“I refused.”
“Why?”
“Because Nathan taught me what happens when I let a man control papers I don’t understand.”
Caleb nodded.
“Good.”
She looked at him.
“You think Ambrose sabotaged the coach.”
“Yes.”
“And killed four people?”
Caleb did not soften it.
“Yes.”
Clara stood.
Her chair scraped.
“I have to go to Red Hollow.”
“No.”
She turned.
“No?”
“Not alone.”
“I wasn’t asking.”
“Good.”
“Because I wasn’t answering.”
For a second they stared.
Then Clara almost smiled.
“You’re very commanding for a man terrified of kissing.”
Caleb’s mouth twitched.
“Different skill.”
They waited two more days until Clara could walk without severe pain.
Then Caleb hitched his sleigh.
The ride to Red Hollow took most of morning.
The town went quiet when they arrived.
Clara noticed.
Of course she noticed.
People always became quiet before pretending they had not been discussing you.
Mrs. Palmer outside mercantile stopped arranging apples.
Two teenage boys stared.
A woman Clara once knew from church whispered to another.
Caleb climbed down.
Then turned and offered Clara his hand.
She hesitated.
Not because she feared him.
Because everyone was watching.
He understood without explanation.
His hand remained there.
Available.
Not insisting.
Clara placed hers in it.
Caleb helped her down.
Whispers began immediately.
“That’s her.”
“Thought she left.”
“Stagecoach woman.”
“Only survivor.”
“Course she survived.”
That last voice carried.
Clara froze.
Caleb turned.
An older man named Cyrus Bell stood near hitching post.
He had mocked her since she was fifteen.
He lifted both hands.
“What?”
“Just saying.”
“Coach full of people dies and somehow the cursed widow walks away.”
Caleb moved.
Clara caught his arm.
“No.”
He stopped.
Cyrus smiled.
“There.”
“Got yourself mountain brute now.”
Clara looked at him.
Years earlier she would have lowered her eyes.
Today she had nearly died beneath snow.
Had been carried two miles through a blizzard.
Had been kissed by a man who thought her beautiful.
Some things became smaller after death passed close.
Including Cyrus Bell.
She said:
“I survived because Caleb Ward found me.”
Cyrus shrugged.
“Still strange.”
Clara stepped closer.
“You called me cursed when Nathan died.”
“You called me cursed when my aunt died.”
“You called me cursed when a barn burned three streets from my house.”
Cyrus looked around.
People were watching.
Clara continued.
“Now four people die because someone removed a wheel pin, and you call me cursed again.”
Silence.
Cyrus’s face changed.
“What?”
Caleb pulled the damaged retaining clip from his coat.
Sheriff Amos Dwyer had just stepped from office.
He saw metal.
Then Caleb.
“What’s this?”
Caleb handed him letter too.
Within twenty minutes, they were inside the sheriff’s office.