That evening, the tables were covered with food.
Stew.
Roasted beef.
Fresh bread.
Potatoes.
Preserved fruits.
Honey cakes.
Every dish prepared according to Lara's recipes.
The ranch hands had insisted she was forbidden to cook on her own wedding day.
She had argued.
They refused.
Elias smiled.
“Seems your kitchen has finally mutinied.”
Lara laughed.
“Then I suppose I'll have to enjoy being a guest.”
They danced beneath lanterns strung between the trees.
Elias held her close.
She rested her cheek against his shoulder.
“Do you remember the first night?” she whispered.
He smiled.
“The stew?”
“The stew.”
“I remember.”
“You looked at me like I'd performed magic.”
“Maybe you had.”
She laughed.
“I only cooked supper.”
Elias drew her closer.
“No.”
He looked around at the glowing lanterns, the laughing guests, the river beyond the meadow, and the house that no longer stood lonely.
“You gave me a reason to believe this place could be a home again.”
Lara's eyes filled.
“And you gave me a reason to believe I could belong somewhere.”
He kissed her forehead.
“You always belonged somewhere, sweetheart.”
He smiled.
“It just took you a long journey to find it.”
Chapter 14: The Winter That Came After
Their first winter as husband and wife was harder than either expected.
A late autumn storm destroyed part of the southern fence.
Feed prices rose.
Two calves died during a sudden cold spell.
A wagon carrying supplies broke an axle outside Deadwood.
The kitchen business suffered when snow blocked the main trail.
There were mornings when Elias returned from the barn exhausted and silent.
There were evenings when Lara cried privately because keeping everyone fed seemed impossible.
Marriage did not transform frontier life into a fairy tale.
Love did not make winter warmer.
It did not prevent debt.
It did not stop animals from getting sick or storms from tearing roofs apart.
What changed was that neither of them faced those things alone.
When Elias worried over the accounts, Lara sat beside him.
When Lara doubted herself, Elias reminded her what she had already accomplished.
When they disagreed, they learned to speak before resentment hardened.
Once, during a particularly difficult week, Elias snapped at her over a missing receipt.
Lara went silent.
He immediately regretted it.
But she did not rush to apologize.
Instead she looked at him calmly.
“I will help you solve the problem. I will not accept being spoken to like that.”