"I knew."
"All this time."
"Yes."
He sat down on the bunk again, heavily. He put his face in his hands. When he spoke again it was through his fingers.
"I used to lie awake in the Ella bunkhouse," he said, "and think, she'll never know. She'll never know what I did. And it was the only thing that let me sleep." He laughed, a terrible small sound. "And you knew the whole time. You knew before I'd got over the pass."
"Not what you did," she said. "Only that you'd done something."
He was quiet for a long while. Ruddock, in the corridor, shifted his weight and cleared his throat. Somewhere above them a door banged and boots went across a floor.
"What will you do?" Eben said at last, without lifting his head. "After."
"I'm going home. I've a claim to work." She looked at him. "I'll go to law in the spring about the marriage. Desertion's grounds in this territory. Ora Bettis says there's a man in Denver who'll do it for forty dollars. I'll not ask you to make it hard."