He traded with Matteo, the blacksmith, and with a few independent trappers who admired a man who could bring down a wolf and a tycoon in the same winter. He traded fairly, refusing to bend to the bullies who tried to set prices. One afternoon in late May, a rider appeared on the trail. It was a man named Crouch, a neighbor from the valley below, who had been one of Pritchard's vocal supporters. He rode up to the edge of the clearing, looking at the repaired cabin at the garden, at the smoke rising from the chimney.
Jonah was chopping wood. He rested the axe on a stump and walked to the edge of the porch. Millie came out of the door holding the rifle, not aiming it, just holding it comfortably in the crook of her arm. Crouch spat on the ground. "You two are still here," he said.
"We are," Jonah said. Crouch shifted in his saddle. "Some folks don't like it, think it's unnatural, a man like you living with a woman like her. " Jonah looked at Crouch. He looked at the man's petty, small eyes. Folks can think what they want, Jonah said.
But this is deed land and the road is public. If you have business, state it. If you don't, turn that horse around. Crouch scowled. You think you won just because Pritchard is in jail?
Accidents still happen. Crow, fences get cut, barns burn. Jonah took a step forward. He didn't raise his voice. He didn't need to.
If a fence gets cut, I will fix it, Jonah said. If a barn burns, I will rebuild it. But if you come up here threatening my wife, Mister Crouch, you won't make it back down the mountain. Millie stepped up beside him. She didn't hide behind him.
She stood shoulder to shoulder. We are not going anywhere. Millie said, "Tell your friends that we are home. " Crouch looked at them. He saw the axe. He saw the rifle.
But more than that, he saw the way they stood together. a solid, indivisible unit. He saw a strength that his small mind couldn't quite comprehend. He grunted, turned his horse, and rode away. Jonah and Millie watched him go. Then Jonah turned to her.
"Wife! " Millie asked, an eyebrow raised, a small smile playing on her lips. "Jonah coughed, looking suddenly shy. I figured, "Well, the circuit judge is coming back through next month. I thought maybe we could make it official. If you wanted," Millie looked at him.
She looked at the scars on his face, the gray in his beard, the hands that had built this life for her. "I would like that," she said softly. She leaned in and kissed him. It tasted of sunshine and pine resin. "The mountain was still harsh.
The winter would come again. Prejudice still lived in the valley below. The scars on Jonah's shoulder and Millie's heart would always ache when the weather turned cold. But as the sun set behind the peaks, painting the sky in gold and violet, smoke rose steadily from the chimney of the cabin on Black Pine Ridge. Inside the stove was warm, the table was set, and two outcasts sat down to break bread in a home where neither of them had to beg to belong.