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“Thank you all,” Daisy murmured. “Let’s load up the sewing machine, too, and as much fabric as we can. Other stuff can be replaced if things go south.”

“You will still make our ladies’ pants for us, won’t you?” Lula asked.

“Of course we will, and we’ll send them back to town with whoever comes out to see us,” Daisy promised.

Lily wiped a tear away with the back of her hand and said, over the lump in her throat, “Or you can all pile up into Beulah’s wagon and come spend the day with us, maybe on a Sunday when you don’t have work to do.”

“Okay, then, let’s get busy and load what goes tonight. I will spend the night at the ranch and be back first thing in the morning,” Elijah said.

Lula stood up and gave Lily a hug. “We’ll miss y’all.”

Frannie followed behind her and hugged Daisy. “After we help fill up Beulah’s wagon, we will go on home, but we’ll be back tomorrow morning to help any way we can.”

Daisy broke into sobs the minute the wagon was loaded with the sewing machine, the worktable, and as many bolts of fabric as they could stuff into the extra spaces.

“Y’all be on watch, now,” Elijah called out as he hitched his own horse behind the wagon and drove away.

Lily slipped an arm around Daisy. “We can’t help what’s happening. Thank goodness we both came clean with Matt and Claude today. Some higher power has been looking after us this whole time.”

Daisy wiped the tears away with a hankie she’d pulled out of her sleeve. “How can you say that after coming home to find a broken window and an eviction notice?”

“Think about it,” Lily answered. “We find a place to set up shop just days after we get here because you kind of blackmailed the judge. Then we meet Beulah, who is ready to fight for women, and Edith and Sally Anne, who want us to make a wedding dress. We were saved from even starting to cut the brocade by the women all going to the camp with us. Fate or God, one is working for us.”

“But we have to move. As much as I like Claude, it doesn’t seem to me like anyone is looking over us,” Daisy snapped. “Why would this ‘higher power’ you are talking about let Cooter Wilson turn up here in Autrie instead of just sending him to hell?”

“Everything happens for a reason,” Lily said with a long sigh. “Even old drunk Cooter. Moving to the sheep ranch must be where we are supposed to be, and we have friends to help us get there. We can be seamstresses anywhere that we have a place to set up our sewing machine and cutting table.”

Daisy didn’t seem to have an argument, but Lily could see the wheels turning in her head.

“You are right, but I don’t like that we’re being thrown out like trash,” Daisy grumbled.

“Neither do I, but—”

Before she could finish her sentence, the shattering noise of glass breaking and flying through the air—and a rock bouncing across the floor—caused both women to cover their eyes.

“Come out, you liars!” a male voice that sounded a lot like Otis’s yelled.

“Or let us in and take us to bed like you did other men in Spanish Fort,” another man demanded.

“We should go before ...” Daisy took a couple of steps toward the back.

Someone rattled the door, and then another person kicked it in.

Daisy grabbed her pistol and fired off a shot into the ceiling. “That’s a warning!” she shouted. “The whole bunch of you had better leave.”

Lily hurried across the room and picked up her loaded pistol from a shelf under the counter. She held it with both hands and aimed right at Otis’s face.

Otis motioned toward the angry mob. “First one in—”

“Gets shot in the heart,” Daisy finished for him and took aim.

He stopped right inside the door and growled, “You can’t shoot us all.”

Lily pointed the gun below his waist. “I don’t need to shoot all of you. We each have six bullets. It will be like shooting fish in a barrel. Twelve of you should fill up that door and keep the rest out. If not, Daisy and I will reload and work on the next dozen.”

Cooter was right behind Otis, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the two pistols. “You’ll hang from the gallows if—”

“You are trespassing on private property,” Daisy reminded him, “and you threatened to assault us. We are simply defending our honor.”

“There’s a lot more of us than you,” Otis said. “And it’s your word against ours. We’ll all say you invited us in and that we left money over there on the counter to pay for what we got.”

Beulah came through the back door with a sawed-off shotgun in her hands and set a box of shells on the counter with a thump.

“I can load this faster than you can bleed out on the floor, and I do not miss, either. I would suggest that you get on out of here. I also just heard what you said about your intentions, and I will testify in a court of law if these two women are brought to trial. Jimmy Holt, does your wife know where you are tonight? Didn’t you sign a paper promising to respect Amanda if she came home?

Is threatening to assault these women keeping your word?

How about you, Danny Larson? You’ve got three teenage daughters.

Would you like them to be treated like this?

We’re having a women’s auxiliary meeting this next week.

Right now, I’m taking names, and later I will be saying them loud and clear if y’all don’t change your minds and get out of here. ”

One by one, the men slunk away into the darkness like whipped dogs, leaving only Otis and Cooter in the doorway. Then Frannie and Lula, each holding a pistol, pushed past them and into the room to stand on either side of Beulah.

“We are here to take care of any rats in the shop that need to be taken out,” Frannie said.

“Big old ugly rats too big to be stomped. Guess we’re gonna have to shoot ’em,” Lula added as she pointed her pistol at Cooter’s head.

“’Course, Lily here taught me not to waste ammunition.

I believe between the bunch of us, we could just pistol-whip him and send him back to whatever rock he crawled out from under.

Saves us some bullets. Your call, Lily. What do you want us to do with these stinky critters? ”

Lily didn’t take her eyes off the men. “If they move, shoot ’em.”

Otis threw up his hands. “We’re leaving, but this is not over. Come daylight, I’m going to the judge.”

“Please do,” Daisy said. “And tell him that Daisy Lindberg from the Paradise in Spanish Fort says hello, and that she will be out of this place tomorrow.”

As soon as the two men were gone, Beulah slammed the door and propped a chair under the doorknob to keep it shut. “We’ll take turns keeping watch tonight.”

Lily sank down on the nearest church pew and slowly let out the breath she had been holding in. “I hate to admit it, but I’m scared.”

“‘O ye of little faith,’” Daisy said as she sat down and laid her pistol on the table.

“And what does that mean?” Lily asked.

“Who was just up on a soapbox preaching at me not even an hour ago about everything happening for a reason?” Daisy shot over at Lily. “Maybe this happened to show everyone that we can stand up for ourselves, even against a bunch of rowdy, drunk fools.”

Frannie took a bottle from the shelf and held it up.

Lily didn’t need the dim light from the oil lamp to know that Frannie was holding the whiskey that she and Daisy had waltzed into Otis’s saloon and bought.

That night seemed like it had happened years and years ago, but in reality it was only weeks.

“We could all use a shot of this right now,” Frannie said. “And then we’re going to put on our stompin’ boots and get to packin’. Seems fittin’ that Daisy and I share the bottle that caused us to fight in the beginning.” She opened the whiskey, took a swig, and passed it over to Beulah.

“Stompin’ boots?” Beulah asked, then turned the bottle up.

“That’s the ones that we imagine we are wearing when we need to stomp a rat,” Lula explained as she took the whiskey from Beulah and swallowed two big gulps. “If you don’t kill ’em dead, those varmints can find a way to sneak back into the house.”

Lily was last in line, and she finished off what was left in the bottle, which had been full when they’d started passing it around.

Drinking out of the same bottle seemed like a sign that they were all sisters of the heart.

Kind of like the seven women who’d left the Paradise that hot summer day.

She looked around the room and counted to five, but Ruby and Betsy would be there if she needed them.

It had to be a sure sign that she would be happy surrounded by sheep, and maybe even a kitten or two.

“Well, now!” Beulah said. “That little nip settled my nerves, but I still intend to keep my shotgun close by. I vote that we take shifts standing guard.”

“And those of us who aren’t guarding will begin to pack. I saw a bunch of crates in the kitchen.” Frannie headed that way and dragged two into the shop.

“If we run out, you could get what is stacked up in back of my store. Elijah usually gathers them up to use at the wagon yard, but he hasn’t gotten the last couple of weeks’ worth,” Beulah offered.

Daisy glanced over at Lily. “Maybe you are right about a higher power. But I’m not really believing it until we are safely at the farm and there’s not a rain cloud in sight tomorrow morning.”

“How about if we don’t get rained on but a hailstorm hits Otis’s place after we are gone?” Beulah giggled.

“And the hail knocks some sense into the judge when he sneaks in right after noon,” Frannie said.

“Why noon?” Lily asked.

“That’s when the almighty judge comes to the saloon for his midday drink and a romp in the sheets with whatever new girl Otis gets to work for him,” Frannie answered.

“Why, darlin’,” Daisy said in her sweetest voice, “that can’t be true. Judge Martin is a fine, upstanding man in Autrie. He’s so hurt by losing Sally Anne, who was the love of his life, that he just needs a little comforting.”

“But, darlin’,” Frannie grinned and drew out the endearment, “he was needing comfort before she left. Methinks maybe he’s one of those men who is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

“I agree,” Daisy said. “And I’m speaking from experience. He will have to face the truth one of these days.”