Molly picked her way, following John’s footprints. By the time he had his horse tied, she was there, and he took her reins and hitched her horse beside his.

Then Wyatt came. She watched him smooth out the snow with an expert eye. But as he came close, well out of sight of the trail, he quit.

“I’m going to circle around and come in from the back.” John slipped away, leaving Molly and Wyatt alone in the cold forest.

Snow came down on their heads, light but steady. The wind had let up enough that their coats kept them warm.

“Let’s get closer to the trail so we can see if anyone is coming,” Wyatt said.

Molly followed.

He picked a hiding spot wisely, a boulder with bushes around the front of it. They were covered, but the trail was close enough to see easily.

Settling in behind the boulder, Wyatt crouched so he could watch, but for how long? They could be here for hours. All day. Maybe forever.

“This might be our best chance to have that talk, Molly.”

And she knew he was right. It was time. It was past time.

She settled in beside him and whispered, “I’ve had plenty of time to think, and I know it would be wrong to marry you.”

“Before you start . . .” Wyatt slid an arm across her shoulders and pulled her close to kiss her. His lips were cold. His nose brushed hers and she shivered, but a nice kind of shiver.

When the kiss ended, Wyatt said, “I expect something awful happened to you. I want you to know it’s not going to change a thing.”

She wished desperately that she could believe him. But she couldn’t. “It will change everything when your wife is hanged for murder.”

“Where are you taking us?” Win had never been out this way before. It was the most rugged country she’d ever seen.

“Shut up.”

Uncle Randall was a worthless excuse for a relative, but Win didn’t say so because she didn’t trust him not to hit her, and she needed to think clearly and be strong enough to fight when her time came.

Information might be useful later though. “What were you in the Jeffers school for? If my father killed your parents, why did you all go?”

“We had no one to watch out for us. We’d all been in trouble. So when Oliver went, they scraped together this and that little crime and just pitched me and Clovis in with him.”

“This and that little crime?” Win said it but didn’t expect an answer. And she didn’t get one.