Not much.
Enough.
She filled another bowl.
Then Wyatt shouted.
“DON’T SWALLOW THAT!”
The entire yard stopped.
Abigail looked up.
Wyatt stood beside her chopping table.
He had stepped out of line without her noticing.
One hand reached beneath the lower shelf.
He pulled out a bundle wrapped in bloodstained cloth.
Abigail stared.
She had never seen it.
Wyatt held it high.
“What the hell is this?”
Caleb straightened.
Abigail set down the ladle.
“I don’t know.”
Wyatt laughed harshly.
“Sure.”
He placed the bundle on the table and peeled back the cloth.
Inside lay a strip of fresh hide.
Attached to it was a brass butcher’s tag.
A brand mark had been cut into the hide.
Two crossed arrows beneath an R.
Caleb’s face changed.
Several men in line murmured.
One said, “Red Hollow.”
Another: “Damn.”
Abigail looked at Caleb.
“What?”
He stepped toward the table.
“Red Hollow Ranch.”
“So?”
Caleb picked up the tag carefully.
“Three goats disappeared from their north pen last night.”
Abigail stared.
The yard seemed to narrow around her.
Wyatt pointed toward the stew.
“Well, there’s your goats.”
Abigail looked at him.
Then the pot.
Then the bloodstained cloth.
Every face had changed.
Amos stopped eating.
Not because he disliked the food.
Because nobody understood anymore what they were eating.
Wyatt stepped closer.
“You bought goat from a peddler, right?”
“Yes.”
“Convenient.”
Abigail’s stomach tightened.
Caleb looked at her.
“Who sold it?”
“Elias Warren.”
“Where?”
“South road.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
“Receipt?”
Abigail almost laughed.
“A traveling butcher selling meat from a mule wagon does not provide receipts.”
Wyatt spread his hands.
“There you go.”
Abigail stared at him.
His expression held satisfaction.
Too much.
Caleb noticed.
So did she.
But thirty hungry men saw only evidence beneath her table.
Evidence in her kitchen.
A missing-animal brand.
Fresh blood.
Goat stew.
Abigail felt the old humiliation rise.
Different shape.
Same feeling.
People deciding before they knew.
Caleb stepped between Wyatt and the table.
“Back up.”
Wyatt scoffed.
“You protecting her now?”
“Yes.”
The word came instantly.
Several cowboys looked at one another.
Wyatt smiled.
“That why you caught her alone earlier?”
Caleb’s expression hardened.
“Careful.”
“Oh, I’m careful.”
Wyatt gestured toward Abigail.
“Maybe careful enough to notice the foreman’s gone soft because the new cook smiles at him.”
Abigail’s face burned.
Not because the accusation was entirely wrong.