Starr was done with her, Evie was quite certain that she never wanted to sleep with another man again if that was what she would have to go through. But she thanked Starr politely, offered to send her a pie as soon as they got in supplies, and hurried back to the little house she was making into her home.
When she counted Starr's money later, Evie discovered it was more than they had agreed on, but for the sake of the children, she wasn't arguing. Carmen had showed a distinct aptitude for doing laundry and had nearly washed all the children's clothes that Evie had thought were lost to flood damage. That saved them the expense of buying clothing as well as laundering her own and Daniel's things. For that reason alone she was willing to allow Carmen freedom to buy whatever groceries she thought were needed. She wouldn't begrudge her a dime.
Daniel chose to move in with them, letting the doctor and Ben and several others carry him out on a makeshift stretcher. Evie wasn't certain if he thought he was protecting them with his presence or if he just wanted to be closer to Carmen, but she was grateful for his company and his common sense. Although he grumbled and complained and refused to listen when she told him he was trying to do too much too soon, he also kept the boys entertained in the evening and gave them something to do besides roaming the street looking for trouble.
They divided the two bedrooms up between the girls and the boys, with Daniel and Evie having their own cots in each room and the children sharing a bigger bed. It was almost like having a home again, and Evie practically forgot about their other problems. The lawyer's absence nagged at the back of her mind, but Tyler's absence was much more visible.
When Jose came running and screaming through the door one day at the end of the week, Evie staggered backward and clasped her chest in surprise. With her nest nicely feathered, she had been anticipating no trouble. Ben had just gone back to the ranch, and Kyle Harding hadn't been back since he finished helping her with the moving. She was expecting him today or tomorrow, but it was too early for him now. Daniel was sound asleep in the back room, and he was helpless anyway. Whatever Jose was screaming about would have to be handled without the help of any man. Evie tried to follow Jose's excited yells.
"He's hurting Manuel! Help him, please. Hurry!" Jose darted back out the door again.
Carmen raced in from the front bedroom where she had been putting Maria down for a nap. Evie gestured for her to remain and grabbing up the closest thing she had to a weapon—an iron skillet—she ran after Jose.
She didn't have far to run. In the street just outside the livery a nearly bald-headed man with muscles twice the size of any man Evie had ever seen grappled with a boy dangling from his hands like so much straw. Manuel was putting up a valiant fight, kicking and screaming and swinging his feet, but with his arms caught in vises, he couldn't cause much damage.
"Put that boy down at once, sir!" The skillet forgotten, Evie stood outraged before the giant.
"He stole my money, and I want it back." The man shoved both Manuel's arms into one massive grip and reached for the boy's kicking, squirming leg.
"I did not! I did not. Let me go!" Manuel kicked backward, narrowly missing a vulnerable part of his captor's anatomy. The man swore vigorously and shook him.
"Jose, go get the sheriff, pronto!" Evie demanded. Remembering the skillet, she shook it in the man's face, although her reach was decidedly extended to do so. "Put him down this instant! If he stole money, the sheriff will decide what to do with him. You have no right to touch him."
"I didn't, Miz Peyton. Honest, I didn't." Manuel was nearly weeping, although he was trying valiantly not to.
"Peyton? You Peyton's daughter? Where is that bastard? I've been trying to track him down for years." The giant lowered Manuel slightly, as if he had forgotten the boy while he confronted the furious woman in his path.
Stunned by the direction of the attack, Evie could only stutter. She wanted to know more about a man named Peyton, too, but she certainly didn't want to turn this beast's rage on her. Her creative abilities lagged