Caleb looked almost embarrassed.
“Your father demanded proof I could provide.”
Elena laughed bitterly.
“By buying me.”
“I told him no.”
“Yet you paid.”
“He said if I didn’t, Vane would arrive by noon.”
Caleb rubbed one hand over beard.
“The two horses were old stock I planned to trade anyway.”
“And twenty dollars?”
“Sarah left it.”
Elena froze.
“What?”
“She left money specifically for expenses connected to protecting the deed.”
“So my own mother’s friend paid my father to give me away.”
“When you say it like that—”
“How else?”
“Badly.”
Elena stared.
Caleb did not smile.
“You are right.”
He leaned forward.
“It was ugly.”
“I made decision because I thought time mattered more than explaining.”
“I might have been wrong.”
“Might?”
“I was wrong to deny you choice.”
Elena studied him.
“You regret it?”
“Yes.”
“Would you do it again?”
Caleb took long breath.
“If Vane was coming that morning and I believed you were in danger?”
Elena waited.
He answered honestly.
“I don’t know.”
She appreciated that more than a pretty lie.
Snow struck windows.
Caleb said:
“When road opens, I will take you wherever you choose.”
Elena frowned.
“Where?”
“Town.”
“Helena.”
“Back to your father if you demand, though I’ll argue.”
She almost smiled.
“And this marriage?”
“Can be challenged.”
“Annulled?”
“My attorney says likely.”
“You arranged that too?”
“I asked what options you would have.”
Elena looked.
“You assumed I would want to leave.”
“I assumed you should be able to.”
That sentence settled somewhere deep.
He stood.
“You should read your mother’s letter.”
Elena looked down.
“I can’t.”
“Tonight?”
“No.”
“Then tomorrow.”
“Maybe.”
He nodded.
No pressure.
He walked toward ladder leading to small loft.
Elena looked.
“Where are you going?”
“To sleep.”
“Up there?”
“Yes.”
“Where do I sleep?”
He pointed toward only enclosed bedroom.
“There.”
She stared.
“This is your cabin.”
“Yes.”
“That’s your bed.”
“Yes.”
“You’ll sleep in loft?”
“Yes.”
“You are enormous.”
“So is loft.”
Despite herself, Elena laughed.
Caleb paused halfway up ladder.
The sound surprised both.
Then he disappeared above.
Elena remained at table.
The ruined corset.
The deed.
Her mother’s unopened letter.
The plain blue dress.
Nothing about the day made sense.
She had expected humiliation.
Instead she had been given room.
And Elena had no idea yet which frightened her more.
Morning arrived white.
The windows had vanished beneath frost.
Wind still screamed through the pines.
Elena woke beneath a heavy quilt in Caleb’s bed and spent several seconds not remembering where she was.
Then everything returned.