“To him.”
“Yes.”
“You had my money.”
“Your mother specifically said not to give it while Ephraim could take it.”
Clara’s eyes burned.
“She trusted strangers more than me.”
“No.”
Harlan shook head.
“She trusted that twelve-year-old child would not be able to stop her father taking eighty dollars.”
Clara’s anger faltered.
Harlan continued.
“I should’ve told you sooner once you were grown.”
“Yes.”
“I was wrong.”
No excuse.
Like Silas.
Clara took envelope.
The money inside was more than a year’s wages for some women.
Enough to rent a room.
Buy supplies.
Start something.
Not fortune.
Freedom.
Her mother had left two things.
A letter.
A choice.
Clara looked at Silas.
He understood.
Harlan said:
“Ephraim wants county constable to come up.”
“Let him.”
Silas spoke.
Clara turned.
He added:
“Unless you want go down first.”
There.
Her decision.
Clara looked toward cabin.
Then money.
Then mountains.
“I’m going.”
Silas’s jaw tightened slightly.
Harlan watched.
Clara said:
“To Harlan’s Crossing.”
Silas nodded.
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
“I’ll take you.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“I ride with Harlan.”
Silas absorbed.
“Okay.”
Clara felt unexpectedly hurt that he agreed so easily.
Which was unfair.
She wanted freedom and wanted him to object.
Human hearts were ridiculous.
Harlan slept in loft.
Silas barely spoke that night.
Clara packed what little she had acquired.
The wooden rabbit.
Her mother’s letter.
Money.
A warm dress Silas had traded for during January? Perhaps he had given her materials. She packed.
At dawn, Silas stood near horse.
Clara approached.
“I’ll return your clothes.”
“No.”
“The moccasins.”
“Keep.”
“Silas.”
“They fit you.”
“That doesn’t mean they’re mine.”
He looked at her.
“I gave.”
She nodded.
“Thank you.”
He looked as though the words hurt.
Clara asked:
“You’re not going to ask me to stay?”
Silas’s eyes sharpened.
“Do you want me to?”
She opened mouth.
Closed.
He continued:
“If you want stay, stay.”
“If you want go, go.”
“I won’t make leaving harder because I want you here.”
There it was.
Her mother’s test.
He passed again.
Clara’s eyes filled.
“I don’t know what I want.”
Silas nodded.
“Then you need somewhere not mine and not Ephraim’s to find out.”
She stared.
“Did Harlan tell you about money before today?”
“No.”
“You still would let me go.”
“Yes.”
“Even if I had nowhere.”
Silas looked toward trail.
“I’d take you where you chose and pay until you could stand.”
“That would make me owe you.”