And because of it, his boys kept their father.

Silas Vane was arrested.

So was Sheriff Crowe.

The fraudulent transfer of Callaway land was voided.

Harlan’s mortgage disappeared with it.

And when the territorial court finally recognized the surviving heirs, the land legally belonged to two people.

Margaret Callaway.

And Nora.

But Nora hardly cared.

She had gotten something greater than land.

Her mother.

Margaret moved into the ranch before winter.

Rue adored her immediately.

Within three days he had convinced her that grandmothers existed primarily to produce molasses cookies.

Porter followed her everywhere.

Reeve asked endless questions about Nell.

Margaret answered each one.

Thomas avoided her at first.

Then one evening Nora found the seventeen-year-old sitting beside his grandmother on the porch, crying silently while Margaret held his hand.

Cade went back to school.

Eli stopped sharpening knives at the dinner table.

And slowly the house changed.

Curtains appeared in windows.

Broken chairs were repaired.

Rooms were painted.

There was laughter in places that had forgotten it.

But one thing remained unresolved.

Harlan.

Spring came.

Then summer.

Nora still lived at the ranch.

Not as Harlan’s wife.

Not exactly as his guest.

One evening they stood beside the newly repaired barn while sunset turned the prairie copper.

Harlan cleared his throat.

“I received something from the county clerk.”

Nora looked at him.

“A tax bill?”

“No.”

“Another forged marriage?”

He winced.

“I’ll never survive that joke, will I?”

“No.”

He handed her a paper.

It formally declared the proxy marriage void.

Nora read it.

“So I’m free.”

“Yes.”

Harlan looked toward the horizon.

“You can go anywhere.”

Nora folded the paper.

“Are you trying to get rid of me?”

“No.”

“Then you’re doing a poor impression.”

He exhaled.

“I don’t want you to stay because Thomas tricked you here.”

She said nothing.

“Or because of Nell.”

Still nothing.

“Or because the boys need you.”

“Harlan—”

“I need to say this badly before I lose courage completely.”

That silenced her.

He turned.

“I loved your sister.”

Nora’s throat tightened.

“I know.”

“I always will.”

“I know.”

“But grief isn’t the only thing a man can carry.”

His eyes met hers.

“And loving someone who is gone does not prevent the heart from recognizing someone who is standing right in front of you.”

Nora could barely breathe.

Harlan stepped closer.

“I don’t want Nell back through you.”

His voice softened.

“I want the woman who walked two miles carrying her own trunk because nobody met her.”

Nora’s eyes filled.

“The woman who ordered six feral boys to sit down and somehow lived.”

A laugh escaped her.

“The woman who slapped me before she’d been in my house six hours.”

“You deserved it.”

“I did.”

He took her hand.

“I want Nora Callaway.”

She looked down at their joined fingers.

“You realize I own the ranch now.”

“Painfully aware.”

“My mother owns half.”

“Also aware.”

“So technically, you’d be marrying into money.”

“Rue already informed me.”

Nora laughed.

Then Harlan reached into his pocket.

Not for a ring.

For a folded advertisement.

The original matrimonial notice Thomas had answered.

Across the bottom Thomas had written in childish determination: