Amelia tore across the meadow on her palomino gelding, the wind blowing her hair loose around her face and the staccato beats of hooves meeting earth filling her ears. She did this every morning when no one was watching. She'd saddle up her horse and then take off outside of Paradise to ride down to the lake.

The world didn't watch her as she fed the side of her that she hid behind stylish dresses and neatly coiffed hair. She knew everyone in town viewed her as the standoffish, shrew manager of the town's bank, a consummate business woman whose husband abandoned her one day. Rumors abounded about that event and she'd heard every one of them. She returned them with smiles and polite behavior behind the counter of the bank she could never really own.

Women didn't own banks after all. They didn't own much of anything. Many served as ornaments but not her. She controlled the town's money and most of its power in ways that few of the men guessed and yet, it wasn't the same as being one of them. They might treat her with respect inside her business and when she was about town but the gossip of her husband's departure still loomed.

Times like the mornings, she could get away from it on her horse. She rode faster than the wind, forgetting all else except the beauty around her.

She'd stop her horse and dismount at the lake's edge. Then she'd do what no one would suspect of her by stripping off her dress all the way to her undergarments and then she'd dive into the lake. Her swimming strokes could be clean and crisp, slicing through the water effortlessly until she reached the rocks by the waterfall. She'd climb on top of them as the water cascaded over her head and shoulders, relishing every moment of it.

It reminded her so much of home back in Australia where she lived on the fringes of the Outback, far from civilization. She'd head towards the river that cut through the wilderness and swim like a fish with her brothers…and now years later, thousands of miles away she'd do the same here. Sometimes she felt like staying there forever, suspended in the beauty of it all but soon enough she'd leave the lake and dry off in the hot sun until she could put her clothes back on and head back to Paradise and life as the town's only banker.

Filling the role that she'd taken to alleviate the loneliness in her life that began while her husband had still been coming home.

A mile away, Claire ran out to tell the boys they still had a lot of work to do before heading into town. Founder's Day was soon to be celebrated and though Claire didn't know much about the holiday or even the history of their new hometown, she had felt some excitement about it. The younger boys, Ben and George just wanted to know if there were other children to play games with during the celebration but Claire didn't really know.

Ethan came out leading a horse.

"All right no dawdling. I want to get to town. Joseph. Come hold her won't you?"

"Okay…"

The boy took the mare from his uncle. He'd been itching to do more riding even though he didn't much know how to do it but he was learning.

Amelia rode past the ranch house and watched them from behind some trees. She'd been wanting to check and see how Ethan and the children were doing in the ranch house that she'd leased them. Just to make sure they were taking good care of it of course. She saw Ethan hitching the horse up to the wagon and smiled. He sure was something to look at…not that she cared about that. She was a married woman after all, even if her husband had taken leave of the arrangement. It'd been two years since she'd even seen the cad and she'd moved on with her life.

Ethan looked at Joseph.

"Where's Ben?"

Joseph looked around.

"I don't know…somewhere."

Ben was out in the wooded area holding the pistol he'd lifted from his uncle's gun collection. Just borrowing it, he told himself…he had no intentions of shooting anything with it. Just wanted to hold it in his hand and walk around with it a bit. No harm in that right? He'd return it back with the others as soon as he was done and Uncle Ethan would never know differently.

He knew his uncle lived by the gun and he wanted to feel what it was like to hold one in his hand. It was heavier than he thought, hard and unyielding. He took it outside to the wooded area past where his brothers and sister were doing chores.

Then suddenly ahead of him, he saw a brown furry rabbit just sitting there and his mind shifted away from just holding the gun to using it to shoot them all some dinner. If he could only shoot the rabbit for food, his uncle would be proud of him. He wanted his uncle to be proud of him and not just look at him as a little boy underfoot all the time.

He pressed the trigger…once and then twice and just heard clicks. Nothing happened, the rabbit simply bounded away from him while he followed. Perplexed that nothing did happen, so different than when his uncle used the gun.

Claire pitched hay onto the wagon while George played and when he slipped, she helped him up. She was eager to get done with chores so they could all go to town and see how the Founder's Day preparations were taking place.

Then suddenly a cow bounded out of the corral and took off running.

"George get the cow! Joseph help!"

George tried to jump on the cow but it pitched him off effortlessly and Joseph grabbed some rope lying on the fence. Claire picked up George.

"Come on George. You okay?"

Then she turned her attention to Joseph who started twirling the rope to make a lasso.

"Joseph stop playing around."

The rope fell around and cinched the cow's neck and she took off dragging Joseph behind him.

"I got him. I got him…"

Ethan saw what happened and took off after the cow grabbing hold of her. He and his nephew maneuvered her back to the barn area.

George just looked at them.

"How'd you do that?"

Joseph spread his arms.

"You saw that. It was easy."

"Did John Taylor teach you?"

"No taught myself…"

Ethan turned to face them after putting the cow back in the correl.

"You get some wire in town and fix this gate."

Ben took off after the rabbit. He crept up to it after it stopped to nibble some plants, took aim with the gun and pressed the trigger again.

Pow!

Ethan ran up to him at top speed thinking the worse. That one of the children, probably Ben since he hadn't seen him in a while got himself shot up somehow. An outlaw maybe? The other children followed him.

Ethan saw his nephew standing there.

"Ben…"

The young boy looked fearful knowing he was in a heap of trouble.

"You all right?"

Ethan grabbed the gun away and then gripped his shoulders, started yelling.

"What are you doing? What are you doing?"

Ben's lip quivered and he tried to force the words out.

"I…I…"

George interjected.

"He didn't know it was loaded."

"Well it was loaded wasn't it?"

Ben just nodded.

"Ben I told you to stay away from the guns and I meant it. You're too little to handle a gun."

The young boy just stared at him mutely.

"Now let's get to town. We're never going to make it at this rate."

They all headed back to the house with Ben trailing behind them.