**A WIDOWED MOUNTAIN MAN STOPPED FOR A MOTHER AND BABY IN THE RAIN… THEN SHE WHISPERED, “MAY WE SLEEP IN YOUR BARN?”**
“That does not comfort me.”
“That does not comfort me.”
“Wasn’t meant to.”
She shook her head.
“Do mountain men practice being difficult?”
“Only the talented ones.”
That earned him a small smile.
By evening, snow began falling.
Not enough to stop them.
Enough to cover tracks.
Cole considered it a gift.
At dawn they left.
Josie rode Buster.
Cole walked beside the horse.
William was secured against Josie’s chest beneath Cole’s old buffalo coat.
For the first two miles, no one spoke.
The mountain absorbed sound.
Fresh snow coated the pines.
Clouds hung low between the ridges.
Josie looked around.
“I thought mountains would feel larger.”
Cole glanced up.
“They do.”
“They feel close today.”
“That’s weather.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“They feel like walls.”
Cole understood that too.
“Walls can keep things out.”
“They can also keep things in.”
He nodded.
“Depends which side you’re on.”
By noon they reached the old logging road.
Cole stopped.
Tracks crossed the trail.
Three horses.
Fresh.
Josie saw his face.
“What?”
He raised a finger for silence.
Then came a distant sound.
A horse snorted.
Cole grabbed Buster’s bridle and led him off the trail behind a stand of fir trees.
“Get down.”
Josie slid from the saddle.
Cole helped her.
“What is it?”
“Men.”
“How many?”
“At least three.”
She clutched William.
Cole pulled the rifle free.
“Stay here.”
Her hand caught his sleeve.
“Cole.”
He looked at her.
Fear filled her eyes.
Not for herself.
For him.
“I buried one man,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“Don’t make me—”
“I know.”
Cole covered her hand briefly with his.
Then he disappeared through the trees.
Three riders emerged five minutes later.
Cole watched from above the trail.
One was broad and red-bearded.
Another wore a black duster.
The third had a narrow face and a scar through his eyebrow.
Cole recognized him.
Dale Mercer.
Not kin to Josie, despite the name.
A hired enforcer who had worked the mining camps for years.
Cole had seen him break a man’s jaw over a gambling debt in Hamilton.
Dale stopped beneath the trees.
“Tracks disappear here.”
Black Duster spat.
“Snow.”
“They came this way.”
“You sure she had a baby?”
Dale looked annoyed.
“Bell said widow with an infant. Heavy woman. Brown hair.”
Cole’s hand tightened around the rifle.
Black Duster laughed.
“Hard to hide that description.”
Dale scanned the trees.
Cole shifted the rifle toward his chest.
Then the third man said, “Maybe she froze.”
“Bell wants the papers.”
“And if she won’t give them up?”
Dale smiled.
“Then the mountain gets two more graves.”
Cole’s vision narrowed.
He could shoot Dale now.
One bullet.
But then there would be two men shooting blind into the trees.
Josie and William were less than forty yards away.
Too dangerous.
Cole reached down, picked up a stone, and threw it hard toward the opposite slope.
The rock crashed through brush.
All three men turned.
Dale raised a hand.
“Go.”
They rode toward the noise.
Cole waited.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Then he moved.
He reached Josie.
“We go now.”
She read his face.
“They’re looking for me.”
“Yes.”
“What did they say?”
“Nothing you need to hear.”
That frightened her more.
Cole put her back on Buster.
They traveled north instead of east.
By afternoon, snow fell harder.
Cole knew an abandoned trapper’s shelter three miles away.
They reached it near dark.
The cabin was barely standing.
One room.
Stone chimney.
No door, just a sagging plank they dragged across the opening.
Cole built a small fire.
Josie fed William beneath the buffalo coat.
Cole kept his back turned while checking the rifle.
Afterward, she laid the baby between them near the fire.
For a long time neither spoke.
Then Josie said, “What was she like?”
Cole knew immediately who she meant.
He looked into the flames.
“My wife?”
Josie nodded.
Cole had not said her name aloud in months.
“Anna.”
Even speaking it hurt.
Not the old unbearable pain.
Something quieter.
“She was small,” he said. “Smaller than you’d expect for someone who terrified every merchant in Missoula.”
Josie smiled.
“Terrified them?”
“She negotiated.”
“Ah.”
“She called it being sensible.”
“I like her already.”
Cole stared at the flames.
“She sang badly.”
“That sounds cruel.”
“It was.”
Josie laughed softly.
Cole continued.
“She hated snow. Couldn’t make biscuits worth a damn. Once shot a rattlesnake off the porch and missed so badly she hit my water barrel.”
“Did she kill the snake?”
“No.”
“Then perhaps do not include that story in her legend.”
Cole smiled.
Actually smiled.
The expression felt strange on his face.
Then it vanished.
“She was pregnant when she died.”
Josie’s smile faded.
Cole swallowed.
“Seven months.”
“Oh, Cole.”
“Fever.”
He rubbed both hands together.
“Doctor couldn’t reach us. Storm closed the pass.”
Josie said nothing.
Cole stared at William.
“I buried them together.”
The trapper cabin went silent except for fire.
Finally Josie whispered, “That’s why you wouldn’t leave us in the barn.”
Cole’s throat tightened.
“Maybe.”
“You saw her.”
He looked at Josie.
She did not look jealous.
Did not look frightened.
Only sad.
“You saw Anna and your baby when you looked at us.”
“At first.”
“And now?”
The question hung there.
Cole should have lied.
Instead he said, “Now I see you.”
Josie stopped breathing for half a second.
Cole immediately looked away.
Outside, wind moved through the pines.
Inside, William slept between them.
Neither mentioned the words again.
But something had been spoken that could not be taken back.
The riders found them the next morning.
Cole heard the horses before dawn.
He was awake instantly.
“Josie.”
She sat up.
“What?”
“Take William.”
That was all he needed to say.
Cole smothered the fire.
“Back wall. There’s a crawlspace.”
Josie lifted William.
“Come with us.”
“Too small.”
“Cole.”
“Move.”
She hesitated.
He took her face between both hands.
The gesture surprised both of them.
“Listen to me.”
Her eyes filled.
“You stay quiet. No matter what happens.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I will not lie in a hole while—”
“You have the evidence. You have the boy. This ends only if you reach Oakhaven.”
“What about you?”
Cole leaned his forehead briefly against hers.
“I know these woods.”
Then he pulled away.
“Go.”
Josie crawled behind the collapsed rear wall with William.
Cole stepped outside.
Dale Mercer rode into the clearing with two men.
The same men from yesterday.
Dale smiled.
“Well.”
Cole leaned against the cabin post.
“Morning.”
“You always greet strangers with a rifle?”
“Depends how ugly they are.”
Black Duster laughed.
Dale did not.
“We’re looking for a woman.”
“Congratulations.”
“Big woman. Brown hair. Baby.”
Cole shrugged.
“Sounds inconvenient.”
Dale dismounted.
“You’re Cole Miller.”
“Last I checked.”
“Used to guide for army survey crews.”
“Sometimes.”
“Good shot.”
“Sometimes.”
Dale approached.
“We followed two sets of tracks.”
Cole said nothing.
“One horse. One man walking.”
“Could be anybody.”
“The woman came through here.”
“No.”
Dale smiled slightly.
Then he drew his pistol.
Fast.
Cole’s rifle was already aimed.
For a moment the two men stood twenty feet apart.
Dale’s companions shifted.
Cole said quietly, “You boys should think carefully.”
Dale laughed.
“There’s three of us.”
“There were three yesterday.”
The laughter stopped.
Cole continued.
“I watched you from twelve yards away for nearly five minutes. You never saw me.”
Black Duster glanced toward the trees.
Cole smiled.
“That bothering you?”
Dale’s expression hardened.
“We only want some papers.”
“Ain’t got any.”
“The widow does.”
“Then find the widow.”
Dale stepped closer.
“You protecting her?”
Cole’s voice changed.
“Leave my mountain.”
“That sounds like yes.”
Dale raised his gun slightly.
Then William cried.
Inside the cabin.
The tiny sound shattered everything.
Dale smiled.
Cole fired.
The bullet struck Dale’s pistol, tearing it from his hand.
Black Duster drew.
Cole moved sideways and fired again.
Black Duster screamed, clutching his shoulder.
The third rider turned his horse and fled.
Dale tackled Cole before he could shoot again.
They crashed into the snow.
Dale hit like a hammer.
Cole rolled.
A fist caught his jaw.
Cole drove an elbow into Dale’s ribs.
They slammed against the porch.
Behind them, Black Duster struggled for his revolver with his left hand.
The cabin door exploded outward.
Josie appeared holding Cole’s second rifle.
“Don’t.”
Her voice was low.
Steady.
Black Duster froze.
Josie aimed at him.
“I said don’t.”
Cole stared.
She was barefoot.
Hair wild.
William strapped against her chest beneath a blanket.
She looked terrified.
And absolutely determined.
Dale tried reaching for a knife.
Cole drove his knee into Dale’s wrist.
The knife dropped.
“Enough.”
Dale laughed through blood.
“You got no idea who you’re fighting.”
Cole twisted his arm behind him.
“I know exactly.”
Dale looked at Josie.
“Bell’ll burn every building you sleep in.”
Josie’s face went white.
Dale smiled.
“He’ll kill anyone who helps you.”
Cole slammed him face-first into the snow.
“You talk too much.”
They tied Dale and the wounded man to a pine tree.
The third rider had vanished.
Cole knew what that meant.
Bell would know where they were.
Soon.
“We can’t go back,” Josie said.
Cole shook his head.
“No.”
“How far to Oakhaven?”
“Eight miles.”
“I can walk.”
“You’re riding.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll walk.”
Again.
Her expression twisted.
“You keep walking beside everybody.”
Cole looked at her.
“That bother you?”
“It does when I think it’ll get you killed.”
He stepped closer.
Josie stared at him.
Cole touched one wet strand of hair near her cheek.
“That the only reason?”
She stopped.
Neither moved.
Then William made a small noise between them.
Josie laughed shakily.
Cole lowered his hand.
“We need to go.”
“Yes.”
But something else had changed.
