She touched his arm. “You take care of yourself, James Lewis. Maybe we’ll meet again sometime, somewhere.”

“I’d hope so,” he said.

He looked back over his shoulder a couple of times as he left her.

HE FOUND his family waiting up toward the head of the line, nearing their turn for the ferry. Annie was the first to recognize him and come running. She threw her arms around him and squeezed him with all her strength.

“Careful,” he said worriedly, “you don’t want to be hurtin’ yourself. You’re not in a shape to be takin’ chances.”

“I’m not that fragile,” she said, smiling and crying at the same time. “We’d been afraid you never would come back.”

He looked over her shoulder. He could see Marie and Petra and the children. The wagon sheet had been pulled back because it was not raining, and Frank sat in the wagon bed, a blanket wrapped around him. Hope knelt beside her husband.

Marie and Petra came up. He dreaded what he had to tell Marie. “I never did find Michael. I found where he’d been, but he was gone. I’m mighty sorry.”

Marie put her arm around his shoulder. “It’s all right, James. I know you tried.” He felt a wetness as she laid her cheek against his.

Petra was next. “I never saw anything of Andrew, either,” he told her.

She said, “Andrew is with the army, with Houston.”

Annie told him, “He was lookin’ for us when we got here. He made sure we were all right, then he went back.”

Relief washed over James. At least one brother was not lost. “I’m glad we left Frank to get you-all away from the place in time. I was afraid—”

Annie said, “You were afraid a bunch of women couldn’t take care of ourselves. Shows how much you know about Lewis women, James. Frank was too sick to help. We thought for a while that we might lose him. We did just fine, us women and the children. And we did have a man.” She beckoned to young Mordecai. She put her arm around the boy. “Michael would’ve been proud of him.”

Mordecai gave James a thin smile as James shook his hand. Then he said, “We’d best move the wagons up. The ferry’ll be ready to load us soon as it gets back from the other side.” He spoke with authority, the way Michael would have spoken.

James felt a glow. He said, “I’ll see you onto the ferry, then I’ll be goin’ to find the army. I owe it to Michael.”

Annie lost her smile. “You owe it to Isaac Blackwood, too. Isaac was in the Alamo. We brought Nelly and her young’uns with us.” She pointed. James had not noticed them before.

“What about Finis and Luke?”

She frowned. “What do you think? They lit out and left Nelly standin’ there.”

“It runs in the blood.”

“Not all the blood. Not Isaac’s.”

James walked along, leading the sorrel horse as Annie and Marie pulled the wagons up to the ferry landing. He had to explain to Mordecai what had happened to Walker and how he happened to have a different horse than he had left home with.