"Chief," Elias said cautiously, "I don't know your daughter."
Iron Elk's expression remained hard.
"You will."
"Does she know about this arrangement?"
The chief did not answer immediately.
That silence troubled Elias more than any threat could have.
Finally, Iron Elk said, "She knows what is required."
Elias frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"It means she is my daughter."
Elias put his hat beneath his arm.
"With respect, that doesn't answer my question."
A younger warrior standing behind the chief shifted his weight.
Iron Elk looked sharply at Elias.
"You question me?"
"I'm asking whether she wants to marry me."
The chief's jaw tightened.
For a moment, Elias thought the conversation was finished.
Then Iron Elk said, "She has been hidden for five years."
Elias waited.
"No man in this valley has offered to marry her."
"Why?"
The chief's expression darkened.
"Because she is unpleasant to look upon."
Elias stared.
Iron Elk continued with brutal bluntness.
"Some call her cursed. Others say a man who marries her will know only misfortune."
Elias felt something cold settle in his stomach.
He had heard the stories in Lark Spur Flat.
The daughter nobody had seen.
The woman who wore a veil.
The men who supposedly suffered accidents after approaching her.
He had dismissed the rumors as nonsense.
Now her own father was repeating them.
"Do you believe those stories?" Elias asked.
Iron Elk looked away.
"What I believe does not matter."
"Seems to me it matters a great deal."
The chief's eyes flashed.
"You want the riverland."
"Yes."
"Then become family."
Elias glanced toward the river.
Green grass moved beside the water.
Cottonwood branches swayed in the evening breeze.
Everything he had ridden west to find lay just beyond the camp.
But the price was not money.
It was a woman's life.
A woman he had never met.
A woman whose father spoke of her as though she were a burden to be transferred.
Elias thought of his own mother.
How she had worked herself into exhaustion after Thomas disappeared.
How neighbors spoke about her as though being abandoned made her less worthy of respect.
How she continued waiting for a man who never returned.
He looked back at Iron Elk.
"I won't marry someone who doesn't want me."
The chief's face tightened.
"Then leave tonight."
Elias hesitated.
Behind the chief, he noticed a figure standing near a shelter.
A woman in a pale veil.
Her face was completely hidden.
But her posture was unmistakable.
She was listening.
Elias looked toward her.
Then returned his attention to Iron Elk.
"Let me speak to her."
"No."
"Just once."
"No."
"Then I can't agree."
The chief stepped closer.
For a moment, his voice lowered.
"The men who want our river will not wait forever. Neither can I."
Elias frowned.
"What men?"
Iron Elk's expression closed again.
"That is not your concern."
Elias looked toward the veiled woman.
Then toward the river.