Chapter 27

Joseph survived, but he didn't return home with Jake and Oscar and Dakota. Instead, he stayed at the O'Tooles' place and might well be there all winter. The doctor declared that he had a broken arm and possibly a fractured skull. Definitely some broken ribs, as he fought for most every breath he took.

All in all, he was definitely too fragile to move. Beth's arm and shoulder healed slowly. Jake had talked to the doctor about her but hadn't brought him back to Hidden Canyon. The doctor advised having her move it as usual despite the pain to promote a full healing. She was improving daily.

Dakota asked if he could live in the cave house for the winter and gentle the herd of mustangs. Oscar agreed and let him have Seb's room.

No one had seen Yvette, and no one had gone looking. She hadn't come back to take her meals on her boulder. But it was getting colder, and she might have wanted to give that up anyway. Beth, on Mama's orders, had left a few things in her cave, including warmer clothes, yet no one had seen her, and no one checked to see if she was staying there.

They didn't know how she'd taken Joseph's injuries, but she was definitely avoiding them, and Joseph, who'd connected most closely to her, wasn't there to try to renew the connection.

Over the days of tumult following the stampede, Beth noticed Mama was particularly quiet and contemplative. She guessed what was on her mind.

They'd told the O'Tooles everything and asked them to keep it a secret, and before they returned to their homestead, Mama announced she was going to fight Father so they didn't have to hide in the canyon for the rest of their lives. If they did stay, it would be their choice, not a necessity.

"I don't even know the law. Beth, you've tried to talk to me about it, but I've always been too afraid to listen. No more. What have you learned?"

"Well, a woman named Elizabeth Packard was locked in an asylum and only released after years of confinement. When she got out, her husband locked her in a room in his house and had plans to move her to another asylum. She dropped a note out a small window to a passerby. The note was delivered to a friend, who got a judge to demand that Mrs. Packard appear before him. It ended up in a trial to prove her sanity, and the jury found in her favor. Since then she's traveled the country fighting for changes in the laws. Last I heard, she's helped five states update their laws, making it illegal for a husband to simply declare his wife insane and have her locked up. A woman must be given a chance to prove her sanity."

"Insane until proven sane?" Oscar scowled. "Sounds too much like guilty until proven innocent."

"That's what it sounds like to me, too. I know it's a risk, but if one woman can stand up for herself like that, then I can."

Beth said, "Elizabeth Packard, who spent years in an insane asylum, changed the world, Mama. Working alone, she made it safer for women like you. It might be hard and possibly dangerous, although I can't imagine any reasonable jury in the world finding you insane. You can do it."

"Joseph was badly harmed, and a lot of that is because we are so far from help out here. Even when Dakota went for a doctor, I was too afraid to let the doctor come here, so we moved Joseph and possibly did more harm to him because of my situation. I can do it. I can, and I will." Mama would have sounded much more convincing if she wasn't trembling when she spoke. But fearful or not, Mama was determined to face her husband and defy his cruel efforts to declare her insane.

Mama nodded and said, "Come spring, or whenever this canyon thaws open, I am leaving Hidden Canyon to find a lawyer to discuss how to handle my case. We will go to court and slap my husband down hard for what he did to me. And what he continues to do by chasing after me."

Oscar was planning to accompany her so he could steal her away again in the event she lost her case. They wouldn't risk Rutledge getting his hands on her.

The days passed, and they settled into what might be their last winter in Hidden Canyon. It was a shame because it really was a beautiful place.

They spent the winter with a more reckless kind of man. Dakota was a different man, more on edge than on the wagon train. Of course, she'd mostly been paying attention to Jake.

Dakota was determined to capture and tame the herd of mustangs. Considering how far they were from a doctor, Beth thought it was a poor excuse for an idea. But Dakota wouldn't be deterred and spent time each day busting broncs.

It made the winter livelier with him around.

Oscar found Yvette living back in the cave where she'd spent last winter. This winter she had a straw tick for a mattress, changes of clothes, and plenty of blankets. Mama took Yvette her meals once a day, but Yvette hid until Mama, with Oscar always at hand, set down the fresh plate of food, took plates from the day before, and left. Whatever progress she'd made in calming her mind seemed to have been lost.

Beth watched it all as the canyon was closed in by snow. Dakota survived being thrown over and over by the mustangs, and Yvette skulked around the edges of their lives.

And her babies grew into toddlers.

She loved her life in the canyon and feared what would happen when Mama emerged in the spring to fight for her right to walk around free.

Kat endured the most elaborate funeral a man ever had. It was a parade, for heaven's sake. A glass caisson drawn by four black horses with black feathers in their manes and shining brass livery, with a marching band playing mournful tunes.

The next day she called a meeting of the board of directors for her uncle's business and announced it was for sale.

She walked out of the meeting with a fortune because the board had bought her out. In fact, they'd done it eagerly and with much excitement, almost like they were glad Uncle Patrick was dead and a weak-minded woman had inherited everything.

Her uncle had owned property besides his company: a mansion, carriages, horses, fine clothing, gold watches and cuff links, and much more. Kat also discovered a generous trust fund due to Jeremy's widow. It made her angry to think how they'd watched their pennies, how she'd gone back to work at her pa's side to make ends meet, and they'd been denied the chance to buy a home because they couldn't afford it, all when there'd been so much money available.

She and Seb left for Cheyenne bearing trunks full of gold, afraid with every step that they'd be robbed, even though they'd left thousands behind in every church offering box they could find in Chicago.

The train crossing Iowa was a chance to donate generously, followed by churches in Omaha that received their gold, and on across the state of Nebraska—leaving money in every town as they traveled on toward Cheyenne and home. Seb had also ordered a huge number of supplies to do his experiments. And animals for the farm to be shipped west.

Despite using a very generous hand, they arrived in Cheyenne and donated to every church there and still had a fortune. Very odd how hard it was to give away so much money.

Between the funeral and Kat's business dealings, it was late enough in the year that they decided to postpone their trip to Idaho. They wrote to the O'Tooles and asked them to mail Seb's packet back, which was waiting for them in Cheyenne along with the supplies Seb had ordered. And a few things for the farm. Two milk cows. A flock of chickens. A small herd of pigs. A pair of hound dogs. A cat. A cookstove. Honestly, they'd gotten whatever they could think of, but they really didn't need much, and their brush with greed back east had given them even less interest in wealth.

Seb had directed his lawyers to sell his house and laboratory in Independence. He'd invited Mrs. Gundersen to move to Cheyenne and live near them, but she'd declined.

They had wired ahead, and Mr. Walther had built them a chicken coop, a pigsty, a bigger barn, and corrals large enough for their cows and for the horses they'd left behind being boarded in Cheyenne.

Mr. Walther was done and gone from their property by the time they arrived.

They'd also ordered a plow, which they couldn't use for a while because winter was closing in.

With everything done and in place, finally they were home. Kat fully expected, once they were home, Seb would disappear into his laboratory, and she'd again need to face a lonely life.

This time she was determined to get more involved in the church in Cheyenne and any other groups she found interesting. She'd no longer suffer loneliness because of her lunkhead of a husband.

Seb moved all his supplies into the laboratory while Kat got the chickens and pigs and cows and dogs and cat settled. She was surprised to find him in the house when she was done with working in the barn.

"Why aren't you working?" she asked.

Seb came to her and drew her into his arms. "I'm not working because, from this day forward, I promise you most sincerely that you're never going to regret marrying me."

Kat let herself be held for long moments. Then she said quietly against his chest, "I love you, Sebastian Jones, and I will never regret marrying you."

He pulled away, but just a few inches, and held on to her. "I've told you I love you. Just as you've told me. But my love is going to be more than words. After all that we've been through. After seeing how smart you are and how much better our lives are when we work together ... things are going to be different around here."

Kat narrowed her eyes. "Does that mean you're going to make me help you in the laboratory?"

Seb chuckled, then laughed out loud and kissed her soundly. "No, that is not what I mean. I'm not doing my experiments until the chores are done around here. I'm going to pay attention to life outside the laboratory. What I'm working on is fascinating, though, and I think it'll make the world a better place. But seeing how excited Marcus became over inventions because he wanted the attention and fame made me realize I harbored some of the same things inside me that he did."

"But you would never steal another man's work to make yourself famous," Kat said.

"No, I would not. And I wouldn't hire someone to shoot a man, nor do it myself. Even so, I had that same sinful wish to be important in the world, to make a name for myself. The Good Book says, ‘For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?'"

"Your work wouldn't cost you your soul, Seb."

"I believe my faith is solid, but my work could cost me my wife's happiness. It could cost me a place of service in church and the chance to be a good neighbor and a good friend. Those are real losses, and they make me a poor Christian and a poor husband. I don't want that to be my legacy." He pulled her close and kissed her. "Now, it's time for supper, and the cookstove is in place. Oscar taught me how to do some simple cooking. I want you to sit down at the dinner table and let me take care of you. I'll fry up a steak from the beef we bought in town, and I'll serve you supper."

Kat couldn't quite believe it, but oh she wanted to.

"How about instead we make supper together and you tell me about your experiments? And then we can plot out how best to hide our gold and how to spend it wisely in a way that will further God's work here on earth."

Seb kissed her again and whispered, as if there were others around who might overhear him, "Thank you. I'm not sure I can make this meal without burning down the house."