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don’t you stay? We’ll feed you since you’ve gone to the trouble of bringing him back here. His sentence will be handed down in the morning. You should stay for it.”
    “No thanks, sir. I just want to be back.”
    “Well, it’s late anyway. You wouldn’t get far before it’s dark.”
    “I really want to be getting home, sir.”
    “It’s late. It would be better to wait until morning. Like I said, we’ll feed you and get you a bed. You can start back when you’re fresh again.”
    He wanted to say no. Wanted to get home, but the man was right. He wouldn’t make it more than a couple miles before it would be too dark to travel. “All right. Where can I put up my horse?”
    “I’ll have a private see to it.” The commander turned away. “I’m sure you’d like to get cleaned up before you eat.”
    William nodded and reluctantly left his horse. He didn’t want to be here at all. He hadn’t wanted to leave Anna and David in the first place. The commander was right. He wouldn’t make much more time by starting back now, only to have to stop and make camp in another hour or so. That storm he saw coming could break at anytime. It would be better to be inside for it.
    Damn, he couldn’t wait to be home with his family.
    #
    Wyoming Territory
    May 9, 1887
     
    Patrick rode beside Isaac, William’s foreman. “Some more stragglers over that way.” Issac pointed toward the two cows making their way slowly through the brush. One had a tiny calf following along behind it. Patrick called out to one of the men to move them in with the rest of the herd.
    They’d been at this the last couple days. It kept him away from the ranch longer than he’d like, but they needed to be rounded up. Neither of their ranches were large, so every head counted. He hoped to have them all sorted by the time William returned.
    The thought of his son had him glancing in the direction of the younger man’s ranch. He wished he could keep a better eye on Anna and David. He’d promised William he’d make sure they were okay every day. He understood why his son worried, and he didn’t blame him. He shared the worry. Even when his wife swore Thomas would never do anything to hurt them.
    Love for her older son blinded her. Patrick couldn’t blame her for that, but he wished she’d see the truth. There’d always been something dark in Thomas, even when Patrick had first met him as a young boy. Sarah hadn’t seen it even then.
    She hadn’t even seen it when their baby girl, Julia, had died in her cradle. He’d known it had been more than an accidental smothering. He’d known it as soon as he’d seen Thomas’s face. He’d only been twelve years then. Patrick let Sarah convince him he couldn’t have done anything. A part of him, likely the same part that never healed from that loss, had known the truth all along.
    Patrick turned his horse and rode back toward the growing herd of cattle. At least twenty head now. There should probably be at least ten more hiding out somewhere. Maybe a few more. Unless some died during the winter. Always a possibility, or someone rustled a few since they hadn’t found any carcasses.
    He thought Sarah would have believed him about Thomas after he’d attacked William on the way back from Fort McKinney. He’d been gone for a couple years before that and hadn’t been back with them for more than a couple weeks. Patrick didn’t know where he’d been, but he seemed even darker when he came back. It worried him, but he hoped putting him to work would help. It had only made him angrier.
    He had one of his men cut the young cows from the herd, leaving the really young calves with their mothers. He’d have to check them over too, but for now they could be left alone. The yearling ones needed to be culled out, branded, and the males separated into which ones would become steers and those he’d leave intact.
    He never should have taken Patrick along on that drive to the fort. He’d needed to get the