“No.”
Silas blinked.
“You cannot mean to stay with him.”
Josephine looked at Harlan.
He did not react.
No expectation.
No claim.
Her decision.
She turned back.
“I don’t know what I mean to do.”
Silas frowned.
“Then come home until you decide.”
Josephine almost smiled.
“That is the problem.”
“What?”
“I have never decided anything there.”
Her father looked wounded.
Josephine continued softly.
“I need somewhere I can hear myself think.”
Silas glanced at Harlan.
Josephine saw the assumption.
She immediately corrected it.
“I did not say I belong to him.”
Harlan’s eyes met hers.
Something quiet passed between them.
Silas left without another word.
For several days, Josephine remained in Silver Junction while legal papers were filed.
She rented a room at the boardinghouse using money Judge Ross advanced from her mother’s estate.
Harlan rented another room.
Across the hall.
The distance was deliberate.
Josephine noticed.
On the second evening, she found him downstairs repairing a saddle strap.
“Are you avoiding me?”
Harlan looked up.
“No.”
“You haven’t spoken more than ten words today.”
“You seemed busy.”
“I was.”
He returned to the leather.
Josephine sat opposite him.
“Pike said something I can’t stop thinking about.”
Harlan stopped working.
“Your land.”
“Yes.”
“My cabin is close to Black Pine Pass.”
“You knew that marrying me might benefit you.”
“Yes.”
Josephine appreciated the honesty and hated it simultaneously.
“Did it matter?”
“Not when I rode to St. Louis.”
“Did it occur to you?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“After Miriam’s letter.”
Josephine folded her arms.
“And?”
Harlan placed the saddle strap on the table.
“And I considered leaving.”
That surprised her.
“Why?”
“Because I knew what people would say.”
“People?”
“You.”
Josephine stared.
Harlan continued.
“I thought you might believe I was helping because I wanted the land.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“How am I supposed to know?”
“You aren’t.”
Josephine frowned.
“Stop doing that.”
“What?”
“Giving answers that make it impossible to argue.”
Harlan’s mouth shifted.
“Sorry.”
“You’re not.”
“No.”
Josephine laughed.
The tension loosened.
Harlan leaned back.
“There is one way.”
“One way to what?”
“To know what I want.”
Josephine waited.
He continued.
“When probate is finished, sell Black Pine Pass.”
She stared.
“What?”
“Sell it.”
“To whom?”
“Anyone except me.”
Josephine’s mouth opened.
Harlan continued.
“Keep the money. Move east. Buy a house. Open a shop. Do anything.”
“You would want that?”