“Payment is due Friday.”
Harlon’s expression tightened.
“We agreed on November.”
“The note says October.”
Harlon took it.
Nora watched his face.
“How much?” she asked.
“Not your concern,” Harlon said.
Silas smiled.
“Eight hundred dollars.”
Nora nearly dropped the coffeepot.
Eight hundred dollars might as well have been eight thousand.
Silas rose.
“When you cannot pay, I take the south grazing land.”
Harlon stood.
“You’ll get your money.”
“I certainly will.”
Silas moved toward the door.
Then paused beside Nora.
“Interesting woman to choose.”
Harlon went rigid.
Nora recognized the tone.
She had heard it all her life.
Silas’s gaze swept over her body.
“Strong-looking.”
Harlon stepped between them.
“Get out.”
Silas smiled.
“What?”
“Get out of my house.”
“Harlon—”
“Now.”
Silas’s smile vanished.
His gaze settled on Nora again.
Then he left.
The moment the door closed, Nora turned toward Harlon.
“You don’t have eight hundred dollars.”
“No.”
“But you own three hundred cattle.”
“Two hundred and twelve.”
“Sell forty.”
“Prices collapsed.”
“Sell horses.”
“Disease took half.”
Nora folded her arms.
“What happened to the money you borrowed?”
Harlon looked away.
Thomas answered.
“Mama’s doctor.”
Harlon closed his eyes.
Medical expenses.
Funeral expenses.
Two years of drought.
The pieces assembled themselves.
Nora looked toward the account books stacked on a shelf.
“May I?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you are leaving.”
“No.”
Harlon stared.
Nora stared back.
“I was humiliated yesterday.
Shot at last night.
Insulted before breakfast.”
“It’s afternoon.”
“My point stands.”
Harlon almost smiled.
Almost.
“I am staying until Friday.”
“Why?”
“Because those children need feeding.”
His jaw tightened.
“And because somebody traveled considerable effort to frighten you.”
“That isn’t your problem.”
Nora looked toward six boys pretending not to listen.
“It became my problem when Ru handed me a wooden spoon.”
Harlon lost the argument.
The next four days changed the Greer ranch.
Not dramatically.
Not all at once.
But unmistakably.
Nora scrubbed.
The boys complained.
Nora ignored them.
She established meals at seven, noon, and six.
Cade discovered he loved peeling potatoes if allowed to throw the peelings at chickens.
Porter learned to sew buttons.
Eli repaired stools.
Reeve showed Nora where Miriam had planted herbs.
Thomas avoided discussing the letters.
Ru followed Nora everywhere.
And Harlon watched.
At first from doorways.
Then from across the table.
Then beside her.
On Wednesday evening, Nora found him repairing the stove latch.
“You don’t need to do that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“It worked.”
“Ru could open it.”
Nora understood.
Harlon tightened the final screw.
“He won’t cook alone again.”
“No.”
“Thank you.”
She looked at him.
He cleared his throat.
“For seeing what I didn’t.”
Nora’s voice softened.
“You were grieving.”
“They were too.”
“Yes.”
“I forgot that.”
She sat across from him.
For a long time, neither spoke.
Then Harlon asked quietly, “Why did you answer the advertisement?”
Nora smiled without humor.
“Because it said beauty was unimportant.”
His face changed.
“Thomas copied that?”
“Apparently.”
Harlon looked toward the dark window.
“Miriam wrote those words.”
Nora felt something strange move through her.
“How could she know me?”
“I don’t know.”
Harlon looked back.
“But she never believed beauty was unimportant.”
Nora laughed bitterly.
“Then she never looked like me.”
“No.”
The firmness of his answer startled her.
Harlon’s eyes held hers.
“She believed beauty was everywhere.”
Nora looked away first.
Harlon rose.
When he passed behind her, his hand briefly touched her shoulder.
