“You told me you were asleep.”
“I lied.”
“Thomas.”
“I followed Mama to the barn.”
Nora stepped toward him.
Thomas’s hands shook.
“She was meeting Silas.”
Harlon gripped the table.
“She would never—”
“She was angry.”
Thomas continued through tears.
“She told him she knew about the deed.
She said the land wasn’t his to mortgage.
Silas said nobody would believe her.”
Harlon whispered, “What deed?”
Thomas shook his head.
“Then he hit her.”
Harlon stopped moving.
“He what?”
“She fell against the lantern.”
Silence swallowed the room.
“The straw caught fire.
Silas ran.”
Harlon’s face crumpled.
“I tried to pull her out,” Thomas sobbed.
“I couldn’t.”
Harlon crossed the room and seized his son.
For one terrible second Nora thought he might strike him.
Instead he pulled Thomas against his chest.
Thomas collapsed.
“I’m sorry, Pa.”
“No.”
“I was scared.”
“No.”
“I should’ve told you.”
“No.”
Harlon held him tighter.
“You were twelve years old.”
Thomas sobbed into his father’s shirt.
Harlon’s eyes closed.
Then something occurred to Nora.
“But Miriam survived the fire.”
Thomas nodded.
“For three days.”
Harlon’s eyes opened.
“She developed fever afterward.”
Nora looked at the ledger.
“Miriam knew Silas caused the fire.”
“Yes,” Thomas whispered.
“Why didn’t she tell you?”
Harlon stared toward the window.
“Because I would have killed him.”
Nora knew instantly he was right.
“And she was protecting the boys from losing another parent.”
Harlon covered his face.
For two years, he had mourned a death he believed caused by illness.
Now grief became murder.
Nora touched his arm.
He looked at her.
For the first time since she arrived, Harlon did not look strong.
He looked shattered.
“I need air.”
He walked outside.
Nora followed.
He crossed the yard and stopped near the corral.
“I should have known.”
“How?”
“I was there.”
“You were inside the barn after the fire started.”
“I should have known.”
“You cannot know what someone worked to hide.”
His jaw trembled.
“She died protecting me from the truth.”
Nora stepped closer.
“And Thomas hid it because he was protecting you too.”
Harlon laughed bitterly.
“Apparently my entire family has been protecting me.”
Nora reached for his hand.
He stared at their joined fingers.
Then he looked at her.
“Why are you still here?”
She swallowed.
“I’m not sure anymore.”
“I told you to leave.”
“I rarely listen.”
“I noticed.”
She smiled.
Then Harlon lifted her hand.
Slowly.
Giving her every opportunity to pull away.
He pressed his lips against her knuckles.
Nobody had ever kissed Nora Callaway as though touching her were a privilege.
Her eyes filled.
“Harlon—”
“I don’t care what number a scale gives you.”
Nora’s breath caught.
“I care that Ru sleeps without asking whether supper is coming.”
Another kiss.
“That Thomas laughed.”
Another.
“That my house sounds alive.”
He stepped closer.
“And that when someone fired through my window, the first thing I thought was that they might have hurt you.”
Nora’s heart pounded.
“You barely knew me.”
“I know more every day.”
Then he kissed her.
Not hungrily.
Not desperately.
Carefully.
A question.
Nora answered.
For several impossible seconds, every cruel voice from Sorrow Creek disappeared.
She was not too big.
Not too plain.
Not too late.
She was simply Nora.
And someone wanted her.
Then Thomas shouted from the house.
“PA!”
They separated.
Smoke was rising beyond the south pasture.
