Big John greeted his reluctant bride with a nod of his head and let his gaze stray toward June-bug. “You happen to know what’s chewing on Scully?” he asked, in a voice that might shake the ground, should he undertake to raise it for any reason. “He handed me this here letter and went off to saddle up before I could get a word out of my mouth.” He fluttered the paper as evidence. “Says here he’ll accept any fair price for his share of the land and cattle, but he’s got to move on. That’s all there is to it.”

“Scully’s gone?” It was Abigail. Until that moment, Evangeline hadn’t realized that the child had followed her outside. She couldn’t speak for the life of her.

Jacob appeared and scooped the little girl up into his arms, where she would be safe from the hooves of cattle and fitful horses. “Never mind about Scully. This is Evangeline,” the stationmaster said to Big John. “Your bride. The one you sent for.” Was Evangeline wrong, or did Jacob’s words have an edge to them? His dark, somber eyes were boring into those of his old friend and fellow settler. “You remember that, don’t you, John? How you sent off for this here woman after your cousin passed over?”

Big John looked back over one meaty shoulder at the hovering drover, who appeared to nudge him once, in a most un-droverlike way. The cattleman’s sun-bronzed, weathered face was a study in chagrin when he turned around again. “I can’t take a wife,” he said to Evangeline, plainly avoiding Jacob’s gaze. “I got me one when I passed through Denver. Me and Tessie, we mean to take up ranchin’ on her place down south. I just came to settle up and bring Scully his share of the herd.”

The drover stepped forward and removed his hat, revealing himself to be a herself. She had a mane of thick brown hair and beautiful, wide-set eyes of exactly the same color. She was covered in trail-dust, like her husband, and her smile, though tentative, was genuine. She put out a hand to Evangeline. “My name is Tessa,” she said.

Evangeline liked the other woman instantly, though she supposed some people would have felt differently in her place. For her part, she was standing there staring at Big John, a foolish smile dawning across her face. “You’re married?” she cried, exultant.

He flinched and retreated a step—poor man, he couldn’t have known what joy the news brought her—and nodded. Tessa moved close to him, and he slipped an arm around her waist, seeking moral support and at the same time offering it in return. “I reckon some folks might say I broke my word,” the hulking rancher said, casting a half-defiant, half-humble glance toward Jacob before meeting Evangeline’s gaze again. “There’s no explainin’ love. Sometimes, it just happens. But I’ll make it right with you, ma’am—I promise you that.”

“But you already have!” Evangeline whooped, unable to contain her delight any longer. “You’ve made everything right—everything!” She threw her arms around Big John’s neck, kissed him soundly on one rough cheek. “Thank you!” With that, she rushed off, wending her way through cowboys and cattle and a choking miasma of dust. Once she’d gotten past those obstacles, she hoisted her skirts and broke into a dead run.