The stolen cattle changed everything.
Jacob and his ranch hands found twenty-two by noon.
Seven more wandered back the following day.
Nine remained missing.
Tracks led toward the Yellowstone River before vanishing among dozens of wagon and cattle trails.
The sheriff suspected Wade.
Suspicion was not evidence.
Again.
“He knows this land,” Jacob said.
“He knows where the cattle move. He knows when I’m short-handed.”
Hannah stood beside the cut fence.
“He also knows you’ll chase him.”
Jacob looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
“What if the cattle weren’t the point?”
Jacob became still.
Hannah continued.
“He could’ve taken more if he wanted money.”
“You think it was a warning.”
“I think Wade is angry because he blames me for losing his position.”
Jacob’s eyes hardened.
“That makes him a fool.”
“It also makes him dangerous.”
Jacob doubled night watches.
For two weeks nothing happened.
May arrived.
The valley exploded with grass and wildflowers.
Then spring rain came down for four days without stopping.
The creek behind the ranch swelled.
Pastures turned to mud.
One night Hannah woke to Clara pounding on her door.
“Hannah!”
She jumped from bed.
“What?”
“The creek!”
Outside, men shouted.
Water had overflowed its bank and was racing toward the lower corral.
Jacob and the ranch hands worked with shovels, trying to cut a drainage path.
Lightning flashed.
Samuel and Eli stood at the window.
Hannah dressed quickly.
“Clara, get their coats.”
She reached the porch as Jacob ran past.
“Stay inside!”
“There are calves in the lower pen!”
“I know!”
Water rushed through the yard.
One section of corral collapsed.
Several frightened animals scattered.
Then Hannah saw Samuel.
He was no longer beside Eli.
“Samuel?”
Clara looked around.
“He was here!”
Hannah’s heart stopped.
“Samuel!”
A small figure ran through the rain near the chicken house.
He was chasing his wooden horse, which floated along the current.
“Samuel!”
The child turned.
A wall of muddy water hit the yard.
His feet disappeared beneath him.
Hannah ran.
She heard Jacob scream her name.
Samuel slid toward the swollen creek.
Hannah reached him seconds before the water carried him beneath the corral rails.
She grabbed his coat.
The current knocked her down.
Cold water swallowed her.
She held Samuel with one arm and grabbed a fence post with the other.
“Hannah!”
Jacob reached them.
Another ranch hand threw a rope.
Jacob stepped into the current despite men shouting for him to stop.
He tied the rope around his waist.
“Hannah, give him to me!”
She pushed Samuel toward him.
Jacob caught his son.
A second surge struck.
Hannah lost the fence post.
For one terrifying instant she was moving helplessly through brown water.
Then Jacob grabbed her wrist.
Pain shot through her shoulder.
He refused to release her.
Men pulled the rope.
All three reached higher ground.
Samuel coughed.
Clara screamed and wrapped around him.
Hannah lay in the mud gasping.
Jacob knelt beside her.
“Hannah.”
“I’m fine.”
“You were nearly swept into the creek.”
“I noticed.”
He looked furious.
She laughed.
The expression on his face stopped her.
Not anger.
Fear.
Pure fear.
Jacob took her face between his hands.
Then froze.
He had touched her without asking.
Hannah saw the realization.
He immediately began pulling away.
She caught his wrists.
“Don’t.”
Jacob stared.
Rain ran down both their faces.
Hannah’s heart pounded.
He whispered, “I thought I lost you.”
She swallowed.
“You didn’t.”
His forehead touched hers.
That was all.
No kiss.
Not there.
Not with children crying and ranch hands pretending not to watch.
But everyone saw.
Including Clara.
Later, wrapped in blankets near the stove, Clara stared at Hannah.
“What?”
“You love him.”
Hannah almost choked on coffee.
Eli looked up.
Samuel said, “Papa loves Hannah too.”
Hannah stared at all three children.
“Why is everybody discussing this?”
Samuel shrugged.
“You’re here.”
Clara smiled for the first time with absolutely no reservation.
Hannah pointed toward her.
“Bed.”
“It’s seven.”
“Then go upstairs and think quietly.”
Clara laughed.
That night, once the children finally slept, Jacob found Hannah in the kitchen.
The rain had weakened.
He stood in the doorway.
“You should be resting.”
“So should you.”
He entered.
Hannah was drying cups.
Jacob took the towel from her.
“Sit.”
She did.
He placed both hands on the table.
“Hannah, I need to ask you something.”
“You look terrified.”
“I am.”
That surprised her.
Jacob Mercer could ride into floodwater.
He could face armed men.
Apparently conversation was worse.
He continued.
“When January came, I told myself I was bringing someone here because the children needed help.”
Hannah listened.
“That was true.”
He looked at her.
“But somewhere between burned bacon, stolen cattle, Samuel’s nightmares, Clara arguing about blackberry preserves, and you discovering I can’t keep accounts worth a damn…”
Hannah smiled.
“…I started wanting something I never planned to want.”
Her smile disappeared.
Jacob drew a slow breath.
“I want you to stay.”
Hannah’s fingers tightened around her cup.
“As an employee?”
“No.”
“As what?”
“My wife.”
Silence.
Jacob immediately added, “Not now.”
Hannah blinked.
He almost laughed nervously.
“That sounded wrong.”
“A little.”
“I mean I’m not asking you to answer tonight.”
She looked at him.
“You’re proposing and telling me not to answer?”
“Yes.”
“That may be the worst proposal in Montana.”
“Probably.”
“Possibly the entire territory.”
“I accept that criticism.”
Hannah laughed.
Then her eyes filled unexpectedly.
Jacob saw.
His face changed.
“I don’t want you crying.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“Quiet.”
He waited.
Hannah wiped her cheek.
“If I marry you, everyone will say the rumors were true.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
Jacob looked surprised.
“Not because they’ll think badly of me.”
She stared at her hands.
“Because I need to know I chose this.”
“You would.”
“I need more than knowing it privately.”
He listened.
“I arrived with a flour sack,” she said. “No money. No home. No way to leave. If I become your wife five months later, part of me will always wonder whether I simply traded one dependence for another.”
Jacob did not interrupt.
“I need my own money.”
“You have it.”
“My own work.”
“You have that too.”
“My own standing.”
He nodded slowly.
“And I need time.”
Jacob’s answer came without hesitation.
“Take it.”
Hannah studied him.
“You’re not angry?”
“No.”
“Disappointed?”
“Terribly.”
She laughed through tears.
“But not angry.”
Jacob moved around the table.
He stopped in front of her.
“May I kiss you?”
Everything inside Hannah went still.
Nobody had ever asked her that.
Not once.
Her answer came softly.
“Yes.”
Jacob bent toward her.
The kiss was gentle.
So gentle that Hannah understood immediately how different desire could feel when no fear lived beneath it.
He started to pull away.
Hannah touched his coat.
He stopped.
She kissed him again.
This time because she chose to.
Afterward Jacob rested his forehead against hers.
“Still need time?”
“Yes.”
“Damn.”
She laughed.
Summer was three weeks away.
Neither of them knew that before it arrived, Cyrus Reed would return with a lie big enough to drag half the county into their lives.
And this time he would not come alone.
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