When she came back to where all the families waited, she kissed her mother, then her father. Tears glistened in her dark eyes as she said, “Papa, our place is here. All this Michael built, he and I together. Even if something keeps him from ever coming back to me, always he will be here somehow, at this place. I could never leave it, for that would be like leaving him.”

She put her arm around Mordecai again. “We are a family. We have paid too much for this land to go away from it now. To you, Mordecai is still a boy. But to us who were with him in the runaway, he is a man. He does not know Natchitoches. He knows Texas. In Texas he should remain.”

Villaret accepted her decision without argument, though James saw a deep sadness in the old Frenchman’s eyes. Marie’s mother turned away, sobbing quietly.

Tomorrow the Villarets would start the long journey back to Natchitoches. It was possible that Marie and her family would never see them again. But they still had today, and all the Lewis families had gathered for Sunday prayers and the sharing of a meal as had long been their custom. It was a quiet, reflective time, nobody talking much. James watched Annie and Shipman sitting together at Marie’s long table, touching each other often and trying to make it look as if it had been by chance. Annie was showing somewhat now. The baby would be here long before the first frost.

Frank had recovered from the illness that had almost killed him at the time of the Runaway Scrape, though he was slow in regaining his strength. His boys and Hope had been a big help to him in making up for the weeks lost on their farm.

Petra had spent much time with Marie, for the two had long been like sisters. When one hurt, the other felt the pain and knew how to help. Andrew did not begrudge the time, for he knew the strain and the loneliness Marie had gone through. Without Mordecai, and without Petra’s quiet understanding, she would have had a much harder time.

Mordecai’s dog began barking while the family was seated around the table. Mordecai got up once and went to the dog-run, scolding the animal. He had not been back in his place long, picking listlessly at a piece of venison, when the dog resumed the disturbance. Mordecai walked back out to the breezeway between the two sections of the cabin. He started to yell at the dog but broke off.

He came back into the kitchen, trembling a little. His voice was shaky. “Mama! Mama, come here!”

James glanced at Andrew, then quickly pushed away from the table. He rushed out onto the dog-run ahead of Andrew. Mordecai pointed. “It can’t be. Can it?”

James’s breath caught up short. He felt his throat tightening. “It looks like—”

Marie was already running, out past the cabin, running to meet two men riding double on a horse. Mordecai was close behind her, trying vainly to catch up.