Of course, Martha said. Mr. Cole? Calhoun looked at Sam. I expect you'll ensure she's available. She can speak for herself, Sam said, as you've seen.
Something moved in Calhoun's eyes. Not quite respect, but the precursor to it. The moment before a man revises his understanding of a situation. He nodded once. Turned his horse.
Wade did not turn his horse. He sat very still at the edge of the yard and looked at Martha with an expression that had dropped all pretense of grief or concern. What was underneath it was simpler than that and considerably colder. This isn't finished, he said, quiet even, the way a man speaks when he is absolutely certain of his own power and is simply reminding you of a fact. Martha looked up at him.
She was standing in the snow in her boots and her borrowed coat and her bandaged wrists. And she looked up at the man on horseback who had taken her coat and tied her to a post and left her daughter barefoot in a blizzard. And she said in a voice that did not shake at all, "No, but it's going to be." Wade Briggs turned his horse and rode south without another word. And that was almost worse than if he'd argued.
A man who argues is a man who still needs to convince you. A man who simply turns and leaves has already moved on to the next step. Sam watched him go. Martha watched him go. Lily, who had appeared in the doorway at some point during the confrontation with the silent, absolute timing of a child who always knows exactly when something important is happening, watched him go, too.
Her small hand gripping the doorframe. When the sound of hoofbeats faded to nothing, Martha let out a breath that she'd clearly been holding since Calhoun unfolded that document. It came out slow and controlled, not a collapse, but a release. The careful, disciplined exhale of a woman standing down from high alert. She turned and went back up the porch steps and took Lily's hand and went inside without speaking.
And Sam followed and closed the door behind them. For a long moment, nobody said anything. Lily looked between the two adults with her customary seriousness. Then she said, "He's going to come back." "Yes," Martha said.
She sat down at the table. Her hands, Sam noticed, were perfectly steady. He is. Agnes said three days for Garrett, Sam said. Calhoun bought us time today, but he won't stall forever.
Wade will find a way to pressure him. Wade has been pressuring Calhoun for years. Harold did before him. Calhoun is a man who has been leaned on so long, he's forgotten what it feels like to stand straight. Martha looked at the table.