Then mimed walking.
She glanced west.
Smoke from his chimney was barely visible.
After a moment, she nodded.
The walk took nearly forty minutes.
Elias offered Cooper.
She refused.
So he walked too.
When they finally reached the stone ranch house, the woman stopped beside the well.
She stared at it strangely.
Not with relief.
Recognition.
Elias noticed.
"You've seen this place?"
No answer.
She walked toward the well.
Around the circular stone wall were several old carvings Elias had seen his entire life.
His father had always said Mexican laborers had decorated the stones when the well was rebuilt.
The woman touched one.
A circle split by three crooked lines.
Her expression changed.
Elias frowned.
"You know that mark?"
She looked at him.
Then reached beneath her shirt.
Around her neck hung a thin leather cord.
Attached was a flat piece of copper.
The same symbol had been stamped into it.
Elias stepped closer.
The woman immediately covered it with her hand.
He stopped.
"All right."
He pointed toward the house.
"Food."
That word she understood.
Her name was Mara.
Elias learned it nearly an hour later.
Her English was limited, but better than she initially let him believe.
She sat at his kitchen table while he cleaned the wound near her temple.
She flinched once when the cloth touched it.
"Sorry."
"You say sorry often."
Elias looked at her.
"So you do speak English."
"Some."
"You could've mentioned that an hour ago."
"You talk much."
He laughed.
"That's probably why."
Mara ate beans, dried beef, and half a piece of cornbread.
She refused whiskey for the wound.
Accepted coffee.
Then stared suspiciously at it after the first sip.
"Bad?"
She considered.
"Very bad."
"That's insulting."
"It is true."
Elias smiled despite himself.
Then he looked at her injured leg.
"Can you tell me what happened?"
Mara's expression closed again.
"No."
"Someone chasing you?"
Silence.
"You in danger?"
She looked toward the window.
"Maybe."
"Am I?"
That earned the smallest hint of a smile.
"Maybe."
"Wonderful."
Elias stood.
"I have one bedroom."
She immediately shook her head.
"You take it."
"No."