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FULL DARKNESS CAME

Even the sunset had looked oold, before darkening quickly Unnaturally quickly

And now, co from all around them, she could hear the wolves

Alex paced in the entry hall, waiting for Cody to co so much blood

She sensed so priest froravely

"I believe your friend will be all right"

She flushed "I&039; that all of us will lad, of course-that you and the others were able to survive"

"We had the church, and the church gave us comfort"

"Of course," Alex replied

"A church is not just a building It&039;s consecrated, and we filled it with belief That&039;s e all need if we&039;re to survive, Miss Gordon, belief"

Alex frowned "Belief, yes, butstill, some of the dead must have come after you How did you know-I mean, frankly, not many men would suspect vaentleht at first that he was a madman, but when Timmy told me how his own father tried to rip his throat out, I believed, and quickly The man explained to me that we had to rely on belief, on faith He spoke like a scholar, and he explained to ed him to stay, but after he explained to us how to melt what silver we had and form it into bullets, then dip theain No doubt those monsters killed him And yet none of us would have survived without his help"

She stared at him

The man who had saved Father Joseph and his small flock spoke well, almost like a scholar

A an to hammer

"Father Joseph, you said that you were new to Hollow Tree When did you coo"

"But Alice-she lived in Hollow Tree a long tiht?"

"Yes, why?"

Alex didn&039;t answer She burst through to the kitchen, where the wo the final preparations to serve dinner Alice was shucking peas

"Alice?" Alex said, striding over to her

The older wohtened the pair of spectacles on her nose and looked up expectantly "Yes, Miss Gordon?"

"The ht you to the church-"

"No, nothty nice to have an organ, but out here, we make do"

Alex drew out a chair and sat down next to the older woman "Please, this is important Did you know that man?"

Alice inhaled and stared back at her, then shook her head "No, no, I didn&039;t"

"Are you sure?" Alex pressed

"Yes, I&039;m certain"

Beyond disappointed, Alex stood, thanked the wo to the front hall, where she posted herself at theand stared out into the dark

She wanted Cody and Brendan to cos, a sweet, harmless otten to hiht The only way sootten to him was from

within

It felt as if her blood suddenly froze in her veins

Linda It had to be Linda Her own stepht of the first attack

Who caet back over to the saloon

But when she turned away fro there

"I knohat you were trying to find out, Miss Gordon," he said

"Oh?" she asked carefully

"You don&039;t reht you with him to the bank where I work Worked Your father kept so left if one bank got hit by robbers"

"I&039; where all this was leading "I-"

"Never ht us to the church was your father"

She inhaled sharply, hope filling her "And?"

"I&039;m not sure He had a bandanna over his face, and he wore his hat low And he wasso pale, alhostly, what I could see of him But his voicehis voice reminded me of your father&039;s I didn&039;t really think about it, though, because I thought your father was dead, but thinking backwell, I just don&039;t know It ht have been your father"

Her father! And he had been saving people

Poor Mr Jefferies She was pretty sure he alrasped his head between her hands and planted a kiss right on his lips At the very least, his blush was several shades deeper than sunset

"I really can&039;t say for sure," he told her

"But it&039;s soht not want to mention this to anyone else"

"As you wish," he said

"Tell the others I&039; over to the saloon"

"Oh? Is that wise?"

"The others are still there, and they&039;ll look out for me But if you wouldn&039;t mind"

"Yes?"

"Would you watch me, see that I make it safely? Don&039;t take any chances yourself, but-"

"Miss Gordon, I&039;ll be happy to stand guard for you, and you don&039;t have to be afraid Father Josephwarrior for Christ, and he&039;s trained his small army quite well" With that, Jefferies walked her to the door, opened it and said again, "I&039;ll be watching"

She smiled, then turned and raced across the street He watched her all the way

And they both watched the darkening sky

C ODY STAYED WITH J IGS for a long tione down to join Dave, Cole, Roscoe and the girls

Cody just sat and watched Jigs, and he didn&039;t rise until he heard so as he realized that it was Alex He listened to her clireet her, then paused She wasn&039;t on her way to see him

She stopped at a door down the hall and pounded on it "Linda!"

The door opened Linda stood there, looking worn and disheveled "What?"