Three weeks later …

“Then it’s all arranged,” Harrison Cooke said happily. “Don’t worry, Mrs. White, we’ll take good care of your boy. Though he’s hardly a boy anymore.”

Ma smiled at Anson. “No, he sure ain’t. I’d like him t’stay, but ya gotta let a man get a chance at happiness. Ya cain’t very well court a gal through the mail t’see if th’two o’ ya will suit.” She opened her arms to her son, tears in her eyes.

Anson stepped into them. “Thanks, Ma. I’ll never forget this.”

“‘Course ya won’t – I ain’t gonna let ya! But if it don’t work out, ya juss c’mon back.”

Anson hugged his mother tight. “I know. But if Emeline’s fool enough to ride this way for a whole day and get her horse stolen, well, she’s gotta feel somethin’ for me, right?”

Harrison laughed. “Right now she’s still too embarrassed about losing her mare to those outlaws to set her cap for anyone. But at least she got her back, thanks to you and your brothers.”

“Yeah,” Anson agreed. “They sure were a dumb bunch of outlaws.”

“That ‘dumb bunch’ almost got hold of my wife,” Harrison reminded him. “You kept her from being abducted – I can’t thank you enough for that. The least I can do is give you a position at the Triple-C for a time so you can court Emeline.”

“Does she know Anson’s comin’?” Oscar asked as he emerged from the kitchen carrying a pan of hot rolls.

“She don’t,” Ma assured him. “We ain’t even tole Willie yet. But he’ll bring us Anson’s letters, so we know what’s up.”

Lily entered the room with a tureen of stew and set it next to the rolls. Harrison had arrived two hours before, informed them of his plan to help Anson and Emeline, and inspected the animals he’d given them while the family considered it. He was tired and hungry, so she and Oscar had heated up some stew from the night before and made a fresh batch of rolls. She smiled at Harrison, then went to Oscar and hugged him.

He hugged her back, kissed the top of her head, then turned to Anson. “Ya do understand what love is, don’t ya, little brother?”

Anson blushed. “‘Course I do. Ain’t nothin’ to it – ya get to feelin’ all funny inside, like your belly’s full of butterflies. Ya cain’t eat, cain’t sleep, cain’t think straight …”

“Oh Lawd,” Ma said, rolling her eyes.

“Young man, that’s only the start,” Harrison replied, looking at the rolls. “There’s a lot more to love than a few butterflies in your stomach.”

“Love is accepting a person for who they are,” Lily added. She looked up at Oscar and smiled. “Knowing the other person’s weaknesses and shortcomings, and loving them anyway, unconditionally.”

He smiled back. “Through sickness and health, ‘til death do us part.”

“And then some,” she added. “Up to and including a band of idiot outlaws.”

Oscar laughed and kissed her on the nose. She snuggled closer and leaned her head against his shoulder, and he tightened his arm around her in response. “It also means being willin’ to take a bullet for the one ya love, come to that,” he said. “Those outlaws might’ve been dumb, but as ya recall some guns went off. It was darn lucky none of us got shot.”

Anson looked at Harrison. “Yer sure Sadie’s doin’ all right?”

Harrison laughed. “My wife is made of tougher stuff than you can imagine. Thank Heaven you, Oscar and Henry saved the day or I’d have to listen to her complain of her ordeal for months. She abhors abduction.”

“Ain’t nobody like’t, I figger,” Ma said, then looked around. “Where’s Henry?”

“Out on the front porch,” Oscar said. “Where else?”

“Again?”

“What’s so unusual about him being on the front porch?” Harrison asked.

“He’s waitin’ for the stage,” Oscar explained. “A schoolmarm named Norton passed through here some weeks ago, headin’ to The Dalles. Henry was smit. He’s wantin’ her to come back.”

“Oh, the poor chap,” Harrison said.

Just then, they heard the stage pulling in. Everyone turned to the front door. “Hmmm, few minutes early,” Ma said. “Oscar, best y’feed Mr. Cooke in th’kitchen or those passengers’re gonna devour th’rolls ya made fer ‘im.”

“Right, Ma.” Oscar let go of Lily, picked up the stew pot in one arm and the pan of rolls with his free hand. “Follow me, Mr. Cooke. And thanks again for comin’ all the way out here to offer Anson a job on the Triple-C – mighty kind of ya.”

“Think nothing of it. Besides, I wanted some of those delicious rolls. And to see how the cattle were faring. All in all, I’d say they’re …”

“He did it!” An excited Henry burst in from the porch. “He did it, Ma, He did it!”

Ma blinked in confusion. “Who’d what?”

“The Lord, Ma! I prayed He’d bring her back and He did!” Henry spun on his boot heel and rushed back outside.

Everyone’s jaw went slack. Harrison cocked his head to the side as he heard Henry’s voice, then a woman’s. “Was he referring to …?”

“I believe he is.” Oscar glanced up a moment, as if double-checking with the Almighty, then looked at the door just as Henry opened it, escorting a tired but happy Evangeline Norton into the front room. The little group’s eyes widened at the sight of her on Henry’s arm. From the look of it, she was the only passenger.

“Thank you so much, Mr. White,” Miss Norton told Henry as he led her straight to the table. “I’m quite famished.”

Oscar shrugged and set the food back down. Harrison, concern on his face, quickly sat as Henry pulled a chair out for the woman.

“I’m so angry, I can’t tell you,” she went on. “Oh, but I mustn’t complain about my problems to you. I’m so sorry.”

Henry sat next to her. “I don’t mind. ‘Sides, maybe I can help.”

Harrison, recognizing his chance might disappear, took two rolls and hid them under his napkin while everyone’s attention was elsewhere.

“But … you can’t, you see …” She pulled a lace handkerchief from her reticule. “No one can. I don’t know what to do.” She blew her nose as the first tears fell.

Henry looked at his mother. “She got cheated outta her job, Ma. The town done hired a man and let him have her position. She told me so on the porch.” Like Oscar, he looked up, but with a wide, knowing smile as Miss Norton blew her nose again.

Ma glanced between the two, sighed, then looked at Anson. “Yer goin’ t’work fer Mr. Cooke’s gonna leave a right big hole to fill. Gonna be lotsa extra work ‘round here.”

Henry’s face lit up. So did Oscar’s. “Ma?”

She nodded to herself. “Yep. Might need t’hire someone. But findin’ a body right away’ll be tricky.”

Henry began to chuckle, while Oscar put his hand over his face. “Ma …”

“Don’t matter if’t’s a man or a woman …”

“Ma!”

“So do ya want the job?” Henry blurted at Miss Norton.

She wiped her eyes with the handkerchief and stared at him. “Wha … what job?”

“Bringin’ in wood, cleanin’ out stalls, scrubbin’ floors, helpin’ in th’kitchen,” Ma said. “Maybe keepin’ Henry’s fingers outta the cake frostin’. Ain’t purty work, but’t’s work.”

“Job?” Miss Norton repeated, still not catching on.

“And ya can go fishin’ with me and help catch dinner sometimes,” Henry said excitedly.

Miss Norton looked around the room as Harrison snuck a third roll. “Are you saying you’re offering me a job?” she asked, stunned.

“Take it!” Henry urged. “Then ya won’t have to worry none about nothin’!”

Miss Norton, a hand to her chest, slowly smiled. “You’re offering me work?”

“Pay ain’t much,” Ma continued. “But ya’d have yer own room, though ya might hafta share it on ‘ccasion with a passenger. ‘N three meals a day.” She looked at Oscar. “Sound ‘bout right?”

Oscar’s brow furrowed. He opened his mouth to speak, saw the look on Henry’s face, and let himself smile. “Yeah, sounds ‘bout right, Ma.” He put an arm around Lily again and shrugged.

Lily laughed and looked at Miss Norton. “We’d love to have you stay. I’m sure you’d enjoy working here – you can try it for a while and see if you like it. After all, what have you got to lose?”

Miss Norton quickly put a hand over her mouth to stifle a sob. “Thank you, thank you so much. I prayed for a miracle to happen ever since I found out my position had been given away, and …” She couldn’t talk, just wept.

Henry smiled proudly and looked at everyone in turn. “Yeah, the good Lord knows what He’s doin’. He puts folks right where they need to be if they let Him.”

Oscar and Lily exchanged another look. “That He does,” Oscar said.

“Yes, He certainly does,” she replied.

“Amen to that,” Harrison said, and, unable to wait any longer, took a generous bite of one of Oscar’s famous rolls.