Only 06 - Winter Fire

drifted and vanished, revealing the land one second and concealing it the next. Gradually the snow stopped. The moon rose clean and bright enough to throw shadows. The tracks of the horses stood out starkly against the glittering white land.
    There was no sign of raiders at the mouth of the canyon.
    Sarah sighed and began to relax. As the excitement of finding treasure slowly faded, her elation became a bittersweet kind of acceptance.
    Conner’s future was assured.
    Her half of Lost River ranch belonged to Case Maxwell.
    â€œAre you sure you don’t want to change your mind about taking half the silver instead of half the ranch?” she asked after a while. “The silver is worth a lot more.”
    â€œNot to me.”
    She didn’t ask again.
    In silence Sarah rode back toward the home that was no longer hers. Her eyes roved the land, memorizing its stark beauty, engraving it on her mind.
    Soon memories would be all that was left to her of the ranch she loved.

21
    R un! The flood is coming and he’s drunk and mean and looking for you!
    Faster, Conner! You’re too big now for me to carry you!
    Sarah awoke in a heart-pounding rush. Cold sweat chilled her skin.
    Oh God, Hal will catch me this time for sure .
    Frantically she looked around.
    Though she was outside, no floodwater frothed around her. There were no walls, no doors, nothing to keep her from fleeing her husband.
    She took a broken breath and tried to orient herself.
    No moon dimmed the wild, cascading glory of the stars overhead. Snow lay silver upon the land. What wasn’t covered by snow was a strangely luminous ebony as deep as night itself.
    Abruptly she remembered where she was, and why. At Hunter’s suggestion—order, actually—she had decided not to sleep inside the cabin as was her custom. After it was too dark for any spy to see her, she had taken her bedroll outside.
    A steep canyon wall was at her back. Brush flanked her. Horses were hobbled randomly throughout the area.Their senses would pick up intruders long before human ones would.
    And Case was sleeping somewhere nearby, invisible in the darkness, guarding her and the Spanish treasure.
    Sarah took another breath, a deeper one. The air was cold and sweet and free.
    Just a nightmare , she kept telling herself. Nothing to get in a lather about .
    Hal is dead .
    Conner is safe .
    I’m safe .
    Yet even as the thoughts came, anxiety shivered through her, a fear that no reassurances could touch. She hadn’t felt this way since she had realized that her parents were dead, her brothers and sisters were dead, and she was responsible for Conner’s sheer survival.
    The silver means that Conner never will want for food, and neither will I .
    I never will have to marry or turn to whoring simply to survive .
    So why do I feel so frightened?
    Then she remembered that the price of Spanish treasure had been very high—Lost River ranch.
    I’ve lived through worse losses .
    I’ll live through this .
    Somehow .
    â€œSarah?”
    Case’s voice was so low that it carried no farther than a few feet.
    â€œI’m awake,” she said softly. “Is something wrong?”
    He condensed out of the night beside her.
    â€œThat’s what I was going to ask you,” he said. “You were thrashing around like a fish on a hook.”
    His shoulders blocked out a wide patch of stars. The makeshift poncho he wore swirled around his knees like night itself.
    She took a quick, ragged breath. The air was still coldand clean, but now it smelled of leather, wool, and man.
    â€œJust a bad dream,” she said.
    â€œThe flood or your husband?”
    â€œBoth, I think. I don’t remember much except the fear.”
    Though Sarah’s words were matter-of-fact, her voice still trembled with echoes of terror.
    Saying nothing, Case sat on the foot of her bedroll. Gently he lifted her into his lap, wrapped a blanket from her bedroll around her, and held her against his chest.
    â€œSometimes it takes a while for the nightmares to fade,” he said.
    Giving up Lost River ranch, like the death of her family, wouldn’t fade. But she didn’t refuse the comfort he offered. She gave a jerky sigh and leaned against him.
    Silence and the soft whispering of their mingled breath filtered through the night.
    â€œLook around you,” he murmured after a time. “The land is as beautiful as a meadowlark’s song.”
    She