For the first time since she'd arrived, the sky had patches of pale blue visible through the frost on the kitchen window. The storm was breaking. Clara stood at the window for a moment and looked at that thin blue sky. She felt two things at exactly the same time, with equal force, pulling in exactly opposite directions.
She did not let herself stand there long. The crisis with Harold Briggs came back in the afternoon. This time, he did not come alone. Clara was in the yard with Jesse.
Cole was still inside resting under orders from his grandmother when the wagon came up the road. Two men this time. Briggs and, after a moment, Clara recognized Thomas Harding himself. She stood in the yard and watched them come through the gate.
She did not move toward them or away from them. Jesse stopped beside her. She put her hand briefly on his shoulder. "Go inside."
"Find your grandmother." Jesse looked at the wagon, then at her. He went. Briggs climbed down.
Harding climbed down. Harding looked exactly like a man who had been told he needed to do something and had dressed carefully for it. Good coat. Clean boots.
His hat was in his hands before he'd even walked ten feet. "Miss Whitfield," he said. "I owe you an apology." "You do," Clara agreed.
He blinked slightly. He'd expected something different from her. She could see that. Probably he had expected either anger or graciousness and was not sure how to process simple agreement.
"I handled the situation badly," he said. "I should have written earlier. I should have been more careful." "You should have."
"But you didn't, and here we are." She kept her voice even. "Is the apology the purpose of this visit, Mr. Harding, or is there something else?" Harding glanced at Briggs.
Briggs stepped forward slightly with the manner of a man who had been waiting for his cue. "There's some concern in town, Miss Whitfield, about the arrangement here. I don't want to be indelicate." "Then don't be," Clara said.
Briggs stopped. "I've had this conversation with you already," Clara said. "My answer hasn't changed."
"Mrs. Ruth Callaway is inside this house. Two children are inside this house. Mr. Callaway's ranch hands have been visible in the yard every day. There is nothing happening here that requires the town's management."