"She's coming around," he said. "She doesn't have a choice," Vivien said, which was not strictly true, but he didn't say so. Shepuko, it was Elsie who created the situation, which was inevitable because Elsie created most of the situations in that house. She had decided approximately one week into Viven's arrival that Vivien needed to know everything about the ranch. This meant Elsie conducted what amounted to a series of formal tours of the barn, of the root seller, of the creek that ran along the east pasture fence, of every structure and landmark she considered significant.
Viven followed all of these with apparent genuine interest, asking questions that satisfied Elsie's need to be the expert. The problem was the eastern fence line, which Elsie had decided to show Vivien on a morning when Gideon was dealing with a section of roof that had developed an ambition to become separate from the barn. He had told them not to go past the near pasture. Elsie had agreed in the sincere but non-binding way that she had agreed to all his instructions since she was about 2 and a half. He came back to the house at midday, and they were not in it.
He found them at the far end of the east pasture near the creek where the bank had a steep section that was treacherous with ice. Elsie was fine. She was pointing at something in the frozen creek with enthusiasm. Vivien was standing at the top of the bank with the specific rigid posture of someone who had just watched a child get dangerously close to something bad and was managing the aftermath of it in their body. He walked across the pasture at a pace that was faster than a walk without quite being a run.
And when he reached them, his voice came out harder than he'd meant it to. Elsie, I told you not to come this far. Elsie's pointing hand came down. I wanted to show Viven the inside now. She went without argument, which meant she knew.
He watched her cross the pasture toward the house, and then he turned to Viven. She spoke first. That was my fault. She told me we weren't supposed to come this far, and I didn't turn her back when I should have. He looked at her.
He'd been ready to be angry. He was still partly angry, but she had not done what most people did, which was manufacture reasons for why it wasn't their fault. "The banks iced," he said. "That section there drops 8 ft to rocks. If she'd slipped, I know. " She said it directly without flinching from it.
"I understand. It won't happen again. " He looked at the creek. He looked at the drop. He thought about it, which was a mistake because thinking about it too fully was something he'd trained himself not to do. She's all I have, he said.
He hadn't meant to say that either, and he heard how it sounded, exposed, like a bone through skin. But it was said. Vivien was quiet for a moment. The wind moved between them, cold and direct. I know that, she said.