Summary

Chapter 17 (Soiled Doves). Joe Bonecrusher’s caravan settles into a small town for the winter. Eliza, as Elias, gets to know the girls who work for Joe. They all went into the profession for different reasons, but all believe they are better off than they were before they found this new family. In addition to their usual services, it turns out the members of the caravan are excellent nurses. When dysentery runs rampant through the community, they are the only ones willing to help. Eliza also gets to put the medical skills she picked up from Tao Chi’en to use when a miner who needs his fingers amputated shows up at their door in the middle of the night. When Eliza asks if he has heard of Joaquin Andieta, he tells her of a man named Joaquin Murieta who might be the same person...