But there was nothing she wanted more in this world than to grow her family with this man.
“Mama! Levi!” Sarah’s shout drew her attention away from Levi.
Levi immediately dropped her hand and stood as Sarah and Roger ran toward them. Alarmed, Rebecca followed his lead.
“What happened?” Levi asked. He stood in place, clearly ready to fight off whatever danger that the children might have discovered.
“There was someone in the trees,” Roger said, out of breath as he stopped next to Sarah.
“Watching us,” Sarah added as she pressed a wayward strand of chestnut brown hair away from her face.
The others had gathered around them now, and Rebecca looked up to Levi. It had to have been an animal, she thought—until she caught the look on his face.
“Did you see him?” Levi asked sharply, one hand resting on the pistol at his side.
They both shook their heads. Rebecca reached for Sarah and Roger, who both took her hands and stood close to her.
“Wait here.” Levi took one step, then paused and turned around. He held out one of his pistols to Rebecca. “Just in case.”
She nodded, her heart in her throat, and took it from him. Roger puffed up his chest, and tried to look tough as Sarah kept her place pressed against Rebecca’s side. Emmy folded herself in between them, as Gwynnie held tightly to Johnnie’s hand.
“Is it a bad man?” Johnnie asked, his eyes wide as he watched Levi slowly approach the treeline near where Sarah and Roger had been playing.
“It’s probably just an animal,” Rebecca said, forcing belief into the words she spoke. “A large animal would sound like a person, wouldn’t it?”
Gwynnie nodded, but none of them said anything.
“It’s only an animal,” Rebecca repeated.
But what would Levi do if it wasn’t? She didn’t want to think about that. Instead, she held her breath as he moved into the trees and away from their view.
A few minutes passed, and the pistol nearly slipped from her sweating palm.Only an animal, she repeated silently.
Finally, he emerged, revolver at his side, and her heart began to slow. He was all right. He hadn’t needed to shoot at anyone—or anything.
“Whover it was, he’s gone now,” Levi said when he returned. “Why don’t we pack up this picnic and take it back to the house?”
Rebecca nodded, and Sarah and Gwynnie began placing everything back into the basket. She stepped off to the side, far enough away to speak to Levi in a low voice so that the children wouldn’t hear. “Are you certain it was a man?”
He hesitated.
“I’d rather you tell me. I don’t scare easily.”
Finally he nodded, his gaze drifting back down the trees. “It was a man on horseback. I could make out the tracks. There was no sign of him on the opposite side of the trees, so I imagine he kept to the trees and headed away from us as soon as the children went running.”
Rebecca swallowed the rise of fear in her throat. “Why would anyone spy on us like that?”
Levi was quiet a moment. “It could have been one of the miners from the encampment on the other side of the valley. Or simply a fellow looking for a place to water his horse.”
Neither one of those answered Rebecca’s question, and she suspected Levi didn’t know the answer either. She hoped it was someone simply traveling through—but why would he run off instead of coming out to introduce himself?
The unease sat in her stomach as they walked back to the farm with their picnic. Levi glanced behind them frequently, and Rebecca hurried the younger ones along.
The sooner they were safe at home, the better she would feel.
