Josephine's ankle was well enough now so that she was often to be met in unexpected places about the ranch, he discovered.

And though she was not friendly, she was less openly antagonistic than she had been--and when all was said and done, eminently able to take care of herself.
So also was Kate, for that matter.

No sooner was her beloved Chester out of sight over the hill a mile away, than Mrs.Kate dried her wifely tears and laid hold of her scepter with a firmness that amused Ford exceedingly.

She ordered Dick up to work in the depressed-looking area before the house, which she called her flower garden, a task which Dick seemed perfectly willing to perform, by the way--although his assistance would have been more than welcome at other work than tying scraggly rose bushes and protecting them from the winter already at hand.
As to Buddy, he surely would have resented, more keenly than the women, the implication that he needed any one to take care of him.

Buddy's allegiance to Ford was wavering, at that time.