Free HT02 - Sing: A Novel of Colorado by Lisa T. Bergren

desire to get even with the McAllans, Moira, Nic, as was the desire to begin anew, to be free of the past, to make better, wiser decisions in the future. He wasn’t old; at forty-two, there was still time to take a wife, have a family. And the stakes were high. Sheriff Olsbo would be watching for him.
    Reid stood there for many long minutes afterward, asking himself the same questions, over and over.
    At last he moved. There was a time for wisdom, the time to withdraw, seek safety. And there was a time to gamble it all.

Chapter 6
    6 April 1887
    Bryce picked up the telegram and then closed his eyes and took a long, heavy breath. He was coming; Robert was coming here, to the ranch, to survey the disaster. He hadn’t enough to do, back at the shipyard—he had to meddle here too! Bryce shook his head slightly. Always the older brother …
    “Bryce,” Odessa said, from over by the sink where she was washing dishes. “What is it?” she asked tentatively. “You barely touched your breakfast. Are you feeling all right?”
    “Fine, fine,” he mumbled. He hated the tone in her voice, the distance between them, but could not seem to find the way to bridge it, not with what he had to do still before them.
    She turned around and dried her hands on the towel. “Tell me. What does the telegram say?”
    “It’s Robert,” he said.
    “Your brother? He’s well?” She sat down beside him, around the corner of the table.
    He forced a small smile to his face as he dared to look at her. “Well enough to come for a visit.”
    Odessa smiled, her eyes widening. “That is wonderful news!” Her smiled quickly faded. “You are not … pleased he is coming?”
    He rubbed his temples. “Dess, there is something I need to tell you. Something I’ve been considering.”
    “Then tell me. Out with it. No more silences, no more secrets, Bryce. There’s been enough of that lately between us.”
    “My brother is coming, but I might be gone.”
    She lifted her chin a bit, as if bracing for what was to come. She was so strong, his wife. Maybe strong enough to endure this—
    “I must go to Spain, Dess, and bring back a hundred head of horses—fifty to sell at a profit and fifty to strengthen the herd and breed for next year.”
    She stared at him with those lovely blue-green eyes for a long moment and blinked slowly. Above them, they could hear Samuel begin to stir from his morning nap, but she ignored it.
    “We’ve lost too many, Dess.” He reached out a hand to cover hers, but she pulled away. “The blizzard. The strangles. There is no way to recover. Our cash is all in the land. Your own inheritance is in the new land … I won’t see it sold. Any of it.” He shrugged. “And we can’t make it through another winter. There’s simply not enough.” He rose and paced alongside the table. “Robert will review our books. He’ll want to see how the family’s investment is faring, and he’ll see the errors I made. Buying that land last year instead of investing in snowbreaks.” He ran a hand through his hair in agitation. “I need him to see that I’m rectifying the problem, not ignoring it.”
    “Sell the land,” she said, looking up at him. “I don’t care if it was my money or yours. It’s ours, together. Sell some of it.”
    “No,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s unwise, Odessa. There isn’t a man in this valley who could pay us half of what we paid for it a year ago. Everyone’s lost too much this past winter. That’s how things work.”
    She searched his face, desperation making her own look drawn and weary, and Bryce felt another pang of guilt. “There are years of plenty and years of famine,” she said. “I am willing to accept that risk, as a rancher’s wife. But I am not about to risk your life.” She rose and walked to him. “Think about it,” she said, putting a hand on his forearm. “It was your voyages to Spain that first brought you low with the consumption. We’ve been without disease