her bosom. Somehow, living alone didn’t have the sparkle it once had. Lately she found herself having to look deeper in her heart to find the thrill of being independent.
In the end it didn’t matter how she felt. That outlaw was going to come gunning for Matt. He would take his family and move to California.
“I can’t be your mama for that long, baby, but I can always be your friend.”
“You can be my ma if you want to.”
How was a body to explain to a little girl how impossible that was? Luckily she was spared that by the sudden appearance of a green-wheeled buggy coming over a rise of ground.
The ever-blowing wind stirred up a gust of dust that would have to be brushed out of the clothes when they dried.
“Somebody’s here!” Lucy dashed off to greet the approaching wagon.
When the wagon pulled in front of the now fully framed house, Mrs. Sizeloff waved. Charlie jumped down from the wagon.
Emma reached the buggy and Mrs. Sizeloff handed down a basket with her baby, Maudie, asleep inside.
Praise be that there was always a pot of coffee going for the men. With the scones left over from breakfast, she could treat her guest to a proper welcome.
They sat on the floor of the framed house with the breeze blowing through, eating scones and drinking coffee.
Mrs. Sizeloff didn’t seem to mind the lack of chairs while they spoke of this and that going on in town. She’d come for a supply of Orange Lilly for herself and her sister in Kinsley who had frightful monthlies.
“I spoke with your husband when he came to town to buy a load of barbed wire. He told me about the troubles you’ve had with those wandering cattle.”
“It’s not the cattle so much as their owner that’s giving me grief.” Emma swallowed the last sip of coffee from her mug and set it down. “Why, that Mr. Pendragon must think he’s king, wanting everybody’s land right along with his own.”
“It wouldn’t hurt to see him sitting beside his daughter in church more on a Sunday… . Charlie!” she called out to her son, who splashed in the creek with Lucy. “Go get what we brought in the wagon and bring it up here to the house.”
Charlie pounded barefoot past the house, then scrambled up onto the wagon. He returned with a pair of squirming, whining puppies, one tucked under each arm.
“We had a litter of ten a few months past.” Rachael Sizeloff took one of the pups from Charlie and set it in Emma’s lap. “I thought Pendragon might not sneak up on you so easily with these two to announce him. Their mother is as fine a dog as God ever made.”
A pair of pups would be demanding but, mercy, they might be just the companions she would need after Matt and Lucy had gone.
“Aren’t they sweet?” Emma breathed in a lungful of puppy scent, then handed the dog to Lucy. “Feel how soft he is. Maybe you can give him a name.”
Lucy held the pup the way she held her rag doll. Evidently it didn’t take to being toted about like a hunk of cotton. It twisted and wiggled until it got free, then ran toward the creek with Lucy only a stride behind.
“Thank you, Mrs. Sizeloff. Once they get some size on them they ought to be a help.”
Mrs. Sizeloff stood, stretched, then called for Charlie.
“Time to be on our way. The Williamses have a sick baby. We can only hope it isn’t the cholera. I need to take my young ones to Mrs. Conner so Josie and I can go on over and sit with the poor parents and watch in prayer.”
“Let me get that Orange Lilly for you.”
Emma hurried toward the dugout to get the patent medicine. If only it worked on the cholera. She’d heard of too many children taken by the sickness.
The thought of losing Lucy that way made her feel weak in the knees. Maybe she was closer to being the mother that Lucy dreamed of than she realized.
* * *
“This fence ought to make Pendragon as mad as a swatted bee,” Billy said while he unwound several feet of barbed wire.
“As dangerous as a loco bull, too.” Matt hammered the sharp wire into place.
He knew that they were waving a red flag in front of the man. Being dangerous and angry weren’t good things to encourage in the Englishman. It would be better to stay on the man’s