A Widow With Triplets, Left To Die In The Blizzard, Until a Cowboy Made Her His Wife

Chapter 11

The message from Helena arrived on the eighth day.

Jimmy, the young rider who had been sent through the snow, returned with a letter from Helen. Elena read it by the fire, her hands trembling slightly.

Helen was overjoyed to hear she was safe. The trails were still impassable for wagons, but she urged Elena to stay at the ranch until conditions improved. “Don’t risk the babies again,” Helen wrote. “The mountains are treacherous this time of year. Wait until spring, if you must.”

Spring.

Elena looked up from the letter, her gaze drifting to the window where snow still blanketed the landscape. Spring was months away. Months of staying in this house, with this man, in this strange limbo between her old life and whatever came next.

“Is everything all right?” Mason asked, watching her from across the room.

“My cousin says we should stay until spring.” Elena heard the uncertainty in her own voice. “The trails are too dangerous.”

Mason’s expression was carefully neutral. “She’s right. The mountains don’t thaw until April at the earliest. Trying to cross before then would be risking the same situation that nearly killed you.”

Elena nodded slowly. She had known this, on some level. But hearing it spoken aloud made it real. She was going to be here, in this house, with this man, for months.

The thought should have terrified her.

Instead, it filled her with a quiet, cautious hope.

“What about Mr. Collins?” she asked. “He’ll want to return to his family.”

“Doc says he’ll be fit to travel in another week or two. He can ride with the mail coach as far as the Missouri crossing.” Mason hesitated. “But you don’t have to go with him.”

The words hung in the air, weighted with meaning.

“I told you,” he continued, his voice careful, measured, “you’re welcome to stay as long as you need. The house has room. Mrs. Whitmore loves having little ones to tend to. And I…” He paused, seeming to search for the right words. “I’ve grown accustomed to having you here.”

Elena’s heart was beating faster than it should have been. “I’ve grown accustomed to being here.”

The smile that crossed Mason’s face was small, almost tentative, but it transformed his features. For a moment, Elena caught a glimpse of the man he must have been before grief had hardened his edges.

“Then it’s settled,” he said. “You’ll stay.”