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disgust and started off. After several paces, he glanced behind to make sure the man wasn’t drawing on him. He wasn’t. In fact, he hadn’t even gotten up off the ground. Jeremy was halfway back to the saloon when Morrison’s last action struck him as odd. He shook the box and there was a dull clanking sound. He stopped and opened the snuff box and dumped the snuff out. Besides snuff, two keys fell on the ground. He squatted and retrieved them, knowing that they were what Morrison had wanted. Each flat key was two inches long and had a number on it. He studied them a moment, then rose, shoved all the items into his pocket, and walked on.

Chapter Four
    As Pauline and the children trudged down what they hoped was Crooked Tree Road, Pauline felt her defenses falter. It was a narrow road, wooded on one side, an empty field on the other. They might well be headed down the wrong road, and even if it was the right road, there might not be a place for them at the end of it. They were hungry; her children were hungry, and it wrenched her heart.
    â€œDon’t worry,” Rebecca said soothingly, reaching up to pat her back.
    The gesture was too much, and Pauline stopped short and burst into tears.
    â€œOh, Mama, everything will be all right,” Rebecca said, stepping in front of her.
    â€œAnd even if it ain’t, it cain’t be all that bad,” a woman said. They all turned and looked at an older woman wearing men’s trousers and a wide-brimmed hat walking from the woods. She carried a string with dead rabbits on it, and a large, golden-haired dog was by her side. The woman put the string over her shoulder and the carcasses hung one in front of her and two in back. “You lost?”
    Rebecca looked from the woman to her dog to her mother, who was working hard to collect herself. “I think we might be,” she volunteered.
    The woman gave her a cockeyed smile. “What’s your name?”
    â€œRebecca.”
    â€œAnd yours?” the woman asked, looking at Jake.
    â€œHe’s Jake,” Rebecca supplied.
    The woman pursed her lips. “And the pretty lady sobbing her heart out smack dab in the middle of our property?”
    â€œThat’s my mother,” Rebecca replied defensively.
    â€œP-Pauline. And I’m s-sorry we’re t-trespassing.”
    â€œI said you were on my property. I didn’t say you were trespassing. Where is it you’re headed?”
    Pauline took a shuddering breath and set her suitcase down in order to wipe her face and hopefully recover some sort of composure.
    â€œGoodness’ sakes, Pauline,” the woman said. “Whatever it is, it’s likely not as awful as you’re making it to be. You wanted by the law?”
    Pauline shook her head. She touched her throat, unable to speak.
    â€œYou got an angry mob after you?”
    Rebecca realized the woman was trying to help and that, little by little, it was working.
    Pauline fumbled in her pocket for a handkerchief and wiped her nose. “We were looking for the Blues’ place. H-hoping for a r-room. Fiona from the b-boarding house sent us . . . since they were f-full.”
    â€œWell, then, what luck. I’m April May Blue,” the woman announced.
    â€œYour name is April May?” Rebecca blurted.
    â€œShore is. And my mama thought it was the loveliest name ever given to a girl child, although she did come up with some fanciful ones.”
    â€œLike what?” Rebecca asked.
    Pauline was torn between telling Rebecca not to be impertinent and being struck by the ease of conversation between them. She also needed the moments to compose herself.
    â€œLita Flame for one,” April May said. “Mama said it come to her when she was watching my papa start a fire while she was expecting.”
    â€œLight a flame?”
    â€œSpelled L-I-T-A. Then I had a brother named Hunter and one named Sterling. I guess those aren’t too funny. Scarlet