My sister isn't a bad girl, she's a little headstrong at times and she can be rather reckless as to her personal safety, but she has a good heart and I have always trusted her. That is, I have always trusted her until now, until she betrayed my trust completely. I knew my Mother was worried about her, she had indicated as much to me but I was fully occupied by events outside the family at that time.

The Railroad had declared war on our peaceful valley again and most people looked to our family and to me in particular to take a stand against the forces threatening to destroy our whole way of life. So the misbehaviour of my little sister didn't seem to me to be a matter of pressing urgency. I feel a certain amount of guilt about that, because my mother specifically asked me to speak to Audra, I'm fifteen years older than she is and as she was only eleven when our father died she has been my special responsibility ever since.

It was a matter of unfortunate timing really, at the precise moment when my mother requested me to speak to my sister about her behaviour, our attention was distracted when a young stranger rode up to our front door. From then on I not only had the coming battle with the Railroad to worry about, I also had to deal with the demands being made on our family by this stranger. A stranger who claimed kinship with us and demanded his rights from us.

This situation left seventeen year old Audra free to absent herself from her home with increasing frequency and as we all now know she met, befriended and became infatuated with Laurence Mills at this time. Again I blame myself, I knew a lot about Mr. Mills but I never mentioned what I knew within my family circle, perhaps if I had, Audra would never have gotten embroiled in his escape from justice.

All she knew about him was what she learned from him and he told her nothing about his past convictions for violence and terrorism, he portrayed himself as a champion of the opressed fruit pickers. He led her to believe that had been hounded by the forces of law and order and that he was being wrongfully blamed for events over which he had no control. In fact of course, Mills was conducting a campaign of intimidation and blackmail against some of the smaller growers in the valley. Oh he disguised it well, he appeared to be standing up for the itinerant fruit pickers, but this was only a facade to hide his real purpose, which was to extort money from the growers.

Mills was a charming, conscienceless villain and it isn't really surprising that he managed to dupe an impressionable young girl, what does surprise me in hindsight is how remiss I was, indeed how remiss my whole family were, in failing to realise what was going on under our very noses. For, in the space of a few short weeks, Mills had gained my sister's entire trust and she was deeply under his influence. Just how deeply we were only to find out when Mills fled from Stockton, one step ahead of the Sheriff, whose sterling work had uncovered his extortion activities.

I now know that he hid himself on Barkley land with Audra's assistance and that she supplied him with food money and a fresh horse. I make no excuses for her actions, she knows that there can be no excuses for breaking the law, but I think I understand how her belief in Mills led her to accept his version of events. He told Audra that he was being falsely accused and couldn't possibly receive a fair trial in Stockton. He persuaded her to throw the posse off his trail and she did so, and did it well.

Sherrif Madden came out to the ranch and Audra told him she had seen the fugitive and which way he was headed. The posse took off after him, my brothers Nick and Eugene were a part of it.After a time the pursuers knew that they should have caught up with Mills and when they saw no sign, the Sherrif returned with part of the posse to re-check Audra's information. She was adamant that she had been correct in the details she had given and I urged her to be absolutely sure. I will never forget what she did then, for she turned to me and gave me her word that she was telling the truth.

Audra has always looked up to me and I had never known her to lie to me so I accepted her word without hesitation. All to soon however I was to discover that my sister had betrayed my trust in her. It was Heath, the newest member of our family who called her evidence into question, he has expert tracking skills and he seems to know our Audra better than you might expect considering how short a time he has been a member of the family. He challenged her tale and in front of our mother and the sheriff the girl I would have entrusted with my life faced me and admitted that she had helped her hero, Laurence Mills escape.

I couldn't move or speak for a moment, I think I was simply stunned, I just stared at Audra as she defiantly faced me, faced us all and defended the man she wholeheartedly believed in.

I know I took a hasty step towards her, I think I may even have intended to strike her but my new brother Heath laid a gentle hand on my arm and quietly said my name. Our other brothers were there too, Gene was looking at Audra as if she were a stranger and my poor Mother was shocked and I think she nearly fainted. Nick stepped to her at once, lending her his solid strength but even so she was still terribly distressed.

I spoke to my sister in a voice of cold rage and I told her everything I knew about Laurence Mills, all the sordid details of his past crimes and I watched as realisation of what she had done dawned in my Audra's blue eyes. I was ruthless, I didn't spare her at all, I spelled out every rotten thing Mills had ever perpetrated, she wouldn't believe it at first but she knew eventually that I was telling her the truth and all the defiance and fight drained out of her. She knew at last what she had done and I saw now only fear and dread in her face.

I was too angry and bitter though to comfort her, I felt desperately hurt and yes, betrayed is not too powerful a word. My Mother had more pity, she was angry with my sister too but quick to see that stricken and scared look in Audra's eyes. She told her not to worry when the Sheriff warned Audra that he would have to arrest her. I heard my mother tell my sister that I would defend her and I heard my own voice say, will I?

My poor mother was devastated and Audra looked at me with a piteously frightened expression on her face. There was uproar in the room, my youngest brother angrily demanding that I defend our sister and my brother Nick sternly telling the girl herself that it would serve her right if I did abandon her. Again it was the newest member of the family that spoke my name, very gently and with an understanding sympathy in his gaze. I looked at Heath and he glanced over to my mother, standing stricken in the middle of the room, her face agonised, torn between fear for her only daughter and distress for my hurt. I smiled at Heath to tell him I understood and I moved to Mother's side whispering that I was sorry to have upset her so much, of course I would do what I could for my sister. Then I quietly excused myself and left them all, to Audra I said nothing else, I couldn't even look at her, so angry and wounded did I feel.

The Sheriff didn't lock Audra up, he left her in my custody as her attorney but I was still too angry to go near her, I ordered her to stay in her room but late that night, she came downstairs to the living room fire. I was just coming out of the library and I saw her go to Nick, her childhood hero for comfort. She didn't get it, I believe he was almost as mad at her as me and he sent her away. She didn't argue or plead, but she looked so sad as she went slowly up the stairs again that I began to soften towards her.

My brothers and I had agreed to set out after Mills at first light but I couldn't rest, pacing the floor I felt a heavy sense of responsibility for his escape. If I had been more in tune with Audra lately I would have been able to tell when she lied to me and Mills might never have been able to get her to help him. I then made a singularly foolish decision, I decided that I was going after Mills alone and I would salvage my honour by arresting him single-handed.

I rode quietly out on my horse Jingo while the household was still abed and more by luck than judgement I caught up with Mills. He was laying low, much nearer to the ranch than I had expected to find him and instead of me taking him by surprise, I let him get the drop on me! He was jubilant, telling me I could be his ticket out of the valley, although he informed me that I wouldn't live long after that!

Then I saw her, my madcap sister, she had trailed me from home and done it so well that I never heard her. She was behind him and I kept talking to him, trying to prevent him from detecting Audra's presence. She made a tiny stumble and he wheeled around to face her. He was unafraid even though she had her pistol resolutely aimed at him. He didn't believe her capable of shooting him and he said so. I started toward him and he swung his gun in my direction again, cursing me and surely about to gun me down. Audra's gun barked and he fell dead at my feet.

She didn't move a muscle, her face was rigid with shock and retrospective terror and I did something I had never done with her in all her life before, I lost my temper! I remember shaking her, I shook her until the teeth rattled in her head, I'm sure I bruised her arms I held her so hard. I called her a reckless little fool, I said she could have been caught or killed, then I looked deep into her tear-filled blue eyes and asked her if she had any idea how very precious to me she was.

She cried in my arms and begged me to forgive her, swore to me that she would never lie to me again and I held her close and assured her that she still had her brother's love and trust. We rode home together in peaceful companionship and that is about all I have to say Judge, sorry it took so long but you did say you wanted me to tell you every last detail not just the raw facts.

The judge turned to Audra then, I don't think her eyes had left my face all the way through my account. He told her that she should think herself lucky he was prepared to accept my plea in her defence and that he thought no useful purpose would be served by prosecuting her. Poor little one! She was so relieved she fainted and I had to carry her over to my office. She's asleep on the settee now and when she wakes up I'll take my Audra home, I still trust my little sister, I know she'll never lie to me again and after all, she did save my life!