Instead, he watched in the way he had learned from Odora to watch without making it obvious, without resolving it prematurely. Then Harland Mott told him. Harland had his own means of intelligence on the household that Garrick had never examined too closely. His foreman had been on this ranch for 11 years and had his own set of observations that he shared selectively and only when he thought the information was going to go somewhere useful. On the last Friday of January, they were in the barn checking the mended fence boards and Harland said that particular setup got a letter from Fort Collins.
Did she? Garrick stopped moving. Pomeroy's establishment, Harland said. He bent to check the lower board with the same matter-of-fact focus he gave everything. Dressmaking shop on the main street there.
Woman who runs it apparently knows your Miss Finch from before. Where did you hear that? Tilda mentioned it to the Callaway boy at the fence line last week. He told his mother. Martha Callaway mentioned it to me in a spirit of what I believe she called neighborly concern.
He pulled the board, checked it, replaced it. The Callaway woman says it's a good offer. She would know her cousin had alterations done at Pomemeroys. Garrick stood still in the barn with a cold that was not entirely from the temperature. Marin knows.
He said it was not a question. Appears so. That's why she he thought about the mornings, the laundry, the careful, systematic pulling back. Girl's not stupid, Harland said. She's got 3 years of knowing what happens when someone disappears on her.
Garrick looked at the fence board Harland had just seated. How good an offer is it? Harland gave him a look that meant he'd already thought about this. Better than what you pay her. Probably better than what you can pay her.
Lodging above the shop from what Martha said. Garrick was quiet. You're going to ask her to stay, Harland said. No. Harland straightened and looked at him directly, which he didn't do often.
Garrick, I'm not going to ask her to stay. Your daughters. I know what my daughters need. He said it firmly, not angrily. That's exactly why I'm not going to use them to keep her here.