Finis and Luke Blackwood finally returned to their place, once they were sure all the danger was past. James had hoped never to see them again, but the Blackwoods were like a bad penny that kept turning up. Finis was indignant over some thieving Mexican soldier having stolen his saddle. James never told him any differently. Finis eventually got himself another. James did not see any point in asking where it had come from. Somewhere, some unfortunate was riding bareback.

James had the whole cabin to himself, for Annie and Sly Shipman had temporarily moved over to Marie’s place so Shipman could work her fields for her and do the other tasks that had been Michael’s. Young Mordecai did a man’s work, but he could not take care of everything by himself, any more than Michael had done.

James got lonesome being by himself. A double cabin like this was a waste for a bachelor. He began thinking perhaps one day he would take a ride over to the Caldwell place, once the crops were in good shape and he could afford to be gone for two or three weeks. He had been thinking some of late about red-haired Libby Caldwell. She had looked a lot different the last time he had seen her. She had matured and taken on the appearance and attitude of a grown woman.

She might not be ready yet for serious thought on marrying, but it wouldn’t hurt anything to put in his bid, so to speak. She would be ready, one of these days. And if they were both so inclined when the time came, this cabin would not forever be a poor bachelor’s nest.

It was said, though he had nothing in writing to prove it, that the volunteers who had fought for Texas would be rewarded with land by the new republic. Sly and Annie were counting on that, so they would eventually have a place of their own. James and Andrew could add onto their own holdings.

As for Marie—

Baptiste Villaret came down from Natchitoches in June, anxious about his widowed daughter and her children. This time he brought old Mother Villaret for a reunion with her daughter and a chance to meet the grandchildren she had never seen. The Villarets pleaded with Marie to go back to Natchitoches with them. They had property enough there, they said. Marie could live comfortably in surroundings she had known as a girl. Her children, starting with Mordecai, could learn a suitable trade.

This raw country was no place for a young widow, they argued.

“But I am not a widow,” Marie had declared. “I know Michael is out there somewhere. I can hear him sometimes, talking to me.”

The family members would look at each other and shake their heads. Women had been known to lose their good judgment over lesser ordeals than Marie’s. Men, too. The Villarets stayed longer than they intended, trying to win her over.

On Sunday, the day before the Villarets were to leave, James saw Marie walking around over the farm alone, staring a long time at the cabin, the shed, strolling down to the field where the first corn was starting to rise from the plowed ground. Mordecai walked down to join her. She put her arm around her son while the two of them talked for a long time.