"Waiting for what?"
"For me to fail."
Silas adjusted his gloves.
"Every man fails eventually."
Elias stepped closer.
"Not today."
Silas looked at the barn.
"Winter hasn't started yet."
Then he walked away.
Caleb watched him go.
"That man knows something."
"Everybody knows we're short on hay."
"That's not what I mean."
Elias looked at his brother.
"What?"
Caleb pointed toward the barn.
"The lock."
The old iron lock had been replaced.
It was new.
And there were scratches around the hasp.
Elias opened the door.
Inside, the remaining hay had been disturbed.
Someone had taken several bales during the night.
Not enough to feed a herd.
Enough to make a difference.
Elias crouched.
Boot prints marked the frozen dirt.
He followed them toward the rear wall.
There, beneath the window, he found a piece of dark blue cloth caught on a nail.
Caleb picked it up.
"Could be anyone."
Elias looked toward the mountains.
"No."
"How do you know?"
"Because nobody steals hay unless they know exactly how much we have."
Clara's Secret
Clara noticed the tension immediately.
Elias did not tell her about the missing hay.
Instead, he spent the entire day repairing fences.
Clara watched him from the porch.
He worked until his hands bled.
At sunset, she brought him coffee.
"You should rest."
"I will."
"When?"
"When the fence is finished."
"Then you may be dead before you rest."
Elias looked at her.
She smiled.
He almost smiled back.
"You don't act like someone who came here to marry a stranger."
"I don't act like someone who came here expecting a husband."
"What did you expect?"
"A roof."
"You have one."
"Food."
"There's food."
"Then perhaps I got exactly what I expected."
Elias studied her.
"Why Missouri?"
Clara's smile faded.
"My father had a farm."
"Had?"
"He died last spring."
"I'm sorry."
"He owed money."
"To the bank?"
She nodded.
"They took everything."
Elias looked down.
"How much?"
"Too much."
"And you came here because of the advertisement?"
"Yes."
He was quiet.
Clara lowered her voice.
"I know what it feels like to watch a bank take a piece of your life."
Elias looked at her differently.
For the first time, he understood that she had not come to Red Creek because she was desperate for marriage.
She had come because she was desperate for another chance.
That night, after Elias went to bed, Clara opened her trunk.
Under her clothes was a small envelope.
Inside was an old letter.
It had belonged to her father.
She unfolded it.
The paper was yellowed.
The handwriting was unmistakable.
Samuel,
If you ever hear that Silas Boone is buying farms in Red Creek, don't trust him.
He has been manipulating the land records for years.
I found proof.
I was warned to forget it.
Clara folded the letter.
Her father had never explained what proof he had discovered.
But before he died, he had said one thing.
"Find Elias Ward."
Clara had assumed the name was connected to the land.
Now she wondered whether her father's death had been connected to it too.
The Man in the Snow
The next morning, Elias found a stranger near the north pasture.
The man was unconscious.
He lay beneath a pine tree with a bullet wound in his shoulder.
Elias dismounted immediately.
Caleb rode up behind him.
"Who is he?"
"Don't know."
The stranger wore a dark blue coat.
The same color as the cloth found in the barn.
Caleb reached for his gun.
Elias stopped him.
"He's wounded."
"Could be the thief."
"Could be."
They carried the man back to the ranch.
Clara cleaned the wound.
The stranger regained consciousness that evening.
His name was Thomas Reed.
He had been a surveyor.
"Who shot you?" Elias asked.
Reed shook his head.
"Doesn't matter."
"It matters to me."
"You should leave this alone."
Elias stared at him.
"I don't take orders from strangers."