Epilogue

A UGUST 1874

Dakota and Maeve came to Oscar and Ginny's wedding. They held it in Hidden Canyon in August, three months after Dakota and Maeve had been married.

Her ma came, too, with Bruce, now her husband. Maeve could see that the loneliness had disappeared from Ma's eyes. She'd spent time asking for her ma's forgiveness and apologizing to Bruce. Spending the winter in the same cabin with them had helped heal the strife Maeve's unhappiness had caused. And finding a love of her own helped her see things with new wisdom.

The rest of the O'Toole family came, including Donal and his new wife, Suzie, and their daughter.

They'd barely settled into the canyon when, to Maeve's delight, Kat and Seb arrived riding in a buggy.

They brought their infant son, who was cradled in Kat's arms. A stranger rode with them, yet Maeve only had eyes for her friends.

"Kat!" Maeve ran toward her, carrying a secret of her own. She reckoned there was a little one on the way for her and Dakota. "You came all this way. It's so nice to see you."

Kat smiled. "I keep hoping they'll build tracks to Boise. That would bring us to within an hour's ride of the canyon. But so far they haven't added so much as a mile, not since the panic of seventy-three."

Dakota drew closer to Kat, Seb, and little Patrick. They'd named him after Kat's uncle who had locked her away. But he later realized his error and how spiteful he'd acted toward her, and he did his best to set things right before he died.

Seb had four new patents, but none for his invention of a battery that could be powered by the sun. But he'd built a truly ingenious mousetrap, pestered into it by Kat after a rodent infestation in their house.

Maeve was startled to see Yvette coming out of a new house, built last fall when Maeve and Dakota had visited briefly. Yvette gave them a shy smile, and then her eyes shifted to the stranger. The shock on her face had Maeve bracing herself for trouble.

The man said, "Yvette? Is it really you?"

"Remember not to touch her, Noah," Kat whispered. "Be very gentle."

The man gave Kat a little nod, then walked slowly toward Yvette.

"Noah?" Yvette stopped in her tracks, but as Noah approached her, she didn't run away.

When he was within about ten feet of her, he said, "Yvette, I've been searching for you."

Yvette had gained weight, and she was no longer pale. She looked healthy and far less delicate than last summer. Now she was steady and calm. She wore a simple gingham dress in navy blue that looked almost regal on her.

Kat said quietly, "That's Parson Noah Wilson. He told me he spent years called to the mission field in Oregon. Yvette's marriage, the asylum, the death of her husband, Rutledge getting her out and bringing her west, her running off and hiding in this canyon—all of that happened when he was gone."

Noah heard Kat and turned to her. "I'm trying to save souls, lead them to God, but meanwhile my sister was being abused. I was in Chicago for over a year, trying to track down word of Yvette. I heard a lot about her husband, but there was no trace of her. Kat's investigators finally found me and told me what was going on. She said she was going to see Yvette and invited me to come along."

He looked straight at Yvette. "I'm here now to set things right. I'll do whatever you need, Yvette, to convince you I won't harm you."

Yvette nodded, and a tear streaked down her face. She walked into her brother Noah's arms.

He smiled with such kindness at his sister. Maeve saw he wore a parson's collar.

Beth came out of the house, her children tagging along after her. "Have you heard we're going to blast a bigger entrance into the canyon? We're done being snowed in every winter, cut off from the rest of the world for six months out of the year. We didn't think of it last winter until we were locked in, but we aren't going to let it happen again. Maeve, you and Dakota and your family are all invited for Thanksgiving dinner."

"I have news," Seb said.

"Besides the baby?" Beth looked with loving maternal eyes on Kat's little one.

"Yes. We closed the Horecroft Asylum. With Horecroft in prison, it wasn't that difficult. We found better homes for everyone there, including bringing quite a few of them to Cheyenne. We've built a good, comfortable home for those who need care, and we've set the rest free. All of the women who were locked away by cruel husbands when they were perfectly sane have proved their sanity to the satisfaction of the courts in Wyoming and are safe now.

"The territory needs more women, so they've been made to feel very welcome." Kat grinned as she bounced her daughter.

Noah came up with Yvette beside him. "If it suits Yvette, I want to stay here with her. Maybe someday, if she wants, we'll move out. But for now, Hidden Canyon could use a parson."

Joseph had come out and was talking with Bruce.

Maeve heard Bruce say, "I can't believe Oscar finally convinced Ginny to marry him."

Joseph laughed. Jake joined in, then Beth.

"What's funny about that?" Bruce asked.

"It was the other way around," answered Beth. "That is why it's so funny. Mama spent the whole winter convincing Oscar to marry her. He's had a hard time not looking at her and seeing that highborn lady of the manor he once worked for. Lucky for Mama, he also loved her. He finally said yes."

Oscar and Ginny emerged, him from the cave house, her from the cabin. Both were dressed in their very best, which was still broadcloth and calico. But when their eyes met, their smiles were richer than silk and satin.

Oscar came to be with her, and the two walked arm in arm to where the rest had gathered near the canyon entrance. Seeing the parson's collar, Oscar said, "We were going to ride to the nearest settlement for the wedding, but maybe now we don't have to."

Noah nodded. "Let's have a wedding."

Maeve felt Dakota come up behind her and slide an arm around her waist. He pulled her close so she could lean into him. She'd found love in that mountain valley with Dakota. She'd grown up enough to know her ma deserved to find love, too.

How long ago it seemed when they'd all set out on the journey west, their wagon wheels rolling over miles and miles of prairie grass.

She looked at Ginny, Kat, and Yvette and could see they'd found freedom and safety. She thought of those other women who'd been locked away, who were now free and had a chance at happiness. She could imagine her father, a man at peace and safe in the arms of God, and knew he would be happy for them all.

The journey, winding and long and hard, had begun as they chased the horizon to the west, continued as they turned toward the dawn, and finished with a showdown between Ginny and her horrible husband, between Dakota and the men who chased him, and between Maeve and her loneliness.

They'd traveled and they'd settled. They married and started families. And now, finally, they'd all followed the western light into the sunset. That light had led them all the way home.