Chapter Four
Contingency
They made good time those first few hours after leaving Alta . The day was cold and bright, without a cloud overhead to shadow them, or pelt them with frozen rain or snow.
Yulen glanced over where his wife rode even with him. Within the past few minutes, he’d noticed she was lost in thought. Or, more accurately, in grief. Not a soul-burning grief. But the grief of a mother who was feeling the ramifications of leaving behind her only child after he’d cried and begged her not to go away.
Nudging his Palomino closer, he reached out a hand to touch her leg. “I can remember a time when a certain blue-haired woman once confessed to me that she was terrified of becoming a mother.”
She gave him a trembling smile. “Times change. Circumstances change.”
“Bet you never
