Caleb immediately ran toward the back of the house while Luke stormed out through the front door. Timothy was right behind him. They saw footsteps leading up to the window, and in the far distance they could make out a figure racing away on horseback, disappearing into a cloud of kicked-up snow.
“Dammit!” Luke yelled when he realized that he had no real chance of following this person—it was overcast, and the snow had already begun to fall in thick flakes while hefty wind gusts covered most of the tracks within mere minutes. This person clearly knew what they were doing.
As the men went back inside the house, all three of them stared at the piece of paper right where they were standing.
It was a letter, roughly scribbled in sprawling handwriting:
Divorce the sheriff and marry Phineas as discussed, or it will have consequences!
We need your answer by nightfall. Come to the saloon. Alone!
That’s all it said.
It would suffice. Luke didn’t need any more information to feel certain.
Knowing what he knew now, he immediately had an idea about who might have written this note—either Phineas, maybe Lucas, but most certainly on orders from Ezra.
Whatever they demanded, Luke would never allow any of it to happen. Not the divorce, and most certainly not his wife alone in the saloon after nightfall.
He felt outraged, even violated, that someone would suggest anything like this.
“What will you do?” Timothy asked.
“What arewegoing to do?” Caleb asked pointedly. “We’ll all fight this together.”
Evelyn sighed nervously, and Luke saw how the two women hugged each other in the doorway, squeezing Belle in between them.
“Will this change our plan for tonight?”
“I don’t know,” Luke said honestly. “It shouldn’t. But I don’t know whattheirplan is.”
“No! Please don’t! You can’t risk something like that!” she pleaded.
As Luke walked toward her, Evelyn let her go and rushed past him into the arms of her husband. Luke lifted his hand and gently cupped her face.
“You are my wife, Maddie! I will do anything to protect you and the children,” he said. When Madelaine heard the name he called her, she made a choked noise. “I will do everything in my power to protect all of you for as long as I live,” he swore solemnly. “Regardless of what happens to me, you will always be safe and cared for.”
Luke shot a quick glance over to Caleb, who answered his unspoken question with a curt nod.
Madelaine didn’t know about the provisions he’d already made for her and her siblings—just in case something might ever happen to him. He had savings in the bank, which was enough money to provide for them for a very long time, and he had asked Caleb that he would bring her to Nevada, where Caleb’s cousin lived, and where they’d be able to buy a small house to live in peace.
***
The whole day had been a whirlwind of ups and downs, and Madelaine was simply overwhelmed.
After her long talk with Luke and the little moment they had shared together, she’d felt as if she’d touched heaven itself. But then everything came crashing down when she’d found that note, and now her husband wanted to challenge the leader of the most dangerous horse-thieving gang in the region to a duel! She couldn’t take it.
She’d asked Evelyn to look after Belle and Simon for a moment so that she could go to her happy place. Tinsel.
On her way out to the barn, she looked up into the gloomy sky, feeling the softness of big snowflakes landing on her heated face. She soaked up the stillness, the peaceful quiet, the loneliness, hoping that her racing heart would calm down.
Walking into the barn, which was very much the same as most barns in this region, she found Tinsel in one of the first stalls. She didn’t even have to call her—the white mare could sense her coming, and as always, Tinsel greeted her with a bobbing head and a happy snort.
“Hello, my precious girl! How are you doing in here?” she asked, hanging her coat over the open door and grabbing a shovel to clean out her stall. It wasn’t dirty—someone had already taken care of it—but she needed to put her hands to use.
“If you only knew all the things that have happened recently,” Madelaine said, stroking beneath her long, silky mane, scratching the spot she knew Tinsel loved the most. “I don’t even know where to start. It’s just so much. And it makes me a little sad, because life is hard right now.”
Madelaine wiped a stray tear from her face, not wanting to cry, but the pressure of it all threatened to boil over. Tinsel’s soft nose gently touched her hand, and she seemed to breathe Madelaine in. It was one of those odd things some sensitive horses did, as if they were trying to feel out their human. It made Madelaine cry harder.
