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“You hungry?” he asked.
“No. I had breakfast,” she managed.
“But that was probably hours ago. You sure?”
“I’m fine.”
“Water?”
“No, sir.” She shook her head as she stared into the leaping flames.
Daniel sat back a bit and crossed his legs, the ankle at the knee, and took a breath. “Then I guess rather than waste my time any further, you can spit out the truth.”
She looked up at him blankly.
“Confess what you need to confess and let’s get on with things,” he added.
“Confess what?”
“Tell me why you left, why you fight me now, why you’re so damned sure we don’t belong together as husband and wife.”
“That’s why we’re here?”
“That and there’s a blizzard out there.”
Having no idea what to say, and a good deal about what she wouldn’t say, Hannah took a long time before she finally answered. Even then, what came out wasn’t satisfactory for either of them. “I’m a ruined woman,” she said succinctly, thinking that should settle the matter. But knowing that he’d want more of an explanation, she continued, “I don’t deserve to be your wife. And if you have any regard for me at all, you’d let the matter rest.”
He let that sink and answered right back.
“That not good enough, Hannah. I need more.”
“I’m not going to explain more!” she blu
rted out.
“Suit yourself. I can wait you out.” He stood up.
“What do you mean, wait me out?”
“Exactly what I said.” He moved to the table and returned with a slice of thick buttered bread, and while he ate, Hannah looked from him to the fire and back again.
After he’d eaten, Daniel paced a bit. He stoked the fire, and then said he had to check a trap or two and might as well do it now.
“It’s a blizzard outside!” she reminded him.
“No, I think the snow is letting up,” he countered.
“Well, then, we can leave,” she said hopefully.
“We will leave when you have told me what I want to know.” He stood over her like a towering giant. “When I have a full accounting of everything you’re harboring in secret. Husbands and wives don’t keep secrets, Hannah, they help each other, they care when they are hurting. But I have to know what’s happened and you’re going to tell me, or we’re going nowhere.”
He didn’t give her time to answer, but put on his coat and walked out.
The impasse between her stubborn silence and his stubborn insistence continued for the remainder of the day. Travis appeared a few hours after they’d installed themselves in the mountain camp. He left them some food, said he’d be taking Jenny back to the farm, and if he didn’t see them in a couple of days, he’d return with more rations.
That night they slept apart, Daniel on the pallet atop a bed of pine branches covered with his bedroll while Hannah pulled her cloak over her body and rested her head on her bound hands. She even refused to ask for something to cradle her head.
The second day, she still refused to speak, sitting before the fire, blankly staring at the flames, rejecting the food Daniel offered and only occasionally taking a sip of water. She did her best to forget everything about the last few weeks of her life; although it was impossible not to feel the desperation, the hurt, and the fear that galloped through her emotions and made her more weary than ever.
