“Red Willow?”
“No.”
Her eyes hardened.
“I arrived after Harrow’s surveyor had already set two markers.”
“So you signed what you did not see.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted the job.”
Mara stared.
“Money.”
“Yes.”
“Not fear.”
“No.”
He swallowed.
“Money.”
That answer changed something.
Not forgiveness.
But perhaps Mara had expected him to hide behind ignorance.
Elias continued.
“I spent years telling myself I was a chainman, not a judge.”
“You were wrong.”
“Yes.”
“My family moved because of that paper.”
“I know.”
“You do not.”
“No.”
Elias shook his head.
“I don’t.”
Mara folded the map.
She did not return it immediately.
“My mother walked sixteen miles for water that first summer.”
Elias said nothing.
“My youngest sister became sick.”
His chest tightened.
“She lived.”
Relief arrived before he could stop it.
Mara noticed.
“But my grandmother did not.”
Relief vanished.
“I’m sorry.”
Mara looked at him.
“No.”
“What?”
“You are sorry now.”
Elias held her gaze.
“Yes.”
“You were not sorry then.”
“No.”
“I want the difference remembered.”
He nodded.
“All right.”
She gave the map back.
Then stood.
“We cannot take the south trail.”
“Why?”
“Rusk and Bell will be watching.”
“I need Tucson.”
“You need not die before sunset.”
“I’m open to both.”
“You joke when afraid.”
Elias looked at her.
“Apparently.”
“I dislike it.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
Mara gave him a flat stare.
Elias smiled weakly.
“Or not.”
She looked west.
“There is a place two hours from here.”
“What place?”
“My people.”
Elias’s expression changed.
“No.”
“You are not choosing.”
“Mara.”
“If Harrow’s men see you with me, they may wait. If they see you alone, they finish what they started.”
“And if your family sees me?”
Mara considered.
“Same possibility.”
Elias stared.
She smiled slightly.
“That was a joke.”
“I liked you better before.”
“No.”
She helped him onto his horse.
The ride lasted closer to three hours because Elias nearly fainted twice.
Mara kept them off open trails.
They followed a dry wash west, climbed through pine-covered slopes, then descended into a narrow valley hidden behind a line of dark rock.
Smoke rose from several cooking fires.
Horses grazed near cottonwoods.
Children noticed them first.
Then adults.
Conversation stopped.
Elias felt every pair of eyes.
Mara rode ahead.
An older woman approached.
She had Mara’s eyes.
Mara dismounted and spoke to her quietly.
The woman looked toward Elias.
Her expression hardened.
“No,” Elias said.
Mara looked at him.
“What?”
“I know that face.”