I told you I want to help. he gestured to the men beside him. These gentlemen are here to escort you and the children to proper lodgings while we sort out this unfortunate situation. There's a charitable home in Cheyenne that takes in destitute families. We're not destitute. You're living in a one- room cabin with a man who abandoned you the moment I showed up.
I'd call that destitute. Thomas stepped down from the carriage, his boots crunching on the frost hard ground. Be reasonable, Mara. You can't win this fight. I have lawyers, money, connections.
What do you have? A marriage certificate that's barely dry and a cabin that isn't even yours. I have a gun, Mara said quietly. And I will use it, Thomas laughed. Oh, I don't think you will, because if you shoot me, these men will shoot you.
And then what happens to your precious children? They end up in an orphanage anyway, or worse. Behind Mara, the door creaked. She didn't turn around, but she felt Jonah slip out onto the porch, felt him press something into her free hand. Daniel's old revolver.
"Ma's not alone," Jonah said, his voice steady despite his shaking hands. "And if you try to take us, you'll have to go through both of us." Thomas's expression darkened. "Boy, don't be stupid. The lady said, "Get off her land." The new voice came from the ridge. Everyone turned.
A man stood there backlit by the afternoon sun. a rifle in his hands. He started down the slope and Mara's heart leapt. Not Silas, someone else. But as he got closer, more figures appeared on the ridge. 10, 20, 30 men and women both, all armed, all moving down toward the cabin in a slow, implacable line. Thomas's hired men shifted nervously, hands moving toward their guns.
"I wouldn't," the first man said as he reached the yard. He was older, weathered, with kind eyes and a sheriff star pinned to his chest. Not Sheriff Cutler. Someone new. Name's John Miller.
I own the farm 5 mi east. These folks here, they're my neighbors. Word travels fast in these parts when someone threatens a family. This is none of your business. Thomas snapped.
Wrong. A woman stepped forward, gay-haired and formidable. Mara Hawthorne is our neighbor. That makes it our business. More voices joined in.
Silas helped me birth my calf last spring. Saved my whole herd. He fixed my well when I couldn't afford to pay anyone. He sat with my wife when she was dying. Wouldn't leave until she passed peaceful.
That man's got more honor in his little finger than you've got in your whole body, Avery. Thomas's face went red. This is absurd. I'm trying to protect these children from an unsuitable environment. Only thing unsuitable here is you, John Miller said flatly.
Now, I did some asking around after you left this morning. Turns out you've been sniffing around your brother's estate, trying to get your hands on a property deed he had filed in Montana. Mining rights, if I remember right, worth a fair bit. Thomas went very still. Seems to me, Miller continued, you're not interested in these kids at all.