“I brought the bell with the other one.”
“That is not the point.”
Billy grinned.
“You’re welcome.”
Martha almost struck him with her mitten.
Instead she leaned heavily against the freight sled.
Her lungs burned.
The journey had taken more from her than she had allowed herself to show.
Her body held heat well in the cold, but moving through uneven snow at her size punished her knees and hips mercilessly. Even climbing from the sled had been difficult. She could feel the left knee beginning to swell.
Billy saw.
“You need to sit.”
“I need to turn thirty heifers before they scatter.”
“They’re moving south.”
“They’ll circle if the wind hits them.”
Billy looked toward the herd.
He knew she was right.
Martha took one breath.
Then another.
“Get the team around the east side.”
“You can’t walk that.”
“I’m not walking.”
She climbed back onto the freight sled with the help of its low iron step and a wooden handrail she had insisted Gideon install the previous month.
Billy smiled.
“You planned all this?”
“No.”
She pulled the blanket around her lap.
“I planned not to be stupid.”
They worked another forty minutes.
By the time the herd moved safely toward the ranch, Martha’s fingers had gone numb.
Billy climbed beside her.
Goliath pulled.
The great horse leaned into the harness with the slow, crushing strength of a machine.
They had almost cleared the pass when Billy pointed.
“Wait.”
Something lay in the snow where one of the riders had fallen.
A leather saddlebag.
Billy jumped down.
“Leave it.”
He looked back.
“Could be useful.”
“Could belong to a man who comes back looking for it.”
“Same thing.”
He retrieved it.
The bag was heavy.
Martha put it between her boots.
They did not open it until they reached the ranch.
That saddlebag would become more important than the stolen cattle.
But neither of them knew it yet.
Josiah Caldwell returned shortly after midnight.
He and six ranch hands came through the storm half frozen after securing the northern herd.
The moment Josiah saw thirty breeding heifers crowded safely into the south corral, he knew something had happened.
The fence at that pasture had been empty when he left.
Gideon Reed jumped from his horse.
“Those are the breeding girls.”
Billy emerged from the barn.
“Yes.”
Josiah looked around.
“Why?”
Billy grinned.
“Montgomery tried stealing them.”
Every man stopped.
Josiah turned slowly.
“What?”
Billy pointed toward the kitchen.
“Martha handled it.”
Josiah did not remember crossing the yard.
One moment he stood beside the corral.
The next he was inside the main cabin.
Martha sat near the stove with blankets around her shoulders and both boots removed.