Only 06 - Winter Fire

the grim work, declaring it a task he had long looked forward to. Even Lola had insisted on staying. She said she wouldn’t believe Ab was dead until she put pebbles on his eyelids and shoveled dirt into his grave.
    â€œWhat ever possessed you to go to that overlook in the first place?” Sarah asked.
    â€œSame thing that possessed Hunter when he went there, and you when you sent Lola there. Next to the ruins, that overlook is the best place to spy on Spring Canyon. Or to shoot into it.”
    â€œYou shouldn’t have gone alone.”
    â€œIt’s a mistake I won’t make twice.” Conner grinned unexpectedly. “But I would like to have been there when Lola found Hunter.”
    â€œShe didn’t. Not exactly. She found a dead Culpepper and figured that whoever was on the overlook now was either Morgan or Hunter.”
    â€œI never even saw Morgan until he shot that one-armed outlaw who was fixing to shoot me in the back,” Conner said, shaking his head. “Fastest draw I ever saw.”
    â€œMorgan was in the canyon all night, watching out for you.”
    â€œI owe him,” Conner said simply.
    â€œI told him to take all the reales I poured into the canyon.”
    â€œGood.”
    Sarah gave another shivering sigh and touched her brother’s face as though she still had difficulty believing he was alive.
    It was worth it , she thought, all of it .
    Even what is yet to come .
    â€œHey, are you all right?” Conner asked, catching hold of his sister’s shoulders.
    â€œJust…tired.” She smiled despite her pale lips. “All of a sudden. Tired.”
    â€œYou should sleep. You look worn out.”
    From what I remember about Mother, being pregnant does that to a woman , Sarah thought ruefully. In the first few months, she used to fall asleep every time she stopped moving .
    She said nothing aloud about her growing belief that she was carrying Case’s child. She told herself it was too soon to be certain, but that was only part of the truth. The last thing she wanted was to set her brother against the very man who now owned the other half of Lost River ranch.
    Conner wouldn’t understand why Case didn’t marry her, no matter what scars the past had left on his soul.
    Sarah understood.
    She had known yesterday, when she saw his eyes after they made love. Fear, regret, anger. A raging kind of distance.
    The eyes of a trapped hawk.
    Her love didn’t bring comfort to Case. It brought only greater turmoil.
    He had healed the fears left by her past.
    She hadn’t been able to heal his.
    Perhaps burying Emily’s murderers will give Case some measure of peace .
    Sarah didn’t know. She knew only that her time on Lost River ranch was nearly over. Even if she had still owned half the ranch, she couldn’t stay.
    Don’t tease me into making you pregnant. I would hate both of us for it .
    She could endure anything but that. Being hated by the man she loved would be more than she could bear.
    â€œSis?” Conner asked, troubled. “Maybe you better lie down.”
    Forcing herself to smile, she looked up at her brother.
    â€œLater,” she said. “Right now I think I’ll just put a pot of beans on to cook. Then maybe I’ll go to Deer Canyon and watch the hawks fly.”
    And I’ll wish all the way to my soul that I could fly with them again, in Case’s arms .
    But instead of going to her hawks, Sarah waited until Conner was asleep. Then she quietly began packing her clothes. When she was finished, there was plenty of room left in the two saddlebags for a few bars of silver.
    As she strapped up the bags, her glance fell on the unusual joined mugs that Case had found in the ancient ruins. She picked up the tiny bit of pottery and remembered the miniature teacup and saucer Lola had found among Case’s belongings.
    Ah, Case , Sarah thought sadly. If we had met before Emily died, would you have loved me?
    All that answered her was the echo of her own silent question.
    She put the cup back in its little niche, caressed the ancient pottery with her fingertip once, and turned away.
    Â 
    It was late afternoon before everyone returned from Spring Canyon. Lola went straight to tend to her goats. The men washed up and headed for the huge pot of beans and pans of hot cornbread they knew would be waiting.
    Sarah greeted each man with a smile and a heaping plate of food.
    â€œI’m really going