Why now? She said. He looked at her. Because you've been carrying something for 2 years that nobody helped you carry, he said. And today you put down part of it and I wanted you to have somewhere good to do that.
Martha looked at the mountains. She felt the tears come before she could decide anything about them, which was the only way she ever cried suddenly without warning. After the thing was over rather than during it, as though her body waited to be sure the coast was clear, she did not turn away from him and she did not apologize for it. He did not look away and he did not make a sound about it. After a while, she took a breath and wiped her face with the back of her wrist.
"Henry would have liked this view," she said. Then he would have been a man with sense," Silas said. She looked at him and something in her chest shifted, not suddenly, not dramatically, but with the quiet inevitability of something that had been working its way toward the surface for weeks. She had been paying attention to this man and he had been paying attention to her and the attention had been careful and honest and free of the particular performance that men sometimes put on when they wanted something from a woman and were being deliberate about not showing it. Silas Boon was not performing.
He was simply there consistently solidly in the specific way that a person showed up when they had decided that the thing in front of them was worth showing up for. She was not ready to say that aloud, but she was aware of it. "We should get back," she said. "Yeah," he said, and picked up the rains. They came down from the high ground and back onto the road and were within sight of the ranch gate when they saw the second wagon in the yard.
Martha went still on the bench. "Whose rig is that?" She said. Silas's eyes had already narrowed. "Don't know it," he said. Roberto was in the yard and he saw them coming and walked quickly to the gate which was the walk of a man who had news he wanted to deliver before you walked into a situation without it.
Silas pulled up. Man came from Pine Hollow an hour ago. Roberto said he's inside. He says he works for Crane's company. Says he wants to talk to Mrs.
Whitaker. Roberto looked at Martha. He says he has the notebook. The world went very quiet. Martha looked at Roberto.
He has Henry's notebook. Says he does. Says he wants to give it back. Silas said why. Roberto looked at the house.