Only 06 - Winter Fire

pure blazing hell at fighting.”
    A tremor went through Sarah.
    â€œConner,” she whispered. “Ab will kill him. My God, what can I do?”
    â€œTake your brother and leave Lost River Canyon,” Case said succinctly.
    â€œI don’t have any—” Her breath broke.
    It was a moment before she could speak.
    â€œI don’t have any money to send Conner off,” she said painfully.
    â€œHe’s big enough to earn his own way.”
    Tears ran down her face. She shook her head with acombination of weariness and acceptance. When she spoke, her voice was as steady as the flow of her tears.
    â€œConner won’t go and leave me on my own,” she said. “I’ve tried.”
    â€œThen go with him.”
    â€œAnd do what? Take Lola’s path?”
    His eyelids flinched. “There are other kinds of work.”
    She laughed bleakly. “Not for a girl who has only the clothes on her back.”
    â€œYou could marry a—”
    â€œNo,” she interrupted savagely. “I’ll never suffer a husband again. Never .”
    Case started to point out that all men weren’t as hard to live with as her dead husband obviously had been, but decided there was no purpose.
    It was like telling himself to go ahead and marry and have kids, because all children didn’t end up maimed and killed by raiders.
    That was true as far as it went. But he had lived the rest of the truth.
    Some children died.
    â€œAll right, then,” he said. “Just kick Conner off your ranch.”
    â€œI can’t do that.”
    â€œYou mean you don’t want to.”
    Wearily she rubbed her forehead. She didn’t feel up to explaining that she had given half of Lost River ranch to Conner when he was thirteen.
    Case would wonder why.
    And that was something she never had talked about, ever, with anyone.
    Dear God , she thought. What a tangle. Why did those damned raiders have to settle around here?
    There was no answer.
    She didn’t expect one, any more than she expected to know why she and Conner had survived the flood that killed the rest of their family.
    Whys don’t matter , she told herself as she had so many times before. All that matters is here and now, not then and might-have-been .
    â€œI love Lost River ranch more than anything on God’s earth except my brother,” Sarah said calmly. “As soon as I find the Spanish silver and send Conner off to an Eastern school, everything will be fine.”
    Case hesitated. He had a hard time seeing the hotheaded, rawboned boy in an Eastern schoolroom conjugating Latin verbs and memorizing multiplication tables.
    â€œWhat does Conner think about that?” he asked.
    â€œIt doesn’t matter. He’s going.”
    Case opened his mouth to point out that her brother was of an age to make his own decisions, then shrugged. Sarah would figure that out just as soon as she tried to push Conner into doing something he really didn’t want to do.
    â€œWhat if you don’t find the silver?” Case asked instead.
    â€œI will.”
    The stubborn set of her chin told him that the subject could be argued from sunrise to sunrise and nothing would change.
    Shaking his head slightly, he sighed and smoothed his hand over the cinnamon silk of her hair.
    â€œIf only Conner and Ute hadn’t baited the raiders,” she said after a moment. “Maybe they would have left us alone.”
    â€œMaybe, but I doubt it.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œMoody’s boys are too bone-lazy to raid very far from camp.”
    â€œWhat about the Culpeppers?” she asked.
    â€œThey used to be that lazy, but it looks like most of those boys finally learned not to dig their outhouse too close to their drinking water.”
    â€œDamn those raiders.”
    â€œAmen.”
    Closing her eyes, Sarah sat very still for a time.
    Then she opened her eyes and started talking about an idea that had been growing in her mind. She talked fast, for she really didn’t want to ask.
    Yet she had no other choice except to wring her hands while Conner was killed by raiders who were older and far more cunning than her impulsive younger brother.
    â€œIf you keep the raiders off my back while I hunt silver I’ll give you half what I find,” she said in a rush.
    It took Case a few moments to figure out what she was talking about. When he did, he shook his head.
    â€œNo,” he said