Chapter 16: What Cade Asked First

Cade's POV

My foreman caught me at the kitchen door before dawn with a coffee in each hand and a look on his face.

"The hands are asking," he said.

"Asking what?"

"Whether we're a ranch or a lumber crew for the Ironwood Luna."

"She isn't the Luna."

"That's what they're asking."

"And the uncle's petition? Three elders can pull her out of the regency any day they like."

"I know. She knows. She's asking the families for signatures on the hall's charter instead, so every name on it is a vote for her."

"Will it be enough?"

"It'll have to be."

I took the coffee and drank half of it.

Wind Valley was forty-one wolves and a lot of fence.

They were mine to look after, and they had taken Willa in without a question.

I owed them an answer that was fair to both sides.

"The ranch doesn't build her hall," I said. "She won't have it, and she's right."

"Then what are you doing at the border every day?"

"Holding a ladder on my own time."

"For free."

He grunted, which was his way of laughing.

"The hands will do a Saturday if she asks," he said.

"She won't ask."

"Then I'll tell them to turn up and not mention it."

"Do that," I said, and went to find my boots.

Later that morning, Hanna was waiting on the porch of the little rented house in town with her arms folded.

I had found it for her ten days ago, when she said the ranch spare room was too small for a clinic.

It had a stove, a clinic room and a landlord who did not ask about her pack.

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