Free A Heart Renewed by Karen Baney

trail.”
    “We?” Ben questioned.  “I hope ya ain’t thinking of goin’.”
    Hannah took new interest in the discussion.  Surely her husband of a week would not be leaving her side already?
    Eyes darting away from hers, Will said, “I think I should go.  It’s my cattle.”
    “Yer married now.  Got a whole different set of responsibilities.”  Ben held Will’s gaze, not giving him much of an option.
    Trying to hide her smile behind her hand, she stifled a giggle by taking another bite of food.  Leave it to Ben to find a way to scold Will and act fatherly without making him mad and without reminding him that he still wasn’t fully healed from his accident.
    “I suppose you’re right.”
    “I figured I’d take Snake to cook and Covington to wrangle.  I’ll need ‘bout seven or eight men for two shifts of four.  That won’t leave ya more’n two or three to help out here.  Don’t sound like that’ll be enough.”
    “Why don’t you take Jed, Hawk, Pedro, Raul, and Whitten.  And the two new men, Foster and Webb,” Will said.  “That’ll leave me, Owens, Diego, and Miguel.  We can corral half of the herd one day while we take out the other half.  Then switch them out the next day.”
    “Sounds mostly good.  I’d rather have at least one more with me.  What ya gonna do ‘bout night guard?”
    Hannah listened as the conversation bounced back and forth between her husband and Ben.  The confidence Will projected amazed her.  He seemed more than capable of running such a large operation.
    Eventually, Will settled for accompanying Ben to Prescott for the day to see if they could hire two more men.  One would go on the drive and the other would stay behind to stand guard at night when all the cattle were in the corral.
    With plans in place, the two men left.  Hannah stood, taking the dishes to the wash basin.  Filling it with warm water from the reservoir, she let the dishes soak, anticipating Rosa would be bringing the rest over from the bunkhouse shortly.
    Moving over to where two crates stood stacked one on top of another, Hannah resolved to unpack the rest of her things.  The top crate already had the lid pried off.  Lifting the lid, she leaned it against the bottom crate.
    Now she remembered why she had been putting this off.  There were too many painful memories tied up in the items in this crate that she packed over a year ago before she and Drew left Cincinnati.
    A towel and apron were wedged into the corner of the crate.  Pulling them out, she set them aside.  The first item of significance was her mother’s china.  The beautiful floral patterned dishes had been passed down from her grandmother to her mother, then to Hannah at the tender age of twelve after her mother’s passed.  She had used the dishes daily in Cincinnati in the home she shared with Drew.
    A lone tear dropped onto the first dish in the stack as memories of her first love invaded her thoughts.  She had been very much in love with Drew.  When he died unexpectedly in an avalanche just before they arrived in Prescott, she thought she would not be able to live without him.  Yet, over time her heart healed and she met Will, whom she loved and adored.
    It was so confusing to be full of joy with her new husband, while still—in moments like these—filled with grief for her first.  Yes, she understood why she put off this chore of unpacking.
    Squaring her shoulders, Hannah determined not to let herself grow melancholy.  Quickly unwrapping each of the dishes, she set them in a pile to wash with the other dishes for the morning. 
    She found a few other personal mementos in that first crate, including a photograph of her and Drew.  What should she even do with such a thing now?  She didn’t want to throw it away.  Yet, she could not set it on her dresser and have her new husband look at it day after day.  Laying the photograph aside, she decided to deal with it later.
    Looking around the room, she