Five Years Later

“Oliver Davis, you leave that poor dog alone!”

Ella’s warning came a little too late.

Her four-year-old son was already running across the yard and stumbling as he went, his dark curls bouncing as he chased Charlie to the stable. The dog, who had grown a little slower over the years, looked back with an expression of weary patience at the boy.

“I’m gonna get him, Mama!”

“Charlie would rather you didn’t,” Ella said, pressing her fingers to her brow. “And don’t run into that stable and startle Grouse either!”

Oliver paid her no mind.

Ella shook her head, smiling despite herself. Her son had gotten Sam’s blue eyes, his stubborn attitude, and apparently none of his father’s good sense when it came to leaving sleeping animals undisturbed.

“Annie!” she called out. “Would you fetch your nephew before he frightens every animal on this ranch?”

Annie emerged from the barn with a grin, wiping her hands on her skirts.

At sixteen, she had grown into a capable young woman, as comfortable in the saddle as she was walking across the kitchen floor. Her fair hair was tied back into a braid done by Florence, and there was a streak of dust smeared across her cheek.

“Oliver! Come here, you little rascal!” She called out, taking off running after him.

The boy squealed when she caught him, lifting him high beneath his arms.

“Aunt Annie, no!”

“You’re supposed to be celebrating your birthday, little one, not chasing Charlie clear into the next county.”

“Charlie likes me,” Oliver told her, still laughing.

Annie huffed a laugh. “Charlie likes anybody who drops food.”

Oliver considered it. “Then I’ll give him a piece of cake.”

“You most certainly will not,” Ella called out.

Laughter rose from the porch, where Florence and Philip sat watching the commotion in their chairs.

The afternoon was warm, with a soft breeze making the grass beyond the yard. Tables had been arranged under the swaying trees, covered with food that had been brought by neighbors and friends. Bright ribbons decorated the porch railings, and a large birthday cake waited to be cut in the kitchen.

Four years old. Ella could scarcely believe it.

She remembered holding Oliver for the first time after he was born, marveling at his tiny fingers and the way Sam had looked at them both, too overwhelmed and full of love to speak.

Now their son seemed determined to grow faster than either of them could manage.

“That boy is going to wear that dog out,” Philip remarked with a chuckle.

“I’m beginning to think he’ll wear us all out,” Ella said, wiping her brow.

Florence laughed.

Philip had retired from ranch work two years earlier, though he still found reasons to wander toward the barn and offer Conrad unwanted advice. Lately, he preferred to spend his mornings tending a little garden and then his afternoons beside his wife.

Beyond the porch, the ranch stretched out wide and bright under the afternoon sun.

There had been a time when she had feared losing every acre, but now the ranch belonged only to her and Annie, just as their father would have wanted for them.

Cornelius Wadsworth’s arrest had caused a scandal throughout the territory. His dealings with the Bighorn Riders, the corrupt sheriff Moses Anderson, and land clerk Isaac Grimes had finally been exposed to the public.

All remained in prison, along with the gang members who had terrorized the region.

Ella rarely thought of them anymore and she couldn’t be happier with their absence if she tried.

She liked to believe Maurice Rivers would have found some peace in the justice that had been dealt. 

More than anything, she hoped he would have been proud of what his daughters had made of his ranch.

“Ella!”

Sally Turner waved from under the dappled shade of the trees.

Her two children were playing in the grass beside Conrad and Lola’s chubby-cheeked little daughter. John stood nearby, keeping watch while the children argued over whose turn it was to ride the wooden rocking horse Philip had made for Oliver for his birthday.

Ella walked across the yard to join them, tipping her face up to the sun.

“Has the birthday boy gone missing again?” Sally asked.

“Annie’s captured him for now,” Ella told her, and Sally laughed.

“Then we might actually manage to eat lunch before supper comes around.”

Ella laughed.

Sally had barely changed over the years, except perhaps for the greater confidence with which she managed her lively, happy household. She and John were as in love with each other as ever, and their children had become constant visitors to the ranch.

Nearby, Lola sat beside Conrad, their daughter resting against her knees after playing with the the children.

Conrad had taken over as foreman on the ranch after Philip’s retirement, a responsibility he had handled proudly. Ella trusted him, and Sam often said he couldn’t imagine running the place without him.

Bo Wong had joined the ranch hands as well, and Ella was glad to have him around.

The quiet boy who had once followed Annie through town and school was now a hardworking young man, learning from Conrad and Jeremiah. He and Annie were still close friends, though Ella sometimes wondered whether their friendship might eventually become something more.

Sometimes, she caught Bo admiring Annie in a way she recognized from Sam.

She wasn’t in any hurry to find out, though. Annie was growing up quickly enough already.

“Bo!” Annie called from the barn. “Did you finish checking that saddle for dry spots?”

“Nearly there!

“You already said that ten minutes ago!”

“Then stop asking me!”

Ella laughed. Some things, at least, hadn’t changed.

By the time everyone gathered around the big cake, Mei had arrived with Jeremiah, carrying a parcel wrapped in brown paper.

“Sorry we’re late,” Mei said. “We needed to stock at the store and Jeremiah is the only one tall enough to reach the top shelf. You know Mother always likes to stock on the weekend.”

“Don’t apologize,” Ella replied. “You’re just in time for the cake.”

Since taking over the general store from Ling, Mei had become one of the busiest women in Buffalo. Her mother still worked at the store, but she left the big decision to her daughter.

Mei took over the business with a confidence that would have surprised anyone who remembered her as the shy young woman who once spent hours drawing decorations for the Christmas celebration in town.

Jeremiah stood next to her, looking thoroughly pleased with himself.

Their wedding was planned for later that year, and Ella suspected he had mentioned it to nearly everyone in the county with a huge grin on his face.

“Where’s Oliver?” Mei asked, looking around. “Where’s the birthday boy?”

“Where else?” Ella replied. “Getting into trouble, like always. Annie had him, but I’m sure he’s wriggled out of her grasp by now.”

As though summoned, Oliver came charging around the corner with Annie close behind him.

“Cake! Cake!”

Jeremiah chuckled. “There he is. Right on time.”

Oliver stopped in front of him. “Did you bring me stuff?”

“Oliver,” Ella warned. “Be polite.”

Jeremiah laughed and handed over the parcel.

“Well, it wouldn’t be much of a party without a present, now would it?”

The boy tore into the wrapping with enthusiasm, ripping it away to toss aside.

Ella glanced around at the familiar faces gathered under the shadow of the trees as she handed out cake. There were so many of them.

Friends who had once been little more than neighbors had become a family to them, their lives bound together through hardship, marriage, and the raising of their little children.

Even Estelle and Riley were part of that happiness.

After getting his recognition for exposing Cornelius’s criminal dealings, Riley had retired from his work as a marshal. He said it took him too far from home. 

He and Estelle had settled on the Davis family ranch near Cheyenne, where they were raising their little son, Harry.

Sam traveled south to visit them whenever the ranch allowed, and Estelle’s letters arrived regularly into her brother’s happily waiting hands.

Ella had gotten close to her sister-in-law over the years, too. Their meetings were always filled with conversation, laughter, and the pleasant chaos of two young boys discovering new ways to get into mischief together.

Most importantly, Sam and Estelle had finally found the relationship they thought they lost forever.

Ella knew how much that meant to him, and she loved that he felt so content now.

“Everybody over here!” Sam’s voice interrupted her thoughts about him.

He stood near the porch, a wild-eyed Oliver balanced on one arm.

The children all turned to look at him, plates of cake in their hands.

“Oliver’s mother has promised us all a story,” he announced with a wide grin.

Ella stared at him, one eyebrow raised. “I most certainly have not.”

Sam let out a hearty laugh. “She’s a schoolteacher. Telling stories is what she does.”

“That doesn’t mean I spend every waking hour entertaining children, Sam.”

The children began pleading at once.

“Please, Aunt Ella!”

“Tell us the one about the horse coming to your house!”

“No, tell us the Christmas one with Annie in the cabin!”

Ella shot Sam a look of exaggerated annoyance, and he winked at her.

“Traitor,” she muttered.

But she was already smiling as she settled onto the porch steps with the children gathered around her.

It still surprised her sometimes to hear herself be called a schoolteacher, but it was also one of the greatest joys of her life. 

At first, she had worried about leaving the ranch in other people’s hands.

But Sam and Conrad had proved more than capable of managing it with Philip and Jeremiah there too, and Annie was already showing every sign of wanting to take an active role in its future.

For the first time in her life, Ella had allowed herself to follow a dream that belonged entirely to her, and since then she loved every minute of it.

“Very well,” she told the children. “But you must all sit still and be polite.”

Oliver promptly climbed into her lap. “Can it have a horse?”

“It can have a horse,” Ella confirmed. 

“And a dog?”

Ella glanced toward Charlie, who had wisely settled beneath Philip’s chair.

“And a dog.”

“And a cowboy?” Oliver asked.

Sam leaned against the porch railing. “I think I know a suitable one, Mrs. Davis.”

Ella smiled at him. “Then I suppose we better begin then.”

The story lasted until the children grew restless and returned to their games in the yard.

As the afternoon softened toward a cool evening, Ella slipped away from the porch and found Sam standing by the pasture fence. She took a moment to admire his strong shoulders and long legs, marveling at the fact that he was hers.

He turned when he heard her approach.

“Finally escaped your audience?”

“Only just,” Ella told him. 

He held out his hand and she took it. They stood together watching the children play.

Oliver was chasing a lanky Bo across the grass now with a stick in his little hand, while Annie laughed from the porch. Sally and Lola were talking beneath the trees, and Jeremiah had persuaded Mei to join him in a little dance to music that only they could hear.

The sound of their friends’ laughter carried across the yard to them, and Ella caught sight of Florence and Philip through the kitchen window having coffee.

“Quite a difference from the first Christmas we spent here,” Sam said, glancing at her.

Ella nodded.

Back then, she had been terrified of losing the ranch, uncertain of their futures, and determined to carry every burden on her own back.

She glanced at her husband. “I never imagined life could turn out so wonderful.”

“Neither did I.”

He slipped an arm around her waist.

For a minute in the cool breeze, she rested against him, listening to the familiar sounds of the ranch that she loved so much. Then, she remembered the news she had been waiting all afternoon to share with the man she loved.

“Sam?”

“Hmm?” 

She hesitated. “I went into town and saw Dr. Whitfield this morning.”

He turned toward her, a crease between his brows. “Are you all right? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’m perfectly fine,” she told him softly, leaning into him.

“Then why did you need the doctor?”

Ella smiled. “Because I had a suspicion, and I wanted to be certain before I told you about it.”

Sam studied her face and then his eyes widened. His gaze moved to her stomach, and he reached out to press his hand flat.

“Ella?”

She nodded. “We’re going to have another baby, Sam.”

For a heartbeat, he just stared at her. Then he laughed brightly, a wonderful, disbelieving sort of sound, and pulled her into his arms.

He kissed her deeply, and then he rested his forehead against hers.

“Are you happy?” she whispered into his mouth.

“More than I can tell you,” he said back, laughing through happy tears.

Ella laughed softly. “I thought you might be.”

He drew back just enough to look at her.

“Does Oliver know?”

“Not yet.”

“Oh, no,” he said, wincing. “He’s going to have a thousand questions. We’ll never hear the end of it.”

“And Annie will have a thousand opinions,” Ella pointed out. 

Sam smiled. “I wouldn’t expect anything less. The Rivers women are a strong-headed bunch.”

Ella smiled, and the two of them stood together a while longer, his arms around her as the sun sank to the distant hills.

Their children would grow up surrounded by cousins, friends, and neighbors who loved them more than they would ever know. They would understand and know the comfort of belonging, and the freedom to imagine futures of their own without worrying about what their lives might have in store.

Ella thought of her father, of the life he had hoped to build when he first brought his daughters out west.

He hoped for a better future, but he had never lived to see his dream fulfilled.

But Ella had, and she was living her life to the fullest.

Sam kissed her temple. “What are you thinking about?”

Ella looked at their son, who was giggling so hard at something Annie had said that he could barely remain standing.

“I was just thinking about how fortunate we are,” Ella whispered.

Sam tightened his arm around her, resting his chin on her head.

“Yes,” he said quietly. “We certainly are. I love you, Ella.”

“I love you,” Ella told him, looking up to steal a kiss. 

And together, they walked back to the family that was waiting for them. 

 

THE END