Free Under the Open Sky (Montana Heritage Series) by Michelle Maness Page A

father, brother, and aunt in the house following Angela’s funeral and slipped up the stairs to her room. The funeral had been one of the hardest events of her life. Amanda had only just begun to understand what a charmed life she had led until now. She had no real recollection of her mother’s death, leaving no lingering sting, except that of the unknown. This was the first time she had actually lost someone she cared about. She recalled the grief of Angela’s family and her own brother’s tearful apology to them and felt tears sting her eyes again. Would they ever recover from this she wondered? Amanda lay across her bed and drifted into a fitful sleep.
                  Amanda woke, her room cast in dark shadows as night descended outside. She rose and changed from her dress into jeans and a t-shirt before adding her boots to the ensemble. She was thinking about going down stairs when the fighting started; Amanda cringed.
                  “I’m sorry, Trent; I don’t know how many other ways to say it!” Sterling’s voice carried up the stairs.
                  “It doesn’t matter anymore, Dad, she’s gone; she’s never coming back, I suppose that makes you happy doesn’t it?!” Trent flung at their father.
                  Tears streaming down her face, Amanda hurried to her window and across the porch; she hit the ground running. She couldn’t stand to stay in the house and listen to her father and brother fight any longer. She didn’t know which was worse: the dead silence of the past few days or the awful words her brother was now slinging at their father. She had just made it through the open barn doors, her target the ladder to the loft when an arm hooked her by the waist pulled her around in a one-eighty against a firm chest.
                  “Woe, what’s wrong, Manny?”
                  “They hate each other, Cade, they hate each other and I can’t stand it,” she sobbed.
                  “They don’t hate each other, Manny, they’re hurting.”
                  “Then why don’t they help each other?” Amanda demanded.
                  “Men are thick headed like that, sweetheart,” Cade’s hand lightly rubbed her back.
                  “I’m sorry, Cade; I didn’t know anyone was in here. I just wanted to escape for a while,” Amanda straightened and palmed the tears from her eyes; she was suddenly embarrassed by her outburst.
                  “I had just turned off the lights to leave when a whirlwind blew through the door,” Cade teased her lightly as he flipped the lights back on. He crossed the barn to the sink and the rough industrial towels beside it; He tore several off and handed them to Amanda who had managed a small semblance of a smile at his joke.
                  “Here, they aren’t soft but they’re absorbent.”
                  “Thanks, Cade, I’m sorry, I’m not usually weepy like this.”
                  “I know that, Manny, you’ve had a lot thrust on you the past few days. Come sit down and talk to me. Let someone else be strong for a while.”             
                  “Thanks,” Amanda sniffed as she sat down on the hay bale next to him. “I can’t decide which is worse, the silence of the past few days or the fighting they started tonight,” she related her thoughts.
                  “If they aren’t speaking at all they aren’t dealing with it, Manny,” Cade shared his perspective.
                  “I guess,” she acknowledged as she pulled her knees up under her chin. “I realized tonight how little real tragedy I’ve had to deal with, Cade. I don’t remember losing Mom. There’s a hole I guess, but no sad memories. Until recently Dad and Trent seldom had more than an occasional squabble; it’s almost as though