"Aye. Thomas felt her stomach, but he dared not touch her ribs. She is able to stand, but we do not know the extent of her injuries. She is very brave. She only shed one tear, though Lord knows she must hurt everywhere. And her face, Kevin, they hit her in the face."

"Is she bleeding?"

"There was blood on the ground near her horse. It comes from her mouth. Her back bled but it stopped before I left. We should have taken a woman with us. We can not tell if she has been . . ."

"Have they stopped?"

"No, they will continue unless Thomas thinks she can no longer endure it."

"How far away are they?"

Clymer looked up to see where the sun was in the sky. "They are probably going slow, half a day, maybe more. She needs Katie's medicine for the rope burns, and . . ."

"Rope burns?" It was Kevin's sister Katie who asked the question. She looked a lot like him with the same color of hair and eyes. Katie was standing in the doorway behind her brother.

"Aye, they bound her in three places. They left her across the back of a horse face down. Whoever did it expected her to be dead by the time we got there. The ropes broke the skin on her back, but we could see no blood on the back of her skirt where her legs were bound."