Ruth looked across the street.
Jonah waited near their wagon.
He deliberately gave them distance.
“Yes.”
Edwin looked at her.
“Do you love him?”
The answer arrived without confusion.
“Yes.”
It startled her only because she had not spoken it before.
Edwin nodded.
“Good.”
Ruth almost laughed.
“You don’t get to approve.”
“That’s fair.”
He left Copper Ridge two days later under protection of a territorial investigator.
Ruth watched the stage disappear.
She cried afterward.
Jonah did not misunderstand.
He simply stood beside her.
When she finally wiped her face, he handed her a handkerchief.
“You all right?”
“No.”
“Want to go home?”
She looked at him.
Home.
The ranch.
The kitchen.
The upstairs bedroom.
His terrible eggs.
The horses.
The blanket he kept leaving over chairs.
Him.
“Yes.”
Silas Pierce’s case expanded.
Talbot had been killed.
The horse accident had been staged.
The evidence connected one of Pierce’s hired men directly to the scene.
Land transactions were investigated.
Several sales were voided.
The boardinghouse mortgage turned out to be controlled through one of Pierce’s companies exactly as Edwin claimed.
Mrs. Keller nearly lost the building before the court froze the debt.
Jonah offered to purchase the note.
Ruth stopped him.
“Why?”
“Because Mrs. Keller needs help.”
“Yes.”
“So?”
“So ask her.”
Jonah stared.
Then smiled.
“You’re right.”
“I know.”
He approached Mrs. Keller.
She accepted a loan only after Ruth helped write terms requiring fixed interest and prohibiting transfer without notice.
Jonah read the contract.
“You don’t trust me?”
Ruth kissed his cheek.
“I trust paper to remember when people become foolish.”
He considered.
“That may be the most romantic thing you’ve said.”
Their marriage changed quietly.
One night Ruth stood in Jonah’s doorway.
He was sitting on the bed reading a cattle report.
He looked up.
She wore a pale nightdress.
Her hair hung loose.
Jonah set the paper aside.
“Something wrong?”
“No.”
She leaned against the frame.
“Do you remember our wedding night?”
His mouth curved.
“I spent most of it on the floor.”
“You were dramatic.”
“I was honorable.”
“You were uncomfortable.”
“That too.”
Ruth stepped inside.
Jonah watched her.
She stopped near the bed.
“You told me if I wanted something different, we would talk.”
“Yes.”
“I want something different.”
His breathing changed.
“What?”
Ruth sat beside him.
“Closer.”
He stayed still.
She smiled.
“Still careful.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
She touched his chest.
Jonah’s eyes darkened.
Ruth looked up.
“If I tell you to stop?”
“I stop.”
“If I tell you I’m frightened?”
“I wait.”
“If I want to change my mind?”
“You change it.”
She leaned closer.
“And if I tell you I love you?”
Everything in him seemed to stop.
Ruth almost laughed.