“I don’t know.”
His face hardened.
There.
The old fear.
Mercy set down the shirt.
“Caleb.”
He looked away.
“I am not Anna.”
“I know.”
“I cannot promise I will never leave.”
His jaw clenched.
Mercy continued:
“But I can promise something else.”
“What?”
“If I decide to go, you will hear it from me.”
“I won’t disappear.”
“I won’t pack while you sleep.”
“I won’t let you wonder what you did wrong.”
Caleb’s eyes filled.
He hated that.
Turned away.
Mercy waited.
Finally he whispered:
“The second woman left a note.”
“What did it say?”
“Nothing about us.”
“That still hurt.”
He nodded.
Mercy said:
“You deserved goodbye.”
Caleb wiped his face angrily.
Then stood.
Before leaving, he said:
“I hope you don’t go.”
Mercy’s heart broke open.
“I hope so too.”
Spring approached.
Bell Ranch improved.
Recovered cattle revenue.
Better supply contracts.
Harlan’s fraud exposed weak points Thomas had ignored.
Mercy built systems.
Every delivery counted.
Every invoice signed by two people.
Cattle-sale authority documented.
Bank notices copied.
Thomas complained about paperwork.
Mercy threatened to make him cook.
He stopped complaining.
Then a different problem arrived.
The boys’ maternal grandfather.
Edwin Ward.
A merchant from Nebraska.
Anna’s father.
He had visited only twice since her death.
Now he came carrying legal papers.
He believed Bell Ranch was unstable.
The fraud story reached him distorted.
He heard Thomas nearly lost cattle.
Children living with an unrelated woman.
Financial trouble.
He wanted the three youngest boys sent east “temporarily.”
Thomas refused immediately.
Mercy remained silent.
Edwin looked at her.
“So this is the woman.”
Mercy raised an eyebrow.
“I’ve been called worse.”
He did not smile.
“You are not their mother.”
“I know.”
“You have no legal standing.”
“I know.”
“This is family business.”
Mercy stood.
“Then I’ll leave you to it.”
Thomas looked toward her.
She nodded once.
This was his fight.
That evening, he told her what Edwin wanted.
Mercy listened.
Thomas paced.
“He thinks I cannot raise them.”
“Can you?”
Thomas stopped.
He looked almost offended.
Mercy held his gaze.
“Answer.”
“Yes.”
“Then prove it.”
“How?”
“Not to Edwin.”
“To yourself.”
Thomas slowly sat.
Mercy continued:
“Who teaches Isaac reading?”
He thought.
“Caleb sometimes.”
“Who knows Owen’s boots are too small?”
Silence.
“Who knows Benjamin wakes after nightmares?”
Thomas’s face fell.
Mercy did.
“Who knows Matthew is hiding a loose tooth because he thinks fourteen is too old to be afraid of pulling it?”