"Keeping a place," he clarified.
Her mouth tightened. "Family gone," she said simply, then turned back to what she was doing. That was all she offered, but it was more than she had given him before.
Calder felt something shift in him at those words. Whatever she was running from hadn't just bruised her and left her barefoot. It had taken everyone she had. Later, when the sun was higher, she crouched by the fire sewing again.
This time it wasn't her dress, but one of his shirts, patching a tear in the sleeve where barbed wire had caught a week back. Calder stood in the doorway watching her hands move. Her stitches were uneven but steady, and she frowned each time the needle stuck. He found himself asking, "You know how to use a needle and thread well enough?"
She shrugged. "Mother teach me. Not good," she admitted, holding up the crooked seam.
"It'll hold," Calder said, surprising himself by almost smiling. The day went on like that, quiet but not the strained quiet of before. She began to move around the cabin like she belonged there, even if she never went far from the fire. Toward evening, Calder saddled the horse to check the northern fence line.
Naya stood in the doorway watching him. "You stay inside," he said. "Door barred till I come back." She frowned slightly, then nodded.
When he returned an hour later, the lantern was lit and the door was bolted just like he told her. She unbarred it when she heard his voice and stepped back so he could enter. There was a small pot of beans warming on the stove. She had fed the fire without being asked.
They ate together at the table, not speaking much, but each passing the salt and the bread without hesitation. It felt different. Afterward, Calder took out his rifle and began cleaning it on the table. Naya sat cross-legged on the floor watching him, her face calm.
After a while, she asked, "Men come?"
"Not today," Calder said. "But if they do, I'll know it."
She nodded once, then was quiet for a long time.
"Why do they want you?" Calder asked finally, his tone even.
Her eyes flicked up to meet his. "Not want me," she said. "Want take back."
"Tribe?" he asked.