“Maria is watching also,” Will said, kissing Mama’s cheek. “I told her.”

Mama frowned at him. “I told you not to.”

“She guessed something was troubling us.” Will went to the door and turned back. “I’ll be back downstairs later. Then you can sleep.”

Maria shook Will’s shoulder sometime in the middle of the night. “It’s your turn,” she whispered.

Will hugged her briefly. “You go to sleep now. I’ll be fine.”

He waited and watched for the rest of the night and all the following morning. Will was glad when Mac returned in midafternoon.

“Did you see anyone?” Mac asked Will.

Will shook his head. “No one.”

Chapter 63: A Posse Sets Out

The day after he returned from Portland, Mac stayed close to home. He’d left Jenny and Will to manage long enough. He worked from his home study, then went to town briefly to pick up his mail after the noon meal. When he returned, he took his correspondence into the parlor to read, sitting where he could look out the window every few minutes.

All remained quiet until midafternoon when a knock sounded on the door. Mac opened it to find Sheriff Thomas. He shook the sheriff’s hand and ushered him inside.

“I can’t stay but a moment,” the lawman said, standing in the foyer. “I came to tell you Albee found what we think is Johnson’s hidey-hole. He’s got a shack on an abandoned claim northeast of town. In the hills, isolated in a little hollow.”

“Have you arrested him?”

The sheriff shook his head. “I’m taking a posse out tomorrow to bring him in. Do you want to be part of it?”

Will gasped from behind Mac.

“Of course,” Mac told Sheriff Thomas.

“Meet at my office at first light,” the lawman said.

“Who else is going?” Mac asked.

“I’ll round some men up,” Thomas said. “You’re the first.”

“Why don’t I ask Zeke Pershing and Daniel Abercrombie?” Mac suggested. Zeke and Daniel knew the full story of Johnson’s association with the McDougall family, and Mac wanted them with him. So far, he’d kept the saga from the sheriff.

Sheriff Thomas nodded. “They’re good men. Make sure they’re in town by dawn. I’ll have Albee with me. That’s five men—should be plenty to capture Johnson. He ain’t got any henchmen we know about.”

“We’ll be there,” Mac promised.

The sheriff tipped his hat and left.

“I’m going, too,” Will said, as Mac shut the door.

Mac turned to him. “You are not.”

Mac saddled Valiente and rode to Zeke’s farm first. “Sheriff Thomas found Johnson’s hideout. Will you help us ferret the bastard out tomorrow?” he asked Zeke.

Zeke eyed him. “What’s this about?”

Mac went through his conversation with the sheriff, ending with, “I’m asking you to go as a favor to Jenny and me.” He knew Zeke still had a soft spot for Jenny. And Mac wasn’t above using Zeke’s friendship in this situation. “I want Johnson, dead or alive. He can’t continue to threaten my family—I won’t have it.”

Zeke nodded. “Does Sheriff Thomas know Johnson raped Jenny?”

“He knows I killed Johnson’s father and Jenny shot Johnson. He knows Johnson attacked both Jenny and Will this spring. But that’s all he knows.”

“I’ll be there,” Zeke said.

Then Mac went to Daniel’s claim. After Mac’s request, Daniel didn’t ask for any details. He merely said, “I’ll go. But I need to tell Pa, so’s he can look after Esther and our brood while I’m gone. My brother was killed on a posse hunt, and Pa will worry. I don’t want him caught unawares.”

“Make sure Jonah stays home,” Mac said. “Will is aching to go along, and I told him he couldn’t.”

Daniel nodded. “Johnson sounds like a mean son of a bitch. I don’t want the boys hurt.”

The next morning, Mac awoke when it was still dark. He dressed and donned his gun belt, shoving the pistol Jenny had kept into its holster. As he left their room, Jenny sat up in bed and whispered, “Be careful.”

Mac clenched his teeth and gave a grim nod. He came to the bed and kissed her, then patted Andrew sleeping in the cradle beside her.

He started downstairs for the carriage house, half-expecting Will to follow him. But only Maria peeked out of her bedroom. “I love you, Pa,” she called softly.

Mac went back and kissed his daughter’s cheek. “Take care of Mama and the children,” he said, as he hugged her.

The house remained dark as he crept outside. No one joined him in the carriage house, and Shanty was still in his stall. Mac saddled Valiente, put his rifle in its scabbard, and checked to be sure he had plenty of ammunition for both pistol and rifle. Then he mounted and rode to the sheriff’s office. Flakes of snow fell softly as he rode. It would be snowing more heavily in the hills.

When Mac arrived, the sheriff and Albee were there, along with Zeke Pershing and Daniel and Samuel Abercrombie. Mac was surprised to see the elder Abercrombie. “Morning,” he said, nodding at the group.

“Let’s go, men,” Sheriff Thomas said. “Johnson’s holed up northeast of here. We go north out of town, then east into the hills.”

As they pulled into line along the road, Daniel trotted next to Mac. “I couldn’t get Pa to stay home,” he murmured. “He wouldn’t let me go alone.”

Mac shrugged. “I suppose the more men, the better.”

“Pa’s still a good shot,” Daniel said.

“I thought your brother’s death had made him wary,” Mac said.

Daniel sighed. “He says he wants to avenge Douglass’s death. Thinks riding with this posse’ll do it, though Douglass’s murderer was hung long ago.”