“Morning, you two,” Duke said, and then winked at Hope. “I thought you might sleep in a little this morning.”

“I planned to until I smelled breakfast,” she said, and poked him on the arm as she went to pour herself a cup of coffee.

They filled their plates from the bowls and pans on the stove, then sat down to eat in companionable silence. After a couple of minutes, Hope got up to get some jelly from the refrigerator.

“Has anyone heard anything from the Sheriff’s office about the stolen cattle?” she asked.

Jack shook his head. “I think they’ll call if they have news. Otherwise, we go on about our business.”

“I am going to put up game cameras today. We have three that I know of, but I’ll need to replace batteries. I can’t remember the last time we used them,” Duke said.

Jack reached for another biscuit to finish off the gravy on his plate. “I do,” he said. “About three years ago, when there was that cougar sighting up by Grey Goose Lake. Remember?”

“Oh, I remember that,” Hope said. “I was leery of going into outbuildings for a long time—afraid I’d walk up on one waiting to pounce.”

“That’s not exactly their natural behavior,” Jack said. “They don’t like to be around people any more than people like being around them.”

She shrugged. “I know, but we have chickens, and at the time, we had three small calves that we were bottle feeding in the barn, remember?”

Duke nodded. “You’re right. If an animal like that is hurt or injured in some way and unable to hunt, they will come to the easy prey. Only this time I’ll be on the lookout for rustlers, not cougars, and I’m pretty sure we don’t have near enough batteries to replenish 3 game cameras. I’ll feed the chickens before I go check on the cows, then I’ll head into Blessings for batteries. If anyone needs anything, make a list.”

“You cooked. I’ll clean up,” Jack said. “And call if you need help. Don’t do something stupid on your own.”

Duke gave Jack a look. “I don’t do stupid things.”

Hope laughed out loud as Duke grabbed a rain poncho from a peg in the utility room and pulled up the hood before going out the back door.

The rain was really coming down and already forming puddles as he headed for the chicken house first. He ducked into the feed room just off the hen house for an egg basket and a bucket of feed, then walked across the covered breezeway and into the hen house.

The chickens that weren’t in the nests were either perched on the roosts or milling down on the ground. But when he came in and began pouring chicken feed into the feeders, they greeted him with gentle little clucks.

“And a good morning to you,” he said, then grabbed an egg basket from a peg on the wall and gathered over two dozen eggs from the nests. He set the basket out in the breezeway, then went to fill up their water. He scattered some grit and crushed oyster shells as supplements, then picked up the eggs and headed back to the house, left all his rain gear on the porch, then headed inside with the eggs.