"He told me the story you'd told him about you and Susan. I'd heard her version after you left her. Of course neither she nor I knew then that you'd o...erheard her phone conversation with John Stickner."When Roland told me about that, I knew then why you were a man on a mission. That conversation blew up the entire subterfuge."Roland said that he'd brushed your story off, at first, but as he drove home he began to remember some little things that had happened. Times when I had been off on. I wanted to leave, but Mum insisted we stay, saying I was being paranoid and selfish. Anyway I couldn't go and leave her around these bastards. Even worse, Dave and Jason came to sit with us at the front corner table, and tried to be friendly to me, remembering stuff about school, etc. Mum was friendly and chatty with them, so I had to grudgingly be so too, or else cause a scene.After a bit I could no longer take it, when they began complimenting my Mum and flirting with her in front of me.. Couldn't understand that man. Not that she really cared, he was another of the disgusting vermin of the world and the fact that he was human was purely accidental! But he could sign checks and cash them and give her a badly needed start on a new life. A means to an end. After all, life was not necessarily pretty even for the 'respectable' inhabitants of society. The dogs were more respectful in their attitude toward her than the many fanny-pinching bosses she'd worked for in the past. She'd had. Now that JJ was old enough to travel for short distances, Mary wanted to take him for a visit to the Rocking KK ranch to visit Grandpa. In truth, she was getting cabin fever. She'd had enough of town and wanted a chance to get back to her old home for a change of scenery. Jed reluctantly agreed, so he rented a buckboard for the short journey.Jed was prepared to escort mother and child to the ranch, but Mary insisted that she was quite capable of making the short trip on her own. After all, it.