“We’ll ride then.  But right now I’ve got an antelope that I have to do something with.”

When they were gone, Ada sank down onto a bench at the table.  She still couldn’t get over it all.  “He was just out there, coming on his horse.  Did you know he’d be here?”

“Never, though Ellis did go looking for him.”

“They know each other?”

“They do.  They know each other well.”

“Will he live with us?”

“Not right now,” Charlotte said.  “But Ada, here’s the truth.  He’s my life.”

“And we’re your life.”

“Without question.”

“And very important to you.”

“Absolutely.”

“I think I’m still in shock,” Ada said.  “It’s just not what I ever expected.”

“Do you think I expected it?  Or that he did?”

“How did this ever happen?”

“We only had each other to be with.  Spending all that time together, you can come to have feelings for a person, to care about them more than you ever believed possible.”

“Then what?”

“Then one day I realized I didn’t want to get to Fort Randall at all because I didn’t want him to ever leave.”

“But he did leave.”

“He had to.  I always knew that.”

“Why?”

Charlotte could do nothing but say it.  “On that day when Ellis lost his wife, Chace lost everyone, even his child.”

“A child?  Was it small?’

“Yes.”

“That same way?”

Charlotte nodded.  “He showed me the valley where they were.  He felt like he shouldn’t be with people anymore, that he should be alone.”

Ada’s eyes filled.  Charlotte sat down and put an arm around her.

“Maybe he needs us,” Ada said.

“Maybe he does.”

After a long moment, Ada spoke again.  “I never knew there could be that kind of kissing.”

What to do with this? Charlotte thought.

“I can’t talk about that yet,” she said.  “I promise you I will.  No matter what else, though, it’s not till you find the right one.”

“Do you think Ma and Pa ever kissed like that?”

Charlotte closed her eyes.  If this was what being a parent was like, she didn’t see how anyone ever got through it.

“Ada, all I know is that people sometimes turn out different after they have a family and maybe not always an easy life.  I’ll bet when your mother and father were courting they did some fine kissing.  That’s what makes you want to…get married.”  No more.  The kissing part was hard enough to explain.

<>

Jeremy and Brewster came back with ducks but Chace wasn’t with them.  Jeremy held out a pheasant feather.

“He said to give this to you.”

“Is the rest of the pheasant somewhere?”  But she could see that Jeremy had enough to think about already.  “Never mind.  Did you take care of the horses?”

“Just the gray one.  The mule went away.”

“Where would a mule go?”