Amelia helped Bella with the dishes. They'd been talking about the desserts they might enter in the Founder's Day baking competitions.
"I wasn't kidding about the pie," Amelia said, "You make a mean one."
Bella shrugged.
"I know but I think I'll try some apple pie…since we've got that little orchard. Rosie's been tending to it now that she's quit the saloon."
"I'm happy she did."
"Me too…more time to put her to work here. She and Scarlet have really worked so hard. I know that saloon owner's not happy about it…been complaining to the Wyatts."
Amelia picked up a dish to dry.
"Well there's not much they can do about it. It's the women's choices. I'm just thankful they got to make them."
Both women thought it might get rough for both of the former saloon girls but Ethan and Dakota had helped a lot there…with smoothing it over with Sam and making it clear to him that no harm or threats were to come to either woman. But Amelia knew that Sam wasn't the only potential troublemaker in the mix.
The security men were far worse. She knew that Ethan was getting closer and closer to going after them. He might be working with Boone to do it which she hoped would keep him out of trouble.
"Ethan meant it when he told Sam he didn't want any trouble," Bella said, "and he always keeps his word."
"Yes he does and I'm still worried about him…but I know enough to give him the freedom to do what he feels is right. He's still the marshal after all."
"He's worried about you…and we know what's going on with those men."
"You mean Burke and Trevor? They're going on as if it's life as usual."
"They belong in jail…they're leaving a trail of dead men…and after what they did to you?"
Amelia put another couple of dishes she'd dried away.
"Darrin Wyatt won't do anything about them…because he needs them. He knew what they were like when he hired them."
"Ethan can take care of them."
"He'll get hurt…or worse. I couldn't face that…if anything happened to him because of what those men did."
"He can handle himself. I know it and you know it too and if this Boone is as good as his reputation…"
"I think he is," Amelia said, "but Ethan will want to help him and that worries me. I can't help it. It's not that I don't accept what he is but these two men…they've already gotten away with so much and yet…they still have the advantage."
"It's not going to matter," Bella said, "I've seen Ethan in action even against a pack of outlaws on his own and my money will always be on him."
Amelia knew that having seen it herself. But then again, she'd seen Burke and Trevor in action too.
Ethan drove the wagon with the children and puppy in it back to the ranch. He'd hated to leave Amelia behind but he knew she needed to decide what she wanted from him and when…not his favorite place to be but he knew enough to be patient with her. What he wanted to was wring a couple necks before hanging them for what they'd done but he needed to still build a case against them. Boone might help him but the man seemed intent on his own brand of justice.
Not that Ethan blamed him…he might not have lost a brother at the hands of those men but the woman he loved had been badly scarred from her encounter with them. That was enough to hang them from the center of town as far as he was concerned.
The boys seemed to quiet down when the pup stopped barking. Claire and Joseph had been talking about the picnic. She'd wanted to cook something for a contest and Joseph wanted to enter a steer roping contest. He'd been practicing on his horse and one of the older ones who'd been turned out to the meadow. Ethan had tried explaining to him that this was an old beat up steer, not like the ones used in the competition.
But of course Joseph paid him little mind.
"Do you think my crumb cake could win Uncle Ethan?"
Claire had spoken up from where she sat behind him. He glanced behind at her before keeping his attention focused on the road.
"Yeah I think you definitely have a shot…I'd enter it."
She seemed happy about that.
"I know that I've just been practicing…and my apple cobbler's better but I think there'll be enough of that but not crumb cake."
Made sense to him.
"So are you and Boone going to catch the men who killed his brother?"
Just like that and so smoothly she'd shifted from one topic to the next. One harmless and the other, not so much. He had to think about what to tell her.
"Claire…I hope so but it's complicated."
She sighed at that.
"Because you know who did it but you can't find them…or you can't get them?"
No point in downplaying the truth or lying instead.
"That about sums it up."
"Amelia knows doesn't she?"
He nodded.
"She saw them kill another man."
"In San Francisco…"
"Yeah…before they came here."
"That's not all they did was it?"
No, not by a long shot but he didn't want to get into the details of it with his niece.
"She doesn't like to talk about it Claire. It's her business."
"I know that. I'm not a child."
Ethan smiled at the quiet resolve in her voice. No, Claire hadn't been a child for a long time, since even before her mother passed. Partly his fault he knew but what else could he have done? He had his profession and marshaling…it still put demands on him and his family even with Dakota and Charlie helping him.
"No you're not but it's hard to talk about for a woman when…"
"I know…I mean I imagine it would be," she said, "You know when I was taken by those mountain men…well I understand better than you think."
The old fear returned…he'd remembered that ordeal, one of his first with the children quite well but she'd been rescued…hadn't she?
"Nothing happened Uncle Ethan…but it could have… Some men are just evil like that. Like the Hendersons."
Ethan remembered that episode as well, the one that had split the town right down the middle when a gang took Amelia and the children hostage along with others at the hotel. The town had been unified in wanting to rescue the hostages until Amelia had been forced to rob her own bank.
He'd known afterward what Amelia had faced…though she'd tried to keep it to herself. She'd simply told him that was what women faced in a rugged environment where the decisions were all made by men. It was all about survival and for a woman, there were more things to survive against, that's all. He didn't pretend to understand that but accepted that she didn't want to discuss it.
But this time it'd been different and this time the men who'd thought they could dominate one woman would pay for it.
He would be the one doling out the punishment soon enough.