“We didn’t steal your land though,” Kevin said. “We need to . . . to . . .” He snapped his fingers and pointed at Rachel. “We need to hire one of you Pinkertons! See if you can find the exact date of Falcon’s ma’s death. If Pa was still married to her when he married Wyatt’s ma, the marriage isn’t legal and neither is the will.”

“We haven’t told anyone that yet,” Wyatt said. “We settled it amongst ourselves, but the will needs to be struck down legally. I haven’t spoken to Carl Preston since you got here, and we probably oughta get his lawyerin’ involved. I figured Pa’s will being illegal made Ma’s legal, and we’re just going back to splitting things in half.” He stalked out of the room and could be heard thundering up the stairs.

Kevin scowled at Rachel. “This is your fault. You came in here and stirred up trouble for my wife, making her relive an ugly worry she’s wanted to escape from. And now you’re putting my sister in danger while you hide here in the house.”

Molly rose from the table and began clearing breakfast dishes. She’d waited until morning, until right before she left, to announce her plan, in order to lessen the wear on her ears. She knew Kevin wouldn’t like it.

“You won’t change my mind, Kevin. And you can’t ruin it. Come over and make your accusations to Win’s pa, and I’ll just act like you’re lying to keep me from working.”

“He’ll know we’ve got suspicions.”

“Then I’ll be in even more danger. Thanks to you.” She made short work of cleaning up the kitchen. Win fell in and helped her. It was a good reminder that all this was going to fall on Win from now on.

“You two move into the house.” Wyatt came downstairs with a satchel and bedroll. Then he said grimly, “Maybe we’ll be back in a couple of hours. Maybe Hawkins won’t hire neither of us. But if anyone talks of it, remember we’ve had a bad falling out. And ride over to see Cheyenne and Falcon and tell them, so they don’t trip up. Tell Cheyenne she’s in charge of this place. They’d probably best come back here while I’m gone. I’ll tell Rubin I’m leaving. I trust him enough to be at least mostly honest. He’d never believe I’d abandoned the ranch.”

Molly went for her things, came back, pulled on her coat, then hugged Kevin goodbye.

Whispering, just for his ears, she said, “You know why I have to do this.” She pulled back, meeting his gaze, her heart almost trembling with memories and pain and shame.