The property reverts to Margaret's name. Mara looked at the letter. She writes that Margaret Hartley sent a message through the court. She says, Mara stopped, looked at the words again. Read them more carefully because she wanted to be sure she was reading them correctly.
She says to tell the woman who kept her deed that she hopes she found somewhere warm. The room was very quiet again. Orson cleared his throat. It was not a comfortable throat clearing. It was the throat clearing of a man who has a feeling he doesn't intend to discuss.
Gideon was still looking at her. And yours, he said. Your property. Mara folded the letter Carefully. The void is in the preliminary order.
Full reversion takes confirmation from the territorial recorder, which Whitlock expects within 2 weeks. She put the letter in her coat pocket next to where the deed used to be. She wants my testimony in person in 3 weeks at the territorial courthouse in Mil Haven. You can travel in 3 weeks, Gideon said. It wasn't a question.
Yes. She looked at him. My ankle is almost right. He nodded once. He looked at the window again.
Something was working in his face that she'd learned to read as the external sign of internal processing. The particular stillness that meant he was thinking through something more complex than the words being spoken. Mil Haven is 4 days ride from here, he said. I know. In good weather.
I know, Gideon. He looked at her. I'll take you. She held his gaze. That's a long way to go.
Yes, he said. It is. She understood what he was not saying, and he understood that she understood it. And neither of them elaborated because elaborating wasn't something either of them did well or needed to do. Orson stood up, announced that he was going to about his horse, and left with the purposeful efficiency of a man who has identified himself as unnecessary to the next 5 minutes of a conversation.