Love on the Range (Brothers in Arms #3)(21)

Win gasped. She swallowed hard and went on. “My pa wanted to be a land baron.”

Wyatt made a particularly rude noise before he could stop himself.

No one looked away from Win. “Then Ma died. Since I talked with that woman in St. Louis, I’ve begun to remember things. Ma crying. Loud shouting. Bruises. It’s all dim and muddled by the years and my youth.”

Win’s eyes came up and locked on Hobart. “I can hardly bear to be around Pa now. I’ve wondered if I’m being fair to him. But there’s something there, something in his eyes. Maybe I’m imagining it, but he—he scares me.”

Hobart’s jaw tightened. “I know that look. I’ve seen it directed at me. Amelia knows that look, too.”

Molly asked, “C-can a person still be arrested or hanged for something that happened so long ago?”

Hobart studied Molly’s face for so long Wyatt wanted to grab Molly and drag her away from the woman.

Finally, Hobart said, “Have you heard the term statute of limitations?”

Wyatt looked around the table.

“Statute means law, I think,” Win said.

“Yes, there are laws that limit how long a person can be arrested for crimes,” Hobart explained. “Different crimes have different lengths of time, and most states and territories have their own limits. If you rob a bank and they don’t catch you for seven years, you got away with it. If someone realizes you did it up until that time—if that’s the statute of limitations in your area—they can still arrest you.”

“S-so what number of years is it for killing someone?” Molly had taken food onto her plate, but Wyatt noticed she hadn’t touched it.

Hobart looked at Molly, then Win, then back to Molly. She said quietly, “There is no statute of limitations on murder.”

Molly asked no further questions. And she didn’t eat a bite.



“I thought I was going to be sick.” Win rested her head on Kevin’s shoulder. She shook, deep inside, her soul trembling. To have said out loud the deepest secret of her life. “I still don’t feel steady. B-but it was right to talk to her, wasn’t it?”

She and Kevin had returned to the ramrod’s house where they’d taken up residence. Now they lay together, Kevin holding her close. A very present help in times of trouble. There was a psalm that spoke of God being a present help in times of trouble. Win thought it described her husband right now, too.

She prayed to God and clung to her husband and trembled.

“I think . . .” Kevin was silent for far too long. “I think one of the reasons you’ve never spoken of it is because you saw no way to prove what you suspected. It would just be a young woman who’d listened to gossip back in St. Louis. Your pa is a wealthy man. It would put you in a terrible position to have spoken of your worries under those circumstances. But now, with Hobart here investigating, it was right and good that you spoke up.”

Win snuggled closer. Kevin had such strength, and she leaned into every bit of it.

She whispered, “Did you see how Molly reacted when Hobart talked about there not being a statute of limitations on murder?”

“I saw.” Kevin spoke as if his jaw was clenched tight. “Molly and I have never spoken of how our parents died. But I could see her fear. I came in and found them dead and Molly bleeding. I hid the bodies, and we never spoke of them again. Ma was a near recluse due to Pa’s hard fists and her shame over the bruises. Pa was a man who lived recklessly, running straight into trouble all the time. They were never missed.”

“It would be good for her to talk about it.”

“After all these years? We’ve managed not to talk about it for so long, to break through that would be so hard for her . . . for both of us. I remember when I first told you how terrible it was to say it all out loud.”

“It would be hard. I can feel myself shaking as if I’ve exposed something terrible to the whole world. As if I’ve taken a huge risk. As if fear has me in its grip. But I think maybe airing it out to the world has helped.”

“And you think Molly should take that risk, too?”

“I think if she doesn’t, she’s never going to know true freedom. Whatever she witnessed when your parents died, and whatever her part was in it, keeps her chained to the past. She’s a solemn young woman who isn’t happy here and maybe can’t really be happy anywhere until she breaks those chains.”

“And if she does speak of it, she could hang for murder. That’s one brutally heavy chain.”





Eleven




The school is closed?” Molly had to force her gaping jaw shut.

“Shhh . . .” Mrs. Brownley took Molly’s arm and led her farther from the gathered congregation outside the little log church.

The services were over. The congregation wasn’t staying long outside due to the chilly weather.

Molly had packed all her belongings. She intended to stay in town while her family went home without her.

Mrs. Brownley was near the small cemetery behind the church when she glanced around Molly to make sure no one was near enough to overhear. “We are a small town. Not many children in the school. We hoped for twelve, though one family with two children is out of town a fair distance and don’t come in during the winter.”