Mabel felt cold.
Abel Voss had never wanted her little house.
He had wanted the inheritance she didn’t know existed.
And now they had proof.
From outside came a gunshot.
The front window exploded.
“DOWN!”
Gideon threw himself over Clara.
Another shot struck the wall.
Horses screamed.
Smoke appeared near the barn.
Annie shouted, “Fire!”
Gideon grabbed his rifle.
“Cellar. Now.”
Mabel pushed the girls toward the trapdoor beneath the pantry.
“You’re coming.”
“I have to stop the fire.”
“No.”
“Mabel—”
“You are not dying two weeks after I marry you.”
A bullet struck the porch.
Gideon looked at her.
Even then, impossibly, he smiled.
“That sounded almost romantic.”
“I’ll kill you myself.”
“Very romantic.”
He kissed her hard.
Then ran outside.
The barn was burning.
Three riders moved through the smoke.
Gideon fired.
One man fell from his saddle.
The others split apart.
Mabel hurried the girls into the cellar but Annie grabbed her arm.
“The papers!”
Mabel looked toward the table.
The box.
The proof.
She ran for it.
A shadow appeared in the broken doorway.
Abel Voss.
He held a pistol.
“Leave the box.”
Mabel froze.
Smoke curled through the room.
“You murdered Nathan,” she said.
Voss smiled sadly.
“No.”
The answer surprised her.
“But I would have eventually.”
He stepped inside.
“Your husband caused an extraordinary amount of trouble without realizing it. He asked questions about the Cinder Creek water syndicate. He wrote letters. He uncovered records.”
“You took our house.”
“I needed his papers.”
“You left my children hungry.”
“I needed you desperate.”
Mabel stared at him.
“You thought desperation would make me obedient.”
“Yes.”
His eyes hardened.
“I miscalculated.”
Outside, more gunfire.
“Give me the box.”
“No.”
Voss cocked the pistol.
“Mabel.”
Annie appeared behind him.
She held a cast-iron skillet.
Voss never saw it coming.
The skillet struck his skull with a sound like a church bell.
He dropped.
Mabel stared.
Annie stared.
“I told you to stay in the cellar.”
“I know.”
“That was incredibly dangerous.”
“I know.”
Mabel hugged her.
“Your father would have been furious.”
“I know.”
“He’d also be proud.”
They dragged the box away.
Outside, the fire climbed higher.
Then riders appeared from the eastern ridge.
For one terrifying second Mabel believed more men were coming.
Then she recognized Sheriff Boone.
Behind him rode half of Cinder Creek.
Mr. Bell.
The blacksmith.
The preacher.
Even the men who had once laughed about sending the widow to Gideon’s ranch.
They had seen the smoke.
And they had come.
Buckets formed a line from the creek.
The fire was beaten before it reached the house.
Voss’s men surrendered.
By midnight, Abel Voss sat handcuffed in the back of a wagon with blood dried in his hair.
Before leaving, he looked at Mabel.
“You think you won?”
She said nothing.
“There are things in that box Cross hasn’t told you.”
Gideon stepped forward.
Voss smiled.
“Ask him why he really let you inside that first day.”
The wagon rolled away.
Mabel turned.
Gideon had gone pale.
Her heart sank.
“What does he mean?”
