Not every neighbor along that road proved half so welcoming. But Ruth's easy blessing mattered to Levi more than he let on. A first small proof that his own corner of this country might yet learn to make room for the shape his life was becoming. Not everyone watching this friendship grow into something more was glad to see it. Back in Cottonwood Bend, a shopkeeper named Otis Puit had never once had a kind word for a Apache trade, even the trade that filled his own till, and he made a point of grumbling so loud half the mercantile heard him whenever Levi came through with goods bound for the canyon.
Man's got no business playing at being one of them. He groused to anyone who'd stand still long enough to listen, arms cross hard over his apron. A few ranchers around town took up the same tune exactly as Puit had hoped they would. One refused Levi's hand outright at the feed store. An old riding acquaintance crossed the street rather than pass close by him.
Word came back more than once, secondhand and stinging that certain families had taken to calling him an Apache lover behind his back. The words plainly meant to shame a grown man out of his own choices. Levi heard every bit of it and kept right on riding north to the canyon exactly as often as he always had because he decided somewhere along the way that a man who let a shopkeeper's narrow opinions steer his life had never truly been free to begin with. Diani carried her own weight of quiet disapproval too, though she rarely let it show plainly. A distant cousin of her mother's visiting from a camp two days ride to the south sat her down outright one evening with a hard truth that she was setting a poor example for the younger women watching her that generations of hard one caution about settlers deserved better than being set aside for one man's blistered hands and easy manner.
Diani heard the criticism out fully, the way her own people's custom demanded a hard truth be heard before it could be properly met and answered it evenly without raising her voice. Caution earned by hard experience was worth keeping. She granted, but judging every settler by the worst of them was its own kind of blindness. The cousin left two days later unconvinced, and Diani let her go unconvinced rather than chase an agreement that wasn't hers to force. Not every doubt in her own camp resolved as neatly or as quickly as Klose had.