Pa, can I ask you something? Always. The money from our uncle. Is it really ours or does it belong to Ma since she was married to our birth father? Silas set down the harness.
According to the law, it belongs to you kids, Daniel's legal heirs. Your mother could hold it in trust until you're of age, but it's yours. So, we could give it to you and Ma if we wanted to help with the farm. You could, but that's not necessary. I want to.
Jonah's voice was firm. You and Ma have given us everything. A home, safety, love. This is our chance to give something back. Jonah, you don't owe us anything.
I know. That's why I want to do it. He glanced back at his siblings. Can you ask them if they'd want to share it with you and Ma? I think they would, but it should be everyone's choice.
Silas's eyes burned. You're a good man, Jonah Hawthorne. You taught me how to be. Later that night, after all the children had been consulted and had unanimously agreed that the money should go toward improving the farm for everyone, Silas and Mara lay in bed, Grace sleeping in her cradle beside them. "They really are extraordinary, aren't they?" Mara whispered.
"Our children." "They are because they learned from the best." "We're making it, Silas. Against all odds, we're actually making it. We are." He pulled her closer. Sometimes I think about that day on the road. How close we came to never finding each other.
How different everything would be if I'd ridden past or if you'd already died from exhaustion or if a hundred other things had gone differently. But they didn't. We found each other. And we built this. Yeah, we did.
He was quiet for a moment. Mara, do you ever regret it? marrying me so fast, taking such a huge risk on someone you barely knew. Not once, not even for a second. She turned to face him in the darkness. You saved my life, Silas.
In every way a person can be saved. How could I ever regret that? I'm not the man who saved you anymore. I'm just me, ordinary, flawed, sometimes scared out of my mind that I'm doing everything wrong. That's what makes you perfect for me, because I'm all those things, too.
And we figure it out together. They lay in comfortable silence for a while, listening to Grace's soft breathing, the crackle of the dying fire, the wind outside that no longer felt threatening. I want to do something, Mara said suddenly. Something to mark this moment. This feeling of finally being safe and whole. [snorts] Like what?
I want to make a sign for above the door. Something that says who we are now. Not where we came from, but what we've become. Silas smiled in the darkness. What should it say?