The kitchen was very quiet. Gideon looked across at Rosalie. Gideon looked across at Rosalie, and neither of them did anything in particular, but something passed between them in that look that she could not have named and wasn't going to try to. Eat your supper, Gideon said to Emmett. EMTT ate his supper.
Later, when the boys were upstairs and the kitchen was clean, and the house had settled into its nighttime quiet, Rosalie was at the counter covering the leftover pastry when she heard the front door and then Gideon's boots in the entry. She thought he was going upstairs. Instead, he stopped in the kitchen doorway. You heard about Bellard? He said, Matteo mentioned it.
It's not your problem, he said. I want to be clear about that. It was my decision, and it doesn't change your position here. She folded the cloth over the pastry. It changes things regardless of whether you want it to.
Not for you. For you, she said. She turned to face him. You lost a significant contract because of a rumor that was put in motion by a man who lied. That's not right.
No, he said. It's not. They looked at each other in the low light of the kitchen. I'm going to find another buyer, he said. Harker knows people in Casper.
I know, she said. I'm not worried about the ranch. Then what are you worried about? She almost said it. Most of its windows were dark.
She almost told him that what she was worried about was the particular way this house had started to feel different than it had in the first week, and that she wasn't sure she could afford to notice that, and that she had made herself a very clear set of rules about exactly this kind of thing. She didn't say any of that. Nothing, she said. Good night, Gideon. He stayed in the doorway another moment.
Then, good night, Rosily. She heard his boots on the stairs. She heard the house go quiet above her. She covered the kitchen lamp and stood in the dark for a moment, just breathing. Outside the snow had started again.