Love on the Range (Brothers in Arms #3)(77)

Molly knew that, though they lived in a mansion and had enough to eat, times were hard for Kevin and Win. Their cattle had mostly been stolen or neglected. Hawkins had spent Win’s ma’s money. They had vast land holdings but to build up a herd to make use of that land would take years.

“What is all this up here, Win? Old trunks, chests, furniture.” Wyatt flipped the lid up on one. “Have you searched for treasure yet?”

“No, I had no interest in it while I was expecting. I just didn’t want to have to spend time thinking about Pa, and I was a little too round to spend much time on the stairs. But now it was finally time, and I came up here and found things I wish I’d had all along.”

Wyatt bent and pulled up a handful of papers. “You probably should go through all of this. How can you know if it’s valuable? We could help you.”

He flipped through a stack of loose paper, yellow with age. A thick oversized packet slipped out and dropped to the floor. It hit with a slap that drew Molly’s eyes as it skidded to Falcon’s feet.

It was a folder of some kind made of sturdy leather with a button and string tying it shut. Falcon bent to pick it up and read aloud, “‘Winona Hawkins Trust.’”

Cheyenne had worked with him for a while, but Falcon took to reading and arithmetic like fire to straw. He now spent part of the family money on books and had a nice shelf full of them.

Molly gasped at the words. And she heard other such noises as Falcon handed the packet to Win.

Win quickly unwound the string and flipped the folder open, then drew out some very official-looking documents. Fine paper, large formal script at the top that read Last Will and Testament. Then her grandmother’s name.

Below it, in a smaller size, was a page full of the script.

Win read quickly. “My grandparents left me a trust fund. It was very explicitly left to me and was to be turned over after my marriage. It can’t be accessed before.”

“How big a trust fund?” Cheyenne, always plainspoken, asked.

Win told them, and it earned another gasp all around.

“Remember, Wyatt, when you offered to sell some of your cows to me this fall instead of doing a roundup, and I’d pay for them over time?”

“Yep, the offer is still good.”

Kevin grinned and said, “We’ll take them all.”

The whole group laughed at the load that had just been lifted off Kevin and Win’s shoulders.

Kevin slid an arm across Win’s back. “Your grandparents, probably with your ma in full agreement, did this to protect you from your pa. They knew you’d need protection, even before all his evil toward your family.”

After some deep investigation, it was now believed that Hawkins had killed his in-laws. He’d been sly about it, but there were lawmen back in Chicago who well remembered the unusual circumstances of their deaths. It was assumed that one of the reasons he’d taken his family west was to avoid answering questions. He’d never admitted it, and he was beyond questions now.

Win swung around and looked again at the pictures of her grandparents.

Wyatt said, “When we talk about honoring our parents, Win, you’ve got grandparents to honor and a ma who was a good woman. And Cheyenne has her first pa, and we’ve both got our ma, Katherine. Molly, your ma was a decent woman, and, Falcon, so was yours. We need to stop worrying about how to honor men who weren’t honorable and remember there were a lot of worthy parents in our lives.”

Molly went to his side. “And we’ll all do our best to be honorable ourselves, so our children don’t have to worry about answering such hard questions.”

She slid her hand to her still-flat belly and vowed to God that, with His help, she’d be the best, most faithful mother who ever bore a child.

“Three brothers,” Kevin said. “Our pa, Hawkins, and Kingston. Three brothers who never spent a moment trying to be good men. And their parents didn’t, either.”

He looked to Wyatt and Falcon. “We’re going to do better than that for our children.”

Wyatt nodded.

Falcon smiled.

“Let’s haul these pictures downstairs and hang them in a place of honor,” Win said with a firm nod.

“You go on down,” Kevin said sternly, but with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes, as he wasn’t one to give orders overly. “We’ll see to carrying these.”

“We’ll keep the coffee warm and have cobbler to serve after these pictures are hung,” Win said.

It was a happy afternoon. One spent with laughter and a family none of them had known they had and none of them had wanted. An afternoon full of love on the wild ranges of Wyoming.

Together, three brothers in arms, three sisters by marriage, had formed a family of the heart.