Brides of Idaho by Linda; Ford Page A

man she knew.
    She unsaddled Pal and turned him into the pen. Time to head to the stopping house and take care of the chores.
    Toby was already there, already had the wood box full and the ashes cleaned out and was about to tackle the bucket of potatoes as she approached.
    She sat on the bench and started peeling a wrinkled potato. “What have you been doing today?” It was normal conversation. No reason to feel all jittery about asking such a question. She stifled a desire to groan. It wasn’t the question that bothered her. It was the curiosity behind it.
Where is Levi?
    “Been hanging about waiting for Levi to get back.”
    “Where did he go?”
    “Only thing he said was he had something to attend to up the trail.”
    “That doesn’t make a lick of sense. Is he trying to make us think he has legitimate business?”
    “Maybe.”
    “He’s got you convinced he’s really a preacher, hasn’t he?” She pointed out he was the first one to suggest the Rawhide Kid. After hearing him preach again each Sunday, she was almost ready to believe it. Almost.
    “Glory, you should talk to him. Then you’d be convinced, too.”
    “I’ve talked to him, and it surely didn’t convince me.”
    He stopped peeling potatoes to study her. “What did he say to upset you so much?”
    “Enough for me not to trust him.”
    He returned to his task. “You’ll see sooner or later.”
    “I expect I shall.” As usual, she sat so she could see the comings and goings on the ferry. And not—she informed herself—because she hoped to glimpse Levi returning without a posse on his tail.
    The vegetables were prepared, the table set when she saw him on the ferry. Or at least she saw an animal like his horse. But this man had two children with him. Where did he get two children? He hadn’t killed their parents in a robbery or kidnapped the children hoping for a ransom, had he?
    He rode slowly toward the stopping house. At the hitching post, he reached behind him and swung a small boy to the ground. Then he lifted the child from in front of him and leaned over to deposit the second one beside the first.
    Glory stepped from the dining room to watch.
    A small boy with a defiant look on his face clutched the hand of a smaller girl who looked as if she’d been crying recently.
    Levi swung to the ground and pushed his hat back on his head in a gesture speaking worry and confusion better than any words could have.
    She crossed the porch and faced him squarely. “Where did you get these children?”
    He grinned as if reading her suspicious thoughts. “I didn’t steal them, and I know that’s what you’re thinking. I found them. Rescued them.” He told of finding the pair at the side of the road, waiting for their father to return. Waiting for four days without losing hope.
    Their fear and pain drew deep lines in both little faces. It was too much like her own experience, and Glory had to turn away, pretending an interest in something inside the dining room while she gathered up her self-control. “You couldn’t just bring home a lost dog like everyone else. Oh no, you have to find two lost children.”
    “We weren’t lost,” the boy protested. “Was waitin’ for our pa. He won’t be happy we didn’t stay where he told us to. But”—his sigh was half shudder and perilously close to a sob—“we was getting hungry and tired and my sister was afraid. We could hear the coyotes howling so close at night.”
    Glory pressed her lips together and stilled her emotions. These children were even younger than she had been and without a protective older sister. She looked at Levi in silent protest, hoping he saw nothing but shock and dismay that these children had been abandoned.
    Levi’s expression revealed an equal amount of both plus a healthy dose of anger. “It took me all afternoon to persuade them to come with me.”
    The little girl stuck out her chin in an act of such defiance Glory had to press her lips together to keep from