I was ready for him to I don't know. He's not a man who wastes words on losing his temper. But I thought he paused. He just said, "Every fence I ever built wrong taught me something the right ones didn't." "And then we did it over."
Clara listened. "That's him," James said. "He doesn't He doesn't say much, but when he says something, it tends to be the thing you needed to hear even if it's not what you expected." "He's like that," she agreed. "You've noticed it," James said.
"I notice most things," she said. Pause. "Mrs. Whittaker," he said. "Clara."
The correction was deliberate. "Are you going to stay?" She looked at Sam, still flushed, breathing easier now, one small hand curled on the blanket. "Yes," she said. "Because of Sam," he said.
"Because of all of you," she said. "Sam, Mabel, Ethan and his sketchbook, Thomas trying to test every boundary I have, Daniel trying to test them along with him, Luke and his gears and levers." She paused. "Your father." James was quiet.
"You care about him," he said. It was not a question. "I respect him," she said carefully. "That comes first before anything else. Ma used to say that about him," James said.
"She said she said she fell in love with him because she respected him first." "Because he was the kind of man who was the same in private as he was in public." "She said that was rare." The candle had burned nearly to its stub. Clara kept her hand on Sam's wrist, feeling his pulse still fast but not alarming now, not climbing.
"She sounds like she was wise," Clara said. "She was," James said simply. "She was the best person I've ever known, and I know that's He stopped. I know that's a complicated thing to say to you." "It's not complicated at all," Clara said.
"It's exactly what a son should feel about his mother." Nate came back with Dr. Willis at 20 past 6. She heard the horses before she heard the voices, and then Nate's boots on the stairs faster than his usual measured pace, which told her everything about the state he'd been in for the past 4 hours riding in the dark, and then he was in the doorway. His eyes went straight to Sam.
The boy was sleeping. Actually sleeping now, not the restless shallow dozing of a high fever. His color was still high, but the fire had gone out of it. Nate stood very still. Dr.