Free Queen by Sharon Sala

diplomacy was not a commonplace practice for thirteen-year-old boys.
    "Are you a real queen?" Will asked.
    Confusion warred with dismay as she struggled with an answer.
    Cody wished he'd never started this line of conversation. "Let it go, boys,"
he said sharply. "It's none of our business what she—"
    "It's all right," Queen said quietly. "After all, it's not a big secret. It's just… it's so…" She sighed and started over. "We all have similar names," she said.
    "Who is 'we'?" Cody asked, intrigued that she'd even admitted to belonging to anyone else, let alone a family.
    "All the Houston women."
    "All? How many Houston women are there?" Cody asked, trying to picture a bevy of redheaded beauties like Queen… with matching tempers. He nearly shuddered.
    "Three counting me. I'll soon be twenty-nine. I'm four years older than Lucky, who's the baby of the family. Diamond is between us in age."
    "Wow!" Donny shouted, and clapped his hands on his knees. "Cool names. Where did you get them?"
    "From my father."
    "The one who died," Will said softly, and slipped his arm through hers.
    Queen smiled and ruffled his hair. "Right. The one who died."
    "Didn't you have a mother?" J.J. asked.
    Queen nodded. "Once… a long time ago. But I barely remember her. She died when I was three, but Johnny had another woman, and another daughter already on the way. That baby was my sister, Diamond. He did marry her, and Lucky was born later."
    "So you had a stepmother instead," Donny said.
    "Not for long. She just packed up and left one night.

Di and Lucky were real small. They don't remember her. I do."
    From the hard tone of her voice, Cody suspected that Queen's memories of her stepmother were not fond ones.
    "Who took care of you?" J.J. asked, remembering his own fears when his mother had died.
    "I took care of us," Queen said.
    My God, Cody thought.
    "Was your father a miner like the ones you told me about in Cradle Creek?"
    Will's innocent question came without warning, and because it did, her answer was somehow easier to say.
    "No."
    For a moment Cody thought that was all she was going to say. He turned away and, in doing so, almost missed hearing the rest of her quiet admission.
    "He was a gambler."
    Queen resumed inspection of the refrigerator's contents. "Who wants roast beef and who wants ham for sandwiches?"
    Her answers had satisfied the boys, and her question sidetracked any further response, but it set off a whole new train of thoughts in Cody's mind.
    A gambler? How the hell did a man raise three little girls alone, without knowing if or when he'd have food to put on the table or a roof over their heads from one day to the next?
    As Queen deftly lifted three plates of food at once from the refrigerator and issued orders to the boys at the same time, he knew he was looking at his answer. She'd done it… because she'd been given no choice.
    Suddenly, what he'd asked of her shamed him. No wonder she'd been so angry. No wonder she'd accused him of using her. Her father obviously had. What else could she have expected from a total stranger when her own flesh and blood had done the same?
    Cody turned away, unwilling to sort through the emotions overwhelming him. He had a sudden, intense need to walk across the room, cradle her in his arms as he did his sons, and shelter her from the rest of the whole damned world forever. But he knew it was a stupid and irrational notion. Even if he'd had the nerve, she would never have allowed it.
    "I'm going to wash up and change," he announced. "Don't eat all the roast beef."
    "I'll save you some, Dad," Donny said around a mouthful of sandwich. Then he added, "In my next lifetime."
    Queen laughed aloud. The sound followed Cody all the way up the stairs and into his room.
    Days later Cody woke up with a feeling of impending doom. Waiting for the arrival of the Whittiers was like waiting for the end of the world. It had long been predicted, but no one could say for sure when it would happen.
    He