There were seven men.
Gideon counted them from the upstairs window.
Maybe eight.
The snowfall made it difficult to tell.
Pike reloaded his revolver.
Jeb lay unconscious near the hearth while Dr. Carter—summoned earlier because of the gunshot wound—worked desperately to stop the bleeding.
Rose held Samuel in the bedroom.
Mae loaded cartridges.
Gideon looked at her.
“You’re taking the children through the north trail.”
“No.”
“Mae.”
“No.”
“There’s a hidden path behind the creek. Pike can take you.”
“And leave you here?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Gideon’s jaw tightened.
“This is not an argument.”
Mae turned slowly.
“Yes, it is.”
He stared.
“I will not stand here while—”
“You said I decide what happens to me.”
His mouth closed.
Mae stepped closer.
“Was that only when my choices were convenient?”
Gideon hated the question.
She could see it.
“No.”
“Then I stay.”
“Mae, they want you.”
“They wanted Rose too. Running may put both children in greater danger.”
Pike nodded reluctantly.
“She has a point. Trail is exposed after the creek.”
Gideon looked furious.
Mostly because Pike had agreed.
Mae continued.
“This cabin was built to survive winter.”
“And bullets.”
Gideon looked toward the walls.
“Yes.”
“Then we defend it.”
Outside, someone shouted.
“Hale!”
Silas.
Mae went still.
Gideon’s expression changed.
Silas called again.
“We can end this easy!”
Gideon looked at Mae.
She nodded.
He opened the shutter slightly.
“What do you want?”
Silas laughed outside.
“My wife.”
Mae felt nothing.
That surprised her.
No fear.
Only disgust.
“And my son!” Silas added.
Mae almost laughed.
He had never called Samuel his son when the child needed food or medicine.
Now suddenly blood mattered.
Gideon said, “They aren’t yours.”
“Law says different!”
Pike shouted, “Law says you’re a fugitive!”
A rifle fired.
The bullet struck the shutter.
Everyone ducked.
Gideon fired through a narrow opening.
A man shouted outside.
Then gunfire erupted.
The cabin walls absorbed most shots.
Windows shattered.
Samuel screamed.
Rose carried him farther into the interior room.
Mae crawled toward them.
“Stay low.”
Rose’s face was white.
“Are they taking us?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
Mae looked directly at her.
“Because this time the people inside the house fight back.”
Rose nodded.
Mae returned to the main room.
Jeb had regained consciousness.
He tried to sit.
Dr. Carter forced him down.
“You move, you bleed to death.”
Jeb looked at Gideon.
“South wall.”
“What?”
“They’ll burn the south wall.”
Gideon swore.
Seconds later, something struck outside.
The smell of kerosene entered.
Mae’s heart jumped.
Fire.
Gideon and Pike rushed toward the back.
Flames climbed one section of logs.
Snow helped, but kerosene burned fiercely.
Gideon threw buckets.
Pike covered him.
Mae joined with water.
“Get inside!”
“No!”
“Mae!”
“Stop wasting breath!”
Together they slowed the fire.
Gunshots continued.
Then silence.
Too much silence.
Gideon looked toward the tree line.
“They’re moving.”
“Where?”
Before anyone answered, the barn exploded into noise.
Horses screamed.
Men shouted.
Someone had entered from behind.
Pike ran to the rear window.
“Two at the barn!”
Gideon fired.
One man fled.
The second dropped behind a trough.
Then a window broke upstairs.
Glass rained down.
Mae heard Rose scream.
She ran.
A man had climbed onto the porch roof.
His arm reached through the broken window.
Rose backed away holding Samuel.
Mae grabbed the nearest object.
A cast-iron candleholder.
She struck the man’s hand.
He cursed.
His revolver fell inside.
Mae grabbed it.
The man pulled himself higher.
Mae pointed the gun.
“Leave.”
He laughed.
“You won’t shoot.”
The words had once belonged to Silas.
Mae pulled the trigger.
The bullet struck the roof beside the man’s head.
Snow sprayed his face.
He fell backward into a drift.
Rose stared.
Mae’s hand shook violently.
“You okay?”
Rose nodded.
Samuel screamed.
Mae picked him up.
“You did good,” she told Rose.
“You shot at him.”
“Yes.”
“Were you scared?”
Mae looked at her.
“Terrified.”
Rose seemed surprised.
“Being brave doesn’t mean you aren’t scared.”
Downstairs another shot sounded.
Mae rushed back.
Pike had been hit in the shoulder.
Gideon dragged him behind the table.
Dr. Carter moved from Jeb to Pike.
Too many wounded.
Too many attackers.
Gideon looked at Mae.
“We can’t hold until daylight.”
“How many left?”
“Five maybe.”
“Silas?”
“Still outside.”
Jeb pushed himself upright despite the doctor’s protests.
“Tunnel.”
Gideon stared.
“What tunnel?”
“Old mine.”
“What about it?”
“Crane had maps.”
Gideon’s face changed.
“There’s no entrance near here.”
Jeb coughed.
“There is now.”
A sound came beneath the floor.
Everyone froze.
Scratching.
Then wood cracking.
Gideon moved toward the trapdoor leading to the root cellar.
The door exploded upward.
A man emerged.
Gideon struck him with the rifle stock.
Another climbed behind.
Mae fired.
The second man retreated.
Gideon slammed the trapdoor and dragged the table over it.
“Mine shaft reaches the cellar,” he said.
Jeb laughed weakly.
“Told you.”
The battle had changed.
The attackers did not need windows.
They could enter from below.
Gideon looked toward Mae.
“Now you leave.”
“How?”
“North trail.”
“With Pike wounded?”
“I take you.”
“And the others?”
He had no answer.
Mae looked around.
Dr. Carter.
Pike.
Jeb.
Rose.
Samuel.
Family did not always mean blood.
Sometimes it meant the people you refused to abandon.
“No.”
Gideon’s anger broke.
“Mae!”
She stepped directly in front of him.
“I was sold because a man believed my life belonged to him. Do not save me by deciding my life belongs to you instead.”
His face went still.
Mae’s voice softened.
“I love you.”
Everything stopped.
Even in the middle of gunfire, the words changed the room.
Gideon stared.
Mae had not planned to say them.
But there they were.
True.
“I love you,” she repeated. “And I am staying.”
Gideon’s eyes filled with something fierce and vulnerable.
He touched her cheek.
Only because she leaned into his hand.
“I love you too.”
A pounding came from beneath the trapdoor.
Mae looked toward it.
“Then we survive together.”
Gideon nodded.
They devised a plan.
The old mine tunnel was narrow.
Only one man could climb into the cellar at a time.
Gideon moved furniture to create a barrier.
Pike covered the front windows with his good arm.
Mae remained near the children but within reach of the rifle.
Jeb told them where Crane’s men usually carried dynamite.
That information changed everything.
“If they use it beneath us?” Mae asked.
“They won’t,” Jeb said.
“Why?”
“They want the land documents.”
Gideon looked toward the locked chest.
“No. They want proof of mineral rights.”
Mae understood.
“They need the cabin intact enough to search.”
“Exactly.”
For hours the siege continued.
Shots.
Silence.
Shouts.
Threats.
Just before dawn, Silas called again.
“Mae!”
She went to the window.
Gideon tried to stop her.
She shook her head.
“I need to do this.”
He stepped aside.
Mae stayed behind cover.
“What?”
Silas laughed.
“Finally!”
“What do you want?”
“You come out with Samuel and nobody dies.”
Mae almost pitied him.
He still thought she was the woman who believed his promises.
“You said that before.”
“When?”
“Every time you hit me.”
Silence.
“You’d say it was over. Then you’d say come closer. Then you’d swear it wouldn’t happen again.”
Gideon’s eyes closed.
He had not known every detail.
Mae continued.
“You know what I finally learned, Silas?”
“What?”
“You were never powerful.”
No answer.
“You were just loud.”
A shot shattered the wall near her.
Gideon pulled her back.
“You all right?”
“Yes.”
Then horses thundered in the distance.
Many horses.
Silas shouted outside.
Crane’s men began yelling.
Pike smiled despite the blood on his shirt.
“That’ll be the marshals.”
Gideon stared out.
Deputy Pike had sent word before coming to Blackstone Ridge.
Federal officers rode into the clearing from three directions.
Gunfire erupted briefly.
Then men surrendered.
One ran.
Another was tackled near the barn.
Silas tried to escape through the trees.
Mae watched from the porch.
He slipped in the snow.
Fell.
Dropped his weapon.
A marshal reached him first.
Silas shouted.
“I didn’t do anything!”
Mae almost laughed.
Months earlier, she would have felt something watching him dragged away.
Fear.
Grief.
Maybe even shame.
Now she felt only relief.
Gideon stood beside her.
He looked exhausted.
Blood streaked his forehead.
His shirt was torn.
Mae touched his face.
“You hurt?”
“Nothing important.”
“That means yes.”
He smiled.
Behind them, Samuel started laughing.
Rose emerged carrying him.
The sun rose over Blackstone Ridge.
Golden light touched the snow.
Mae looked at the cabin.
Windows broken.
Wall blackened.
Barn damaged.
But standing.
Still standing.
So were they.
Gideon placed his hand near Mae’s.
Not touching.
Waiting.
Mae intertwined their fingers.
“What happens now?” she asked.
Gideon looked at her.
“Whatever you choose.”
She smiled.
“Good answer.”
But one battle remained.
The one that would determine whether Mae Walker ever truly became free.
And three months later, in a Colorado courtroom, Silas would try one final time to claim ownership over the woman he had sold.
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