weight. “I love you. It’s okay.”
He met Molly’s eyes over Emma’s head. There was murder in Molly’s eyes. He prayed that if they ever caught the guy they’d have time to get information out of him before Molly managed to sneak in and kill him. On the other hand, maybe he’d kill him himself before Molly could.