I know. Don't let Medis I know. and Gideon. She stopped. His given name was new between them.
They'd been careful about that until this moment. Don't tell him anything he can verify by looking. I know that, too. She held his gaze one second longer than strictly necessary. Then she and Amma were moving toward the back.
Gideon went to the door, apprentice dismounted at the fence post, tied his horse with the ease of a man who assumed his welcome, dressed well for the cold, better than the cold required, as though looking composed had been calculated as an advantage. Wide-brimmed hat, gray coat. The smile of someone who had decided in advance how the conversation would go. Gideon, warm, familiar. two years since they'd spoken and he said the name like they were neighbors who'd shared Sunday dinners apprentice cold snaps something fierce looking at the cabin the barn the fence line even the friendly remarks were cataloging it's December Gideon said in Wyoming true enough the gaze completed its circuit and came back to Gideon's face if I come in my hands are half frozen I'm in the middle of something this shouldn't take Long, long, a small reccalibration behind apprentice's eyes.
Of course, I'll come straight to it. I'm doing welfare checks through the northern homesteads. After that storm, concerns about anyone caught out. Travelers, Indians who might have come this far north before things turned. He said, Indians with the mild benevolence of someone who believed the word was generous.
Haven't seen anyone, Gideon said. No, no. Apprentice looked at the cabin, at the barn, at the two sets of bootprints going to the wood pile. Gideon had made two trips this morning, deliberately offset. Getting on all right out here alone, apprentice said, after all this time.
Admirable, I manage. The offer still stands. North 40 price has only improved with the railroad interest. He spread his hands slightly. Reasonable man.
Just helping. I'll keep that in mind, Gideon said. which meant no, and apprentice knew it, and both men knew, the other knew. Apprentice looked at him, and for one moment, one, the warmth dropped just enough, enough for Gideon to see what lived underneath it. Not malice.
Malice would have been cleaner. What was underneath the smile was certainty. The bedrock certainty of a man who had never encountered an obstacle that did not eventually move. "Stubbornness has its seasons, " Apprentice said. out here, especially a man alone.
You want to be careful about the obligations you take on, the associations you form, " he swung up into the saddle. "I'll be checking back, " he said. "Soon, for the welfare, " tipped his hat. "You take care. " He rode back the way he'd come.
Gideon watched him until he cleared the fence and turned south, then went inside. Desa and Amma were already out of the root cellar. "He didn't come to check on you, " Desa said. No. He came to see if you'd lie to his face.