"You didn't have to."
Voss mounted his horse.
"We'll speak again."
Eliza watched him leave.
That evening, Cole arrived.
She told him what happened.
His face became serious.
"Graham Voss?"
"You know him?"
"Everyone who owns land in this territory knows him."
"What does he want?"
Cole looked toward the mountains.
"Your property."
"Why?"
"Because there's timber beneath it."
Eliza stared at him.
"What?"
"Good timber. And possibly mineral deposits."
She shook her head.
"I bought empty land."
"No."
Cole looked at her.
"You bought land everyone else thought was empty."
That night, Eliza barely slept.
The following morning, she found a fence post cut down.
Then another.
Someone had entered her property.
She knew exactly who.
The threats became more direct.
A wagon disappeared.
A water barrel was overturned.
One morning, Eliza found hoofprints around the cabin.
Another night, someone fired a gun into the air.
The sound echoed through the mountains.
Eliza held a rifle against her chest and sat beside the door until dawn.
She was frightened.
She refused to admit it.
When Cole arrived the next morning, he saw the exhaustion in her eyes.
"What happened?"
"Nothing."
"Don't lie to me."
She looked at him.
"Someone fired a shot last night."
Cole's jaw tightened.
"Did you see who?"
"No."
He examined the ground.
Then the surrounding trees.
"This isn't random."
"I know."
"You need to leave."
Eliza immediately shook her head.
"No."
"Eliza."
"This is my land."
"They're trying to scare you away."
"They won't."
Cole looked at her.
"You don't have to prove anything."
"I know."
"Then why stay?"
She touched her stomach.
"Because my child deserves a home."
Cole said nothing.
She continued.
"I spent my entire life being told where I belonged. By my husband. By my family. By people who thought they knew better."
She looked at the cabin.
"This is the first place I've chosen for myself."
Cole understood.
He nodded.
"Then we protect it."
Eliza looked at him.
"We?"
"If you'll allow me."
She hesitated.
"Only as a partner."
Cole smiled.
"Deal."
The partnership changed everything.
Cole taught Eliza how to recognize tracks.
How to read weather.
How to store food.
How to defend herself without wasting ammunition.
Eliza taught Cole patience.
He had never known anyone who could argue with him about absolutely everything.
"You can't repair a fence in the middle of a blizzard."
"I've done it before."
"That doesn't mean it's smart."
"You sound like my mother."
"Then your mother was probably right."
He laughed.
Their relationship became something neither had expected.
They talked at night.
Sometimes beside the fire.
Sometimes outside beneath the stars.
Cole never asked Eliza to marry him.
Never asked her to leave.
Never treated her like a broken woman who needed rescuing.
He simply remained.
And that mattered more than anything.
Then Eliza went into labor early.
It happened during a snowstorm.
She woke in the middle of the night with pain unlike anything she had experienced.
She tried to stand.
Her legs shook.
She reached for the table.
"Cole."
He was sleeping in the small room beside the cabin.
He woke instantly.
"What happened?"
"I think..."
She couldn't finish.
Cole understood.
He rushed outside.
His horse was ready.
The nearest doctor was more than twenty miles away.
The roads were buried.
Cole returned.
"We're going."
Eliza shook her head.
"We can't."
"We can."
"The baby is coming."
Cole knelt beside her.
"Then we'll do this here."