Simon had taken over the doctor’s office.

In the past three days, he had set up shop and examined every woman in Tehatchepi. That was quite a bit of women in two days, just over a hundred. Many of them needed pre-natal care, as well as treatment from common ailments, injuries and even basic malnutrition if they had been under the tyranny of a particularly cruel husband. He saw everyone though, and made sure each woman got the care they needed, regardless it exhausted the supplies of their town doctor (that was no matter though, for he was now in a pine box).

The doctor was wrapping up seeing the very last of his patients as Mal and Zoe waved to the final group home they had set up. The dead men had left behind quite a group of houses and cabins, so Zoe had decided that the women left deserved the homes. She and Mal, along with a few men that believed in the cause, cleaned up the dwellings so that any woman that wanted to could live with a group of other women and children, independent from men. While some went back to the tribe, the others gladly accepted the idea, some wives with husbands still alive even leaving them to join their friends in a home where they were free. Since the homes were all squared away, and Simon had said he was only down to two or three more patients, they headed out on the horses to go to Jayne’s property.

Their hooves were swiftly dusting the road in a three beat pace, Amos steady and an easy ride as Zoe had a pleased smile on her face, Xin tossing her head as she wanted to run and Mal was resisting the urge to let her gallop (he liked to race just as much as she did). After a half hour on a trail as looped as the Switchfork river; with mule deer, elk and one very lost buffalo crossing their paths; the oaks, pines and redwoods cleared to the new Cobb farmstead. It was quaint, a modest one story cabin with an outhouse in back, the logs cut and fastened together, chinks of sod in between the gaps as a further insulator. The rock chimney spewed a chuff of grey smoke, the aroma of