The children slept peacefully, and for the first time since Thomas Avery had appeared on their ridge, Mara let herself believe they might actually survive this. She was almost right. The attack came 3 days later. Mara awoke to the smell of smoke. For a moment, still trapped in the fog of sleep, she thought someone had left the stove door open.
Then Silas was shaking her, pulling her upright, his voice urgent in the darkness. Fire. The coup's on fire. Get the kids up. Mara's mind snapped awake.
She scrambled up the ladder to the loft, shaking children awake one by one. While below, Silas grabbed buckets and ran outside. Jonah, help me. Girls, get dressed. Thomas, Abigail, stay with Eliza.
No one goes outside until I say. The children obeyed, frightened, but trained by months of frontier life to move quickly in emergencies. Mara climbed down, heart hammering, and ran to the window. The chicken coupe was engulfed in flames, orange and terrible against the black sky. Silas was throwing water on it, but it was already too late.
The structure collapsed inward with a shower of sparks. And that's when Mara saw them. Shadows at the edge of the fire light. Men on horseback watching. One of them raised a hand, waved.
Then they disappeared into the darkness. Mar's blood ran cold. This wasn't an accident. This was a message. Silas came back inside, his face grim and soot streaked.
It's gone. Nothing we could do. I saw them, Mara said, her voice shaking. Men on horses. They were watching.
Silas's jaw tightened. How many? Three? Maybe four? Did you recognize any of them?
No, but Silas, this was deliberate. I know. He checked his rifle, made sure it was loaded. They're escalating, trying to scare us into leaving. It's working.
Silas looked at her. You want to go? Mara looked at the children clustered in the loft, at Jonah standing at the top of the ladder with his father's old revolver, at Eliza holding Abigail, who was crying softly. She thought about running, about packing up and disappearing into the night before something worse happened. Then she thought about Thomas Avery's smile, about how men like him won by making you believe you had no choice but to surrender.
"No," she said quietly. "I'm not running." "Not anymore." Silus's expression softened with something like pride. "Then we make a stand." "How?" Tomorrow I ride back to Rock Springs. File charges for arson and intimidation. Get Sheriff Cutler or someone out here to investigate.
Make it official. Make it public. The one thing men like Thomas hate is attention. What if they come back tonight? Then they'll find me waiting.