“I’m getting Clara.”
Thomas grabbed his wrist weakly.
“No law.”
“Clara is not law.”
“Who?”
“My wife.”
Thomas blinked.
“You married?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Not important.”
“Apparently I missed things.”
“Yes.”
Samuel looked at Anna.
“Come.”
She shook her head.
“I’m staying with Papa.”
Samuel said:
“I’ll come back.”
She stared.
“Promise?”
“Yes.”
He returned through the tunnel.
Clara was waiting beside the open panel.
The pistol remained in her lap.
Her face changed when she saw him.
Relief first.
Then suspicion.
“You took too long.”
“I found the ghost.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“He’s nine years old.”
Clara stared.
“He?”
“She.”
Samuel sat.
Then told her.
Everything.
By the time he finished, Clara’s eyes were wet.
She wiped them angrily.
“Idiot.”
“Thomas?”
“Yes.”
“Which part?”
“All.”
Samuel nodded.
“What do we do?”
Clara already knew.
“Food.”
“Of course.”
“Clean cloth.”
“Hot water.”
“Willow bark.”
“The doctor?”
“Road is impossible.”
“Then we keep him alive until it isn’t.”
Samuel smiled faintly.
“What?”
“You never hesitate when someone needs feeding.”
Clara looked at him.
“Hungry people are not philosophical questions.”
They loaded a basket.
Clara could not fit through the tunnel.
That fact infuriated her.
She stood before the narrow opening.
“I hate this.”
“I know.”
“I want to see the child.”
“I know.”
“I want to see Thomas.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
“Sorry.”
Clara looked around.
“There is another way.”
“The mountain path is buried.”
“So clear it.”
Samuel stared.
“Half mile uphill.”
“Yes.”
“In four feet of snow.”
“Yes.”
“You are not walking that.”
Clara’s face hardened.
“I did not say I was.”
The next day Samuel began clearing the old track between cabins.
It took hours.
Then two days.
He used snowshoes.
A shovel.
Their mule.
Clara supervised from the doorway and insulted his technique.
On the third morning, they harnessed the mule to the low freight sled.
Clara sat wrapped in hides.
Samuel guided.
The route climbed gradually enough.
When they reached the Hale cabin, Anna stood outside.
The child stared.
She had never seen Clara before.
Most children stared at Clara’s size.
Anna did too.
Then she looked at the basket Clara carried.
“Bread?”
Clara smiled.
“Among other things.”
Anna came closer.
Clara’s enormous body occupied most of the sled.
Her pale blue dress was hidden beneath layers of wool.