"I had six years of being told what I was allowed to think. Six years of smiling while my husband lied to people. Six years of his mother reminding me that I was fortunate he married me."
Her voice trembled.
"I thought if I could just reach that lodge, I could become someone else."
Elias's expression softened.
Clara looked up.
"Someone who earned her own money. Someone who didn't have to ask permission to open a book or walk outside."
She tried to laugh.
Instead, tears filled her eyes.
"And when I found it empty, I thought perhaps God had decided I was asking too much."
Elias leaned forward.
"Clara."
She shook her head.
"I know how foolish it sounds."
"It doesn't."
She looked at him.
He held her gaze.
"Wanting a life that belongs to you isn't foolish."
A tear slipped down her cheek.
Elias reached across the table.
Then stopped.
"May I?"
Clara nodded.
He gently wiped the tear away with his thumb.
The touch lasted only a moment.
Yet it carried more tenderness than she had received from her husband in years.
Then Elias withdrew his hand.
He stood.
"There's something else."
Clara looked up.
"What?"
He went to the cabinet and retrieved a second letter.
The paper was badly creased.
One corner had been torn.
Across the front was a company seal she recognized.
Redstone Development Syndicate.
Elias placed it before her.
"This came through a survey clerk in September."
Clara opened it.
The letter authorized an inspection of property near Blackcap Pass.
It named Elias Roarke as an obstruction to development.
It included instructions to obtain his surveying records before the winter closure.
And near the bottom, in handwriting Clara knew far too well, was a short phrase.
The northern witness must be dealt with before the December review.
Clara stared.
"The northern witness?"
Elias nodded.
"That's what I thought they meant by me."
She looked up.
"What if they meant someone else?"
He frowned.
She pointed toward the document.
"What if they meant the person who knew about the forged accounts?"
Elias looked at her.
The silence lengthened.
Then Clara whispered, "What if they meant me?"
That evening, Elias did something Clara had not expected.
He offered to take her back to Blackwood as soon as the mountain road reopened.
He would provide a horse.
Money for lodging.
And a written statement confirming that the hunting lodge had been abandoned before her arrival.
She listened carefully.
Then asked, "And what happens to you?"
He looked surprised.
"What do you mean?"