Epilogue
The McAllisters settled in Jerome, as they had planned. And when the Wilcoxes came west, they arrived in Flagstaff and decided to go no further. This was mainly Jeremiah’s decision, for as primus he had the final say. When asked what had made him linger there and not continue on to the shining promise of California, he would always reply that he loved the mountains, and knew this was where his clan was meant to stay. Sometimes, though, his gaze would slide to the southwest, and he would smile slightly, as though at a secret amusement.
In the depths of winter, just before the turn of the year, Boyd and Hannah McAllister welcomed a boy. The child’s hair and eyes were black as coal, exceedingly strange in a baby born to parents with reddish hair and light-colored eyes. He bore no r
