Children were gathering near the doorway.
Abigail called them inside.
The yard became quiet.
He looked back at Clara.
"What does that mean?"
She swallowed.
For a moment, she considered telling him.
About her father.
The field books.
Gideon Voss.
And the men who had followed her across the territory.
But she'd only just met Caleb.
The rumors frightened her more than she wanted to admit.
She didn't know whether he could be trusted.
So she shook her head.
"Nothing."
His expression closed.
He lifted the firewood.
"Then stay off the northern trail."
He carried the wood into the shed.
Clara watched him disappear.
For the first time, she found herself genuinely angry with him.
He had no right to tell her where she could go.
No right to dismiss her knowledge.
And certainly no right to decide what risks she was allowed to take.
Yet beneath the anger, she recognized something else.
He had looked frightened.
Not for himself.
For her.
She didn't know why.
But she intended to find out.
Caleb Hart spent the rest of that afternoon wondering why he'd refused Clara so abruptly.
He wasn't proud of it.
She'd asked a reasonable question about the mountains.
He could have explained the dangers.
Could have suggested safer routes.
Could have asked what landmarks she needed to locate.
Instead, he'd shut down the conversation.
Because she had mentioned the northern survey trail.
And Caleb hadn't ridden that trail in nearly five years.
Not since his younger brother died there.
Thomas Hart had been twenty-six when he was killed.
A tall, laughing young man who could charm a stubborn horse and talk almost anybody into helping him with an impossible project.
He and Caleb had come west together after their parents died.
Thomas loved the open country.
He talked about building a ranch.
Raising cattle.
Marrying a schoolteacher.
And filling a house with children who would grow up knowing every bend in the creek.
Caleb was the older brother.
The cautious one.
The man who counted supplies twice and never trusted a trail simply because it appeared clear from a distance.
Thomas was different.
He believed most people meant well.
Sometimes they did.
Sometimes they didn't.
Five years earlier, Thomas accepted work guiding a survey party near Blackpine Ridge.
The men claimed they were examining routes for a possible freight road.
Caleb disliked the arrangement.
The employer was connected to Gideon Voss's expanding business interests.
Caleb already distrusted several of Voss's associates.
He warned Thomas.
His brother laughed.
"You're suspicious of anybody carrying a clean ledger."
Caleb shook his head.
"I'm suspicious of men who won't say exactly who's paying them."
Thomas grinned.
"Then come along and keep me honest."
Caleb refused.
He had cattle to move.
A fence to repair.
And no interest in spending three weeks assisting men he didn't trust.