“I don’t like that name—Fred,” Holly declared. “I’ll never marry a man with that name.”

“It’s not the name,” Lily told her. “He could be named Dixon or even Benjamin and still be a controlling fellow.”

Lily could hardly believe that a daughter of Rachel’s would take that kind of treatment. To think of a man controlling a woman like that fired up a mad spell in her. She closed the journal, wishing that she hadn’t even read that page. Then she realized that her anger was directed not just at Fred but at herself, too. She’d let Wyatt control her. He’d wanted a son to carry on the Anderson name since he was an only child and his father had been one, too. To him, having a son had been very important, and he wanted one immediately. Even though Lily had wanted to wait a couple of years, she’d thrown away her birth control pills on their wedding day. A year later, she’d given birth to Holly. Wyatt had been very disappointed, and childcare had been expensive, so he’d talked her into giving up her job and working from home. He’d been so good at manipulating her that she had actually thought for years that the idea had been hers. Then Braden was born, and she thought Wyatt would be happy. He was for a little while, but then he began to work more and more, spend less and less time with her and the kids, and their marriage had simply died in its sleep.

“Mama, what are you reading?” Braden asked from the doorway.

“An old journal I found in your grandmother’s secretary,” Lily answered.

He came on into the room and touched the book’s leather binding. “It looks really old. What’s in it?”

Holly air slapped him on the arm. “I told you about the journal days ago.”

“It’s a family journal,” Lily said. “The first entry was made in 1862 during the Civil War, and it seems to have been passed down from mother to daughter. So far what I’ve read has been about the lives of our ancestors. Holly and I have been reading it for her history project.”

“Hey, Mama.” Holly joined her brother right outside her mother’s door. “I’m going out to the goat pens with Braden and Mack to check on the goats. Can I please have a pair of rubber boots?” she asked. “I’ve been wearing the ones that belonged to Granny Vera, but they’re getting cracks in the soles.”

“I imagine we can get you a pair tomorrow,” Lily said. “Maybe I’ll go with y’all out to the barn and pens.”

“That’d be great.” Holly’s eyes lit up. “You haven’t seen Star in a couple of days, and she’s growing more and more all the time.”

Lily said a silent prayer as she followed her daughter downstairs. Please, God, don’t ever let her walk in Sophia’s shoes. Give her the courage to stand up for her rights, and don’t let what she thinks is love shade her judgment.

Lily was glad to see sunshine on Saturday morning. The week had gone by fast, like most of the time had since they’d been in Comfort. She put a pot roast in the slow cooker before she even made breakfast, and then she stirred up a rising of hot yeast rolls. By getting things organized and ready before time, she and the Coopers could spend more time visiting and less time in the kitchen. She remembered that Nora was friends with Polly as well as her mother, so she invited them over for midafternoon snacks. She’d just made a run up to her bedroom to freshen up a little when someone rapped on the front door. She finished brushing out her dark hair, checked her makeup one more time, and was hurrying downstairs when she heard Holly talking.

“Come in,” Holly said. “You must be Mrs. Cooper. I’m Holly. Where’s Mr. Cooper?”

“I left him at the barn with Mack and your brother,” Nora answered.

“Hello,” Lily said when she made it to the foyer. “Just hang your coat there on the hall tree and come on into the kitchen. I’m going to take out the dinner rolls so they can rise. Can I get you a glass of sweet tea?”

“That would be wonderful.” Nora removed her long coat to reveal jeans and a sweatshirt. “I didn’t get dressed up. Sometimes Orville insists that I stay out at the goat pens with him, but he’s having a pretty good day today.”

“No need to dress up to come visit here.” Lily looked down at her own jeans and T-shirt. “You’re family.”

“Thank you for that.” Nora followed them into the kitchen.

“I’ll get us all a glass of tea.” Holly made her way around them.

“Except for that blonde hair, she sure reminds me of Vera. Your grandmother, Vera’s mama, was a blonde. Maybe that’s where Holly got that pretty hair.” Nora followed Lily into the kitchen and sat down at the table.

“We never knew Mama’s granny. Did you?” Holly asked as she poured tea into glasses and set one in front of Nora.

“She died before I was born, but Mama had a picture of her,” Lily interjected. “It’s probably in one of the albums stored up in the attic.”

“Can we go up there and bring them down?” Holly asked.

“Sure, but not today. We’ll probably have to fight the dust bunnies to even find the albums.” Lily punched down the bread and pinched off pieces for rolls. “Mama talked about her a lot. What do you remember about her, Nora?”

“Well, she lived here with your folks when your mama and I were little girls. She was the sweetest lady I ever met, and she loved to cook. This was one of the bigger houses in Comfort at that time, so she’d let Vera invite me and Polly over here to spend the weekend whenever we wanted. She had this big garden out back. Your grandpa had cattle, but no goats. I remember that he worked right here on the ranch—” Nora stopped and took a long drink of her tea. “Seems like I heard he’d been a foreman here for years.”

“And she had blonde hair?” Holly pressed her for more.

“Oh, yes.” Nora nodded seriously. “A great long mane of beautiful hair. She braided it and wrapped it around her head like a crown. One night when we were all here, she took it down and we brushed it out for her. She sat in a kitchen chair, and her hair almost went to the floor.”

“And my grandfather?” Lily asked. “Mama never talked a lot about him except to say that he was a good father.”

“Albert walked with a limp. He’d had an accident when he was young that left him with one leg shorter than the other,” Nora said. “He had red hair and a million freckles and the clearest blue eyes you’ve ever seen. He was a man of few words, but he adored Annie.”

Lily thought of poor Sophia, who had married a man who apparently didn’t love her like that, and wondered what had become of that woman.

“Now let’s talk about you, young lady.” Nora focused on Holly. “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

“I want to be a teacher. Not for big kids, though. I want to go into early-childhood development and teach the little kids,” Holly answered. “Braden, my brother, wants to be a vo-ag teacher just like Mack. But I really haven’t made up my mind for sure. Sometimes I think about going to the air force like Faith Torres. It would be great to be a pilot.”

“Those are good and noble ambitions,” Nora said. “I always thought I’d like to teach little kids, but I got married and had twins. Orville was a bank president here in Comfort, but he had the goat farm on the side, and I took care of it a lot of the time.”