Uncovering the Truth of Love (Preview)

Prologue

June, 1887

Belle 

Ash Hills had been aptly named, the failed tree plantation that had been wiped out by fire like a precursor to all the hot, dry summers that followed it. It’d been years since any ash had actually fallen from the sky, but it still filled the soil, and on the hottest days it almost felt like those flames that had swallowed the plantation were licking at its resident’s heels all over again. 

The sun was an orange ball of fire setting to the west and casting the surrounding landscape in a myriad of reds, yellows, and oranges. The locals called it the golden hour, but Belle Coltrane didn’t think there was much golden about it… not unless you were thinking about molten gold. 

Perspiration dotted her hairline, her golden curls swept into a messy updo on the top of her head as she folded sheets and towels with all the practice of a long-suffering washerwoman. 

Beside her, Lisa did the same, though admittedly with much more enthusiasm than Belle was displaying. 

“I can’t wait to get home,” Lisa complained, drawing out every syllable to make the sentence stretch dramatically. “I’m going to take the longest, slowest bath in the history of baths. I’m going to drink a big cup of tea. And then? Then I’m going to read until I fall asleep and not wake up until my body decides it is full and ready to do so.”

Belle’s lips twitched, her green eyes lifting to look amusedly at her younger best friend. Her endless optimism and boundless energy were a source of mystery to Belle. “You are not,” she teased, shaking the sheet out that she was folding and lining the corners up in her fingers. “You’re going to go home and get distracted by a million other things.” 

Lisa giggled, her shoulders lifting and lowering playfully. “That’s if I make it home.” 

Once upon a time, Belle might have rolled her eyes. It was the appropriate response to such a jest, but her lips pulled and she flinched before she could help herself. 

“Oh, Belle,” Lisa apologized immediately, her giggles dying out and her blue eyes darkening in grief. 

“It’s fine,” Belle lied brusquely, shaking out another sheet and looking away from Lisa to try and regain her composure. 

It wasn’t fine. 

She’d kept herself busy all day, tired down to her bones until she was sure even the marrow was marked with exhaustion. She couldn’t remember the last time she had slept more than a four-hour stretch, and she wished that was the greatest of her worries. 

“You don’t have to keep it to yourself, you know,” Lisa said gently. The concern in her tone was clear, but she was treading lightly, and Belle appreciated that. 

Lisa was one of the few people she knew who had a full appreciation of how sticky the situation was. 

For several long moments, the two girls worked in silence. The rustle of their nurse and student nurse uniforms was all that could be heard over the folding and shaking out of sheets. 

Belle wanted nothing more than to sit down and cry, the weight of all she had been carrying weighing on her more heavily since it had been pointed out. She’d never found the responsibilities as a nurse tiring, not in the way that they had been as of late. It’d been constant, it had been exacting, but she’d always enjoyed that aspect. 

“I’m scared,” Belle finally confessed as she put another sheet on top of the folded pile and stopped to survey how much work they had left to finish before the night shift took over. 

“Of course you are,” Lisa murmured. She eyed Belle carefully, clearly trying to keep from saying too much to send Belle back into her self-imposed silent strength. 

“I can’t afford to falter because of it,” Belle answered resolutely. Her words were firm, but her insides felt shaky. 

She saw first-hand every day what the result of faltering was. 

The image of her father sitting in the window when she’d left him that morning, his eyes watery and empty as he stared out of it ingrained into the backs of her eyes. 

“You won’t,” Lisa reassured her confidently. 

Belle wished that she could be so confident in the matter. 

“No one would have ever thought Daddy would either,” Belle whispered. Her teeth clenched together hard after she said the words aloud, a strange conglomeration of fear and guilt filling her belly as they passed in the air between her and Lisa. 

Her father had been a pillar of strength throughout Belle’s childhood years. He was straight-backed and straight-laced, his wit as sharp as his tongue could be but, in the years since Belle’s mother had died, he had become rigid. 

And that rigidity had driven Jesse from home. 

Just thinking his name made Belle’s heart sink into her belly, her chest suddenly just that much tighter than it had been in the moments before. 

“He’s just taking it hard is all,” Lisa offered optimistically, her voice chipper and upbeat in a way that Belle could never force hers to be. 

Belle paused then, looking at her friend with an appreciative half-smile. It never ceased to amaze her the way that Lisa looked at things. At nineteen years old, she had already mastered the art of looking on the brighter side of things, something that Belle still struggled with even at twenty-five. 

But, then again, Lisa had always been that way. 

“It’s been two years,” Belle said sadly. As much as she wanted to believe what Lisa suggested, the fact of the matter was that if that was the case, he would have already started to recover. 

As it was, her father seemed to get worse with each passing year instead of better. 

Belle was forced to take care of the house, do her job as a nurse, and many of her father’s duties as the doctor that ran the hospital as well. And he hadn’t even realized she had taken on so much. He was so clouded by his grief and guilt still. 

Belle felt an inkling of regret at speaking so plainly as Lisa grimaced and turned away from her, making herself busy to hide her emotions. 

Sometimes Belle forgot that Lisa had been sweet on Jesse. 

“I’m worried about me and Daddy,” she told Lisa softly. “And Jesse too, of course. But… I don’t share Daddy’s beliefs,” she murmured, frowning at just the thought. 

Lisa made a strangled noise, nodding, and Belle could see the effort she was making to get back to her usual bubbly, cheerful self. 

“You’re taking on a lot,” Lisa said after a handful of seconds, taking a big breath and letting it out slowly as she gave Belle a small smile. “I worry about you too, you know.” 

Belle did know. Their family had a good many friends who had stepped up to help out over the last two years since Jesse had gone missing, but Lisa was the one who had stepped up the most. She had taken on any number of extra responsibilities as student nurse to help Belle out, not to mention all the emotional support she’d provided… 

“I just can’t afford to let it overwhelm me,” Belle admitted. “There’s no one else to take it all on if I fail and it isn’t just our home that would be affected.” 

It would be the whole hospital, the patients, and the staff. 

“You won’t,” Lisa assured her. “Your father will bounce back too, just you wait and see.” 

Belle didn’t share that optimism. 

“For Daddy to bounce back, Jesse would have to come back.” Belle sighed. 

She grabbed the last stack of sheets, putting it into the trolley to go and distribute them before she left for the night with a frown. 

It took her a couple of minutes to realize that Lisa was staring at her, her eyes watery with the tears she was refusing to shed. 

“Oh, Lisa,” she exclaimed apologetically. “I put my foot in my mouth. I didn’t mean it like that at all! I said I didn’t share Daddy’s beliefs about that.” 

She crossed the space quickly, pulling the shorter, slighter girl into her arms and hugging her fiercely. 

“I still hold out hope that Jesse is alive and will make his way back to us,” Belle whispered determinedly. As if she said it with enough conviction it would make it reality. She had to believe that. 

She didn’t know what would come of her if she accepted any other train of thought. 

“I know he’s your brother.” Lisa laughed, the sound broken and choked up. “I know he didn’t know me as anything other than the girl who sometimes helped him with his reading in school…”

“That’s not true!” Belle argued, stepping back and taking Lisa by the shoulders with a frown. “He thought highly of you, Lisa.” 

“As a friend.” Lisa smiled, waving Belle’s concern away as she shook off her melancholy once more with an ease that Belle envied. “I know he cared for me, and I for him, but it was different, you know?” 

Belle did, but only in the abstract. 

She’d never fancied anyone the way that Lisa had fancied Jesse. 

“Jesse was so concerned with avoiding Daddy dragging him into the medical field and getting out of Ash Hills, I don’t think he would have noticed a romantic interest from his elbow.” Belle chuckled. 

Lisa smiled, shaking her head as she tried suppressing laughter. “That’s true,” she acknowledged with her tongue in her cheek. 

The two of them fell into a comfortable silence as they finished getting the medical carts ready and lining them up along the wall. 

Belle could see the exhaustion weighing on her friend. Lisa’s small shoulders rounding in as she tried to keep up with everything Belle was getting done. 

“Why don’t you go ahead and head home?” Belle suggested as they finished up, stepping back and running her hands down the front of the apron tied around her waist briskly. 

“I don’t want you to leave anything to do by yourself,” Lisa argued weakly. 

“You aren’t!” Belle lied. “I’m just going to fetch a few things from Daddy’s office.” 

Lisa looked relieved, her blue eyes flashing as she reached around to untie her apron. “Oh, whew.” She laughed. “I’m not going to lie, Belle, I really am looking forward to that bath…” 

Belle grinned, shaking her head knowingly. “You go ahead and do that. And if you run into the night nurse, tell her that Mr. Humphrey in the burn ward is going to need one less bandage change tonight.” 

“Oh, I will,” Lisa said happily. “Sarah’ll be coming through as I go out, no doubt. You know she doesn’t ever make it anywhere on time.” 

Belle did. It was why she had said it, but she nodded all the same. 

Lisa leaned forward, kissing Belle’s cheek before she darted excitedly off, humming under her breath the whole way. 

Belle watched her until she was out of sight, only feeling marginally guilty about her misleading explanation of getting Lisa out of the hospital. 

She didn’t have anything left to get accomplished for her duties as a nurse. That hadn’t been a lie. But she knew as well as anything that her daddy wouldn’t be making it to the hospital again that night. And she knew there were a handful of responsibilities that he needed to get done. 

But his absence, in all of the ways that he currently was absent, left it up to her. 

She’d just have to get it done quickly so that she could make it home in time to get dinner on the table for her father and get what needed doing at the house done before she needed to come back up to check on a handful of patients she was worried about making it through to morning. 

And hope that she could make it through the morning too…

Chapter One

June. 1887

Belle

The clock’s hands moved with indeterminable slowness, only the second hand seeming to move at all. Each tick resonated through the quiet halls, only the occasional rustle of papers or fabric to break it up. 

Shift change combined with Dr. Coltrane actually being on the ward made for a silent mid-morning, the nurses all moving with as much quiet efficiency as they could muster, and the patients all nodded off after their noon-time tea and biscuits. 

Belle sat with her father at the front desk of the hospital, her back to the patient wards as she sorted through the mail and forms he tossed from his pile for her to deal with. He was stiff-backed and weary-looking, the bags under his eyes lending proof to how little sleep he’d actually gotten the night before and the grim set to his mouth showed his mood. 

Belle was of half a mind that he was why it was as quiet as it was in the hospital. It was like his never-ending mourning carried with it a cloak that enveloped everyone within a certain radius, darkening the air and making gloomy any souls that it came into contact with.

Even Mrs. Evans was unusually silent in her room, not even the click-clacking of her knitting needles going. 

“Wallace!” 

The hollering of her father’s name was all the more noticeable for how quiet the hospital had been before. Belle jumping with a start at the sound. 

“WALLACE!” 

Belle’s father jumped on the second one, his heavy brow furrowing and his watery eyes snapping to the front doors only a second before they were thrown open. 

Deputy Marsters was barely recognizable from the back, which was how he had entered the building, only his telltale holy cowboy hat giving away that it was him. It wasn’t him who had been shouting, though. 

Sheriff Andy came in only seconds behind Deputy Marsters, facing forward but making it evident why his deputy hadn’t been. The two men carried something between them, their bodies bent with the effort it took to keep it straight. 

Belle was on her feet faster than the hollering had started, rushing forward as carefully as she could to keep out of the way of the two men. 

“This is a place of healing,” Belle’s father said sternly, narrowing his eyes at his brother’s rowdiness. 

“And that’s why we’re here,” Sheriff Andy answered grimly. 

His face wasn’t nearly as weathered as his brothers, though it was a good deal darker from sun exposure. His green eyes were darker too, with more laugh lines and fewer grief-ridden wrinkles. As he looked at his brother, though, it was set in a serious, foreboding type of expression. 

Belle only just held back a gasp as she recognized Deputy Porter, her hand going to her heart. The young man was balanced between his two colleagues, his eyes half-closed and a look of extreme discomfort pulling at his features.

Dr. Coltrane seemed to notice the patient at the same time that Belle did, his large frame finally lifting to its feet as his frown deepened. “You after that McCallum Gang again, Andy?” he asked sharply, disapproval clear in his words. “How many more young men do you have to get shot before you learn to leave well enough alone?” 

Sheriff Andy’s eyes narrowed further, his lips setting in a thinner line as he inhaled sharply. “I’ve got a deputy that needs medical attention, Wallace. And yeah, I was after that McCallum Gang again. That’s my darned job.”

“Sheriff, he’s gettin’ awful heavy,” Deputy Marsters interrupted apologetically, looking back and forth between the quarreling brothers hesitantly. 

“Bring him on over here,” Belle’s father groused, waving for the two men to follow him. “I’ll see to him and-” 

“One of your nurses can handle Deputy Porter here,” Sheriff Andy interrupted quickly, helping Deputy Marsters take the other man completely on his own. “It’s just a shot to the back of his leg. Looks like it went clean through, too.” 

Dr. Coltrane frowned, his eyes flashing as he waved Lisa off to go with the other two men almost as soon as she had appeared in the doorway. 

“If it’s such an easy injury, what was with all the ruckus you brought him in here with?” Belle’s father demanded curtly. 

“I got a prisoner back at the station who needs medical attention,” Sheriff Andy answered deadpan. “I took one of the McCallum Gang prisoner. There was a hit on a nearby wagon train we were tipped off on. We arrived just in time for a gunfight to break out. One of the bandits got Deputy Porter in the back of the leg… but we got one of theirs in the struggle. He’s just been badly hit.” 

“You want me to go down to the jail with you to treat someone?” Dr. Coltrane asked, bewildered. 

“We don’t have time for all this back and forth, Wallace. I need the boy alive. He’s the biggest lead we’ve got on that McCallum gang in years. I can’t just let him die.” Sheriff Andy looked at Belle beseechingly, taking a step back as if in the hopes that his brother would follow. 

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have shot him,” Belle’s father said dryly. 

Sheriff Andy frowned, but Belle was at her father’s elbow before their argument could become any more heated. 

“Daddy,” Belle said softly, “it’s a quiet afternoon anyhow. You and I could go with Uncle Andy and see what we can do. If it’s nothing…” 

Dr. Coltrane sighed, rummaging around under the desk he had been sitting at in order to pull a large, black medical bag out from underneath it. “Lead the way then, Andy.” 

“We gotta hurry,” Andy muttered, holding the door open for Belle and her father both to pass him out of the hospital. 

Dr. Coltrane snorted, but Belle quickened her step, lifting a hand to shade her eyes against the too-bright sun and the way that it glared down from above. 

“How bad is this outlaw you’ve taken prisoner wounded?” Belle’s father asked briskly as they hurried down Main Street. “Did you even bother to check or-” 

“Save the outrage for someone who wants to hear it, Wallace,” Sheriff Andy bit out sharply. “I don’t know what I’m looking for past stitching up the simple stuff, you know that. That’s why I came and got you.”

“You should have brought the prisoner to me too, then,” Dr. Coltrane muttered. 

“Didn’t know if he’d make it laid out over the horse like we had him, to be honest.” Sheriff Andy’s shoulders slumped as he pulled the door to the station open, ushering Belle and her father in. 

There was no mistaking who they were supposed to be attending to. 

They hadn’t even managed to get the bandit into the jail cell. His bloodied body laid out on a cot just outside of it where the light from the window best hit. 

Belle was the first to his side, assessing his wounds as her father began unloading his bag onto a sterile cloth beside them. It was hard to think about who the injuries belonged to, with how nasty they were. 

Blood stained his clothes from the base of his shoulders down to his knees, and only the very slight rise and fall of his back identified him as still alive at all. 

“Cut his shirt off,” Belle’s father commanded, his voice stern and no-nonsense. The watery set to his eyes had hardened, his gaze analytical as he looked over their patient. 

“You shot this boy in the back?” Dr. Coltrane asked Sheriff Andy in a lowered, tense voice. “At least tell me he tried running…” 

Belle could hear the outrage beneath his calm words. The two shots had obviously been made while the man had had his back turned, one just beneath his shoulder blade and one just over his knee.

“Like I was going to tell you back there, I didn’t shoot him,” Sheriff Andy answered gruffly. “Strange bit is; none of my deputies did either. Best we could reckon, it looks like he was shot by a fellow gang member. Mistake or heat of the moment, darned if I know.” 

Belle listened with half an ear while she used a pair of surgical scissors to rip the fabric off of the man’s back, her jaw clenching at the bloodied sight beneath. 

It was a jagged wound- and not one that looked like it had a clean exit wound either. Belle had to swallow thickly as she moved to cut off the man’s pants just above his knee as well, going up and further up until the wound on his knee was visible too. 

Belle didn’t see how the man’s injuries could be a mistake. 

One of them… maybe. But two? 

That was a big mistake, even for a bandit. 

“That one’s a clean wound,” Belle’s father murmured, handing Belle a disinfectant and some salve. “Clean it, pack it, and wrap it.” 

“The one beneath his shoulder isn’t?” Belle asked in a low voice, glancing at her worried uncle as she rushed to do what her father had asked. 

“There’s some shrapnel,” Dr. Coltrane answered with a grunt, already working at the wound with his tools, half his body bent in a way that Belle couldn’t watch him do so. 

“You think the boy is going to make it?” Sheriff Andy asked distractedly from where he stood a few feet off. 

He stood out of the way because of his queasiness with medical procedures. For a man who dealt with blood and flying bullets on the regular, he’d always gotten a bit squeamish when it came to the hospital. 

“Hard to tell… I can get the bleeding under control on him, maybe stabilize him, but…” Dr. Coltrane huffed, standing straight with a set of pliers in his hand, shrapnel held in the nose of them as he reached for the bandaging instead. 

“But? I know it’s a life, Wallace, you don’t need to go lecturing me none… but I need this boy to make it…” 

Dr. Coltrane made a face, his eyes tight as he gave his brother a curt nod. “I know. You need him. For that McCallum nonsense, you don’t need to remind me.” He sighed raggedly, looking at Belle. 

She knew why he was hesitating so much. 

A jail cell was no place for the bandit on that cot. He needed full-time care… the kind he could only receive in the hospital. 

“We can make it work, Daddy,” Belle said softly, reaching out to touch his wrist.

Dr. Coltrane flinched, pulling his arm back like he had all too often in the last two years as he looked to his brother instead, his nostrils flaring slightly. “I can’t care for the boy here.” 

“What are you saying?” Sheriff Andy asked slowly. 

“I’m saying the boy’s best chance is in the hospital… but I don’t know how I feel about having a criminal there with all our other patients.” Dr. Coltrane scrubbed his hand down the front of his face, looking at Belle again before closing his eyes. 

Belle tried to recapture his gaze, to get him to see reason. 

“You’d tell me it was still a life, Wallace,” Sheriff Andy said placidly. “And that life? That young man there? He’s my only chance of finding where that McCallum Gang might be. You know what a danger they are. You know how getting Mac and his boys out of Badlands would help us all. They’re a danger to this town and to all the people outside of it, too.”

“And to anyone who might be trying to make it back home,” Belle added softly, watching her father’s back straighten at the words. 

He didn’t look at her as he nodded curtly, his eyes hard as he stared at his brother. “You’ll have to make sure there’s a way to have him there safely. We can put him at the far end of the ward. Curtain him off… just until he’s healed.” 

Sheriff Andy looked relieved, scratching the back of his neck and staring at the bandit still in his bloody, torn rags on the bed. 

“We can do that.” 

Belle, looking at all three of them, wondered at what cost.

Chapter Two

June. 1887

Belle

Belle couldn’t remember the last time her father had actually stayed at the hospital after his shift or made night shifts in order to check on any of his patients. She’d grown so used to taking care of it for him and filling in where he had begun slipping that she hadn’t even thought to check his room before slipping out of the house that night. 

It came as a surprise to her. Then when she had wandered bleary-eyed onto the ward to find him sitting in a chair next to their bandit patient, his eyes hard and his expression torn. 

He’d sent her home then, muttering something about criminals and safety. 

It made the next morning, the light so bright that it felt like it was burning Belle’s eyes all the harder. 

She was late. 

Belle couldn’t remember a single day since having started work at the hospital that she’d been late. Early? More times than she could count. But late? Even wracking her brain, she couldn’t come up with one instance where she had been. 

She felt dead on her feet as she went through the motions of the start of the shift, going over the mental checklist and completing it item by item until Lisa appeared bright and chipper by her side. 

“You’re late,” Lisa faux-whispered as she fell into step beside Belle, helping unload a cart of medical supplies into the cabinet Belle had stopped in front of with barely a pause. 

“I know,” Belle groaned. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. I reckon I just didn’t sleep very well last night.” Her voice was thickly laden with an apology, her green eyes darting to Lisa with a frown.

But Lisa’s grin only grew. “Oh, no, don’t apologize to me. I’m glad you were running late this morning. It gave me plenty of time to see to our new handsome patient.” She giggled, glancing at the far end of the ward and the curtain that had been pulled around one bed in particular. 

Belle’s heart sank in her chest as she realized who Lisa was referring to.

Her green eyes flashed as she looked around to make sure that no one else was listening, shushing Lisa as she tried to continue. “Don’t say that,” she warned, her voice low. “And be careful when you’re around him.” 

Lisa’s eyes widened, confusion replacing the girlish delight the ‘handsome new patient’ had inspired. “You don’t think he’s attractive? I just can’t believe that, Belle. Why, he’s the most handsome man I’ve ever laid eyes on, and that’s saying something. I mean, he’s kinda all laid out like he is, so you can’t really see how tall he is, but I bet you anything he’s heads and shoulders above us. And did you see that scar by his eye? I bet.” 

“That he got it doing something horrible.” Belle cut her off stoically. “He could be the most handsome man in the world and he still wouldn’t catch my eye. That man is a bandit and part of McCallum’s Gang at that. All of those attributes you were going to list go right out of the window in light of him being a criminal and a killer, Lisa.” 

Lisa faltered, almost dropping the box of syringes she’d been putting up. They went hand over hand until she caught them again. Her lips parted in a soft ‘o’ and her eyebrows lifted near to her hairline as she stared in shock at Belle. 

“He’s a–- what now?” Lisa finally whispered frantically, her throat bobbing. 

“Uncle Andy brought him in yesterday,” Belle whispered. She looked about the two of them again, verifying they were alone and out of earshot of anyone else before continuing. “He got injured in that shootout that they brought Deputy Porter in from.” 

Lisa looked torn between frightened and awed as they worked their way down the ward towards the curtained-off patient, restocking as they went. 

For several beats the two women worked in silence, only the sound of scraping metal and rustling fabric passing between them. 

“He looks a little young to be much of a violent criminal…” Lisa finally murmured speculatively. 

Belle flinched. 

She’d had the same thought already, but she knew that looks could be deceiving. 

And she knew she tended to err on the side of wanting to believe the best in people, too. 

Something she couldn’t really afford to let herself do with the patient in question. It was reckless, and she knew if she went too far down that path that it could be dangerous, too. Both things she couldn’t afford to be with how heavy the responsibility on her shoulders was. 

She was all her father had left, and the only one capable of running things for him the way she had been. 

“Maybe he’s just got some tragic backstory,” Lisa continued, her voice pitched romantically as they carefully opened the curtain and moved to restock the items at his bedside. 

Belle snorted, but she had to admit that Lisa was right. He really was an attractive-looking man. Unconscious on the bed there like he was, he looked like he could be anyone. His dark curly hair pushed back on his head, and the cuts and scrapes that had seemed so deep the night before were much smaller now that they’d been cleaned. 

He had strong, high cheekbones and a strong jaw, his features ruggedly handsome. His nose was big, but in a good way, and Lisa was right… his scars made him stand out in a darkly dangerous way that did the exact opposite of detracting from his appeal. 

His eyebrows were as black as his curls and heavy, but well-shaped and sloped in his faux-relaxed state. Another small scar sat to the right corner of his full, straight lips. Belle didn’t know what color his eyes were, but she didn’t imagine that any color would detract from any of it. Especially not with as full and thick as his eyelashes were.
“See?” Lisa hissed, catching sight of Belle staring at the man. “He’s just so pretty.” 

Belle wasn’t sure ‘pretty’ was the right word. 

She jumped at being caught, frowning as she busied herself with replacing gauze and salve. “He’ll ruin it as soon as he wakes up, Lisa,” she said briskly instead. “You know, attitude shapes everything.”

“Maybe,” Lisa hummed, sounding unconvinced. “My mama met an outlaw once. She said his name was Crooked Carl and that he was wanted seven counties wide. He had a reputation for cruelty and all manner of unsavory things, but he came upon my ma and pa with a busted wagon wheel and he stopped to help them fix it. She said he rode with them for several days after, too, helping out and camping with them at night. She called him the nicest man she ever did meet and said his story was one of the saddest she ever heard. A sheriff had killed his wife and daughter on account of wanting them for himself and he spent ten years after that getting even and making himself an outlaw…” 

Belle frowned, her eyes drifting curiously to the unconscious man at their side subconsciously. 

“Two wrongs don’t make a right…” she murmured distractedly, unsure how to answer such a story. “How’d your mama find out about him being an outlaw?” 

“She didn’t.” Lisa shrugged. “Not right at first, anyhow. They parted ways before she and my pa got to town, and they didn’t know til they saw his face on a wanted poster. She said to this day she wishes she could have never found out. It made his getting caught a month after that real hard on her and my pa.” 

Lisa grimaced and Belle felt herself do so as well. 

She remembered Crooked Carl, at least vaguely. 

It had been three towns over, but her father and her uncle had gone to help with crowd control at his hanging. It had been really controversial even back then. That had been before her mama had died, though, and she hadn’t liked such talk around Belle and Jesse. 

“He looks a little young to be on some revenge-torn life of crime anyhow,” Belle finally sighed, straightening from her work to flick a golden curl back from her face. 

“Well, no. But I wonder what his backstory is.” Lisa paused as well. She eyed the unconscious man with her head half-tilted, her blue eyes roving his features speculatively. 

“Maybe he just fell in with the wrong crowd,” Belle offered generously, her stomach twisting at the thought. There were tales of such things happening to young men in the Badlands. Without a family, and trying to make their own way, men could be talked into desperate things. 

“Maybe he was just an adventurer,” Lisa agreed, seeming heartened by the thought. “He just fell in with the McCallum Gang on account of not knowing what they were at first. What do you reckon he did first, before falling in with them?” 

Belle’s lips twitched at how eagerly her friend was to cling to the story they were creating. “What do you mean?” 

“On his adventures,” Lisa exclaimed. “Do you think he was a cowboy looking for treasure?” 

Belle felt the story sour in her mouth, her throat tight at the talk of adventures the way Lisa was describing them. 

That’s what Jesse had left for two years before. Adventure and excitement, he’d proclaimed, shouting at their father as he hurriedly packed his things. 

Was that something all young men craved? 

“Girls,” Dr. Coltrane intoned from the doorway as he entered the ward, saving Belle from having to answer her friend’s query. 

His tone was brisk, his eyes flickering between the two of them and their proximity to the patient with a growing frown. 

“The two of you ought to be more careful,” he warned, coming up alongside the sleeping patient and checking his temperature with a wary eye. “His fever is starting to trend down… he should be well on the way to regaining consciousness soon.” 

“How soon?” Lisa asked with excitement that wasn’t missed. 

Belle’s father’s frown deepened, his eyes sweeping over both girls in warning. 

“Can’t say for certain. Could be tonight, could be another few days… As he starts regaining strength, though he’ll need to be restrained. I hope both of you girls know that. We’ll have to make sure that he doesn’t go getting out. Not out of this ward, not out of this bed.” 

Lisa looked thoroughly chastened as she lowered her face, but Belle met her father’s eyes head-on, nodding in agreement. 

“Yes sir. I heard you and Uncle Andy discussing that before. Are we just waiting til he wakes up or…?” 

“We are,” Dr. Coltrane muttered. “We can’t risk his trying to escape… or worse…” 

“What’s worse than his escaping?” Lisa asked curiously. 

Belle winced, but Dr. Coltrane only lowered the stethoscope he’d been going to put on the patient. 

“Him becoming violent. Him hurting one of you girls or the other patients. We don’t know what kind of man he is or what crimes he’s comfortable committing. We don’t even know the poor sod’s name yet. I know it’s easy to think of him as unthreatening there on that bed with the wounds that he has- but we don’t know how used to this kind of situation he is. You see those scars on him? A man doesn’t come by those scars by good, honest labor.” 

Belle felt a twinge of guilt for having found his scars any sort of attractive when her father put it in that light. 

She could see Lisa dropping her head again, clearly of a similar mind. 

Not for the first time, Belle wondered just how big of a mistake urging her father to allow the man to come to the hospital might have been. She just had to pray it hadn’t been one, and remember to keep her wits about her and not get caught up in Lisa’s romanticism.

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In the dusty town of Willow Creek, life is hard for everyone but young nurse, Caroline, is known for her unwavering dedication to helping those in need. Although she doesn’t doubt her duty when called to tend to a wounded prisoner, she feels conflicted upon seeing the handsome man she’s responsible for. Despite her reservations, Caroline can’t deny the chemistry between them…

How can she feel drawn to a man who is possibly a criminal?

As Caleb finds himself bound to a kind nurse’s care and tenderness, he needs to get even more tight-lipped about why he was shot in the back by his own gang, in order to protect her. When he is presented with the choice to turn on his own gang and risk his life to help the Sheriff, he realizes that every decision comes with a cost…

What sacrifices is Caleb willing to make in order to build a different, happier future?

With the fate of their relationship hanging in the balance, they both find shelter, from the threats surrounding them, in their newfound love. Will their feelings be strong enough to overcome the obstacles in their path, or will their faith be tested to the breaking point?

“Uncovering the Truth of Love” is a historical western romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

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