“Why?”
“I don't understand them yet.”
He smiled.
“Good.”
“Why good?”
“Price assumed you’d sign first paper.”
“I won't.”
Clara hired hydrologist, surveyor, attorney.
She read every document.
Slowly.
Sometimes frustratingly.
She had never been educated in land management because women in her social class were taught French, embroidery, music, and how to host men who controlled money.
Clara learned.
Silas taught practical side.
Snowpack.
Fences.
Cattle.
Spring flow.
Timber.
She taught him accounting.
Badly.
He hated ledgers.
She laughed.
They lived in cabin together with separate sleeping arrangements.
At first.
The town talked.
Of course.
A woman her size unmarried living with mountain man.
Cedar Ridge possessed no shortage of opinions.
Clara expected humiliation.
One afternoon she entered mercantile.
Two women stopped whispering too late.
“She can barely fit—”
Clara froze.
Old wound.
Silas, beside her, turned.
Clara grabbed sleeve.
“No.”
He looked.
She walked to women.
“Finish.”
They stared.
“What?”
“Sentence.”
Neither spoke.
Clara continued:
“You were saying I can barely fit somewhere.”
One woman blushed.
“We meant carriage.”
“No.”
“You didn't.”
Silence.
Clara’s heart hammered.
She had never confronted like this.
“I have spent thirty years doing work for cruel people.”
she said.
“Laughing before they finish so they know I can take joke.”
“Pretending I didn’t hear.”
“Changing rooms.”
“Changing dresses.”
“Changing myself.”
She looked at them.
“I am tired.”
Then she walked away.
Outside, hands shook.
Silas followed.
“That was brave.”
“No.”
“I almost vomited.”
“Can be both.”
She laughed shakily.
He offered arm.
She took.
That night at cabin she cried.
Not because women.
Because she had finally defended herself before someone else could.
Silas sat beside fireplace.
Clara looked at him.
“Do you desire me?”
He nearly dropped cup.
“What?”
“You heard.”
“Clara.”
“Do you?”
Silas turned red beneath beard.
She stared.
Something almost delightful in frightening this enormous man.
“Answer.”
“Yes.”
The word came rough.
Clara stopped breathing.
Silas set cup down.
“Yes.”
“I desire you.”
“I have since first night.”
“Before spring?”
“Yes.”