Three weeks passed.
Eveina’s body changed quickly once she understood what was happening.
Callahan noticed everything.
Not intrusively.
Practically.
He moved heavy barrels without comment.
He shortened her chores.
She protested.
“You are treating me like glass.”
“I watched you lift half a barn. I know you are not glass.”
“Then stop taking everything from my hands.”
“No.”
“Callahan.”
“You can yell.”
“I am not yelling.”
“You will eventually.”
She did.
The argument ended with Eveina laughing so hard she had to sit down.
Callahan stared.
“What?”
“You’re impossible.”
“So I’m told.”
The child moved more often.
The first time Callahan saw Eveina’s dress shift slightly, wonder transformed his face.
“Again.”
“I cannot command the baby.”
“Try.”
Eveina laughed.
The hound, whom they had named Bear, laid his head against her knee.
Some evenings they sat in the nursery.
Callahan repaired the cradle.
Eveina finished the wooden horse.
Neither spoke about what would happen after the baby came.
But both were already preparing.
The valley noticed.
People always noticed happiness faster than sorrow.
Rumors spread.
Eveina was pregnant.
Callahan was raising another man’s child.
The cursed giant had taken in the monstrous timber woman.
Some people mocked.
Others became curious.
A few changed.
Mrs. Walker from the mercantile arrived one afternoon with baby blankets.
“My sister had extras,” she lied.
Eveina understood.
“Thank you.”
The older woman hesitated.
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I stared at you in town.”
Eveina looked at her.
Mrs. Walker reddened.
“I should’ve known better.”
Eveina took the blankets.
“You know now.”
The woman smiled.
Not everyone changed.
Doctor Weller appeared one afternoon.
He stared at Eveina’s abdomen.
“This is dangerous.”
Callahan stepped forward.
Eveina stopped him with one hand.
She looked directly at Weller.
“Have you examined me?”
“No, but—”
“Then you know nothing.”
Weller blinked.
Eveina continued.
“A man once told me no child could live in a body like mine. He never examined me either.”
“That is not—”
“You may leave.”
Weller looked toward Callahan.
Callahan folded his arms.
“You heard the lady.”
Lady.
Again.
This time Eveina did not cry.
She smiled.
Their happiness lasted until the riders arrived.
Six men.
Dark coats.
Northern Timber insignia.
Eveina saw them from the porch.
Her blood went cold.
Callahan came from the barn.
“Inside.”
“No.”
“Eveina.”
“I’m finished hiding.”
The riders stopped before the house.
Their leader dismounted.
Hiram Voss.
Eveina knew him immediately.
He had supervised Gray River after the old manager died.
He was tall, narrow-faced, and always perfectly clean even when workers were covered in mud.
“Hale.”
Eveina’s hands curled.
“Voss.”
His eyes went to her pregnancy.
Surprise flickered.
Then calculation.
“You’ve been difficult to find.”
“That was the intention.”
Callahan moved beside her.
Voss examined him.
“You Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“This does not concern you.”
“It concerns my land.”
Voss produced papers.
“Eveina Hale remains obligated under contract to Northern Timber Company.”
Callahan did not take them.
Eveina said, “That contract is illegal.”
“You signed it.”
“Under debt you manufactured.”
Voss smiled.
“Courts enjoy signatures.”
Eveina’s fear threatened to return.
Then Callahan’s hand touched hers.
Not holding.
Just there.
Choice.
She took it.
Voss noticed.
“Company property was also stolen.”
“The records belong to the dead men whose names you erased.”
Voss’s smile vanished.
“Give me the box.”
“No.”
“I have territorial authority.”
“You have paper.”
One rider shifted.
Callahan looked toward the man’s coat.
“You aren’t marshals.”
Voss said nothing.
“You came without law,” Callahan continued.
“I suggest you leave the same way.”
Voss laughed.
“Six of us.”
“One of me.”
Callahan glanced at Eveina.
“Two.”
Voss looked at her size.
The humor died.
Then another wagon approached.
Mrs. Walker.
Behind her came three ranchers from town.
Then the blacksmith.
Then Sheriff Hollis.
Voss turned.
The sheriff dismounted.
“Problem?”
Voss showed the papers.
Hollis read them.
“Where’s the warrant?”
“Company counsel—”
“I asked for a warrant.”
Voss’s jaw tightened.
Hollis handed the papers back.
“You don’t have one.”
“This woman stole property.”
“Then file charges.”
“She is bound by contract.”
“Then let a judge decide.”
Voss glared at Eveina.
“This is not finished.”
Eveina stepped forward.
“No.”
Her voice shook slightly.
“But I am finished being afraid of you.”
Voss mounted.
Before leaving, he looked toward the burned ridge.
A look too quick for anyone except Eveina to notice.
She understood.
That night she opened the wooden box.
Callahan sat beside her.
“What exactly is in there?”
Eveina laid out ledgers.
“Deaths.”
Names filled the pages.
“Wages withheld.”
More documents.
“Store debts invented after payday.”
Callahan turned a page.
His expression darkened.
Then Eveina found the item she feared most.
A letter.
Signed by Voss.
Instructions regarding disposal of worker remains after an accident.
Callahan read it.
“This could put him in prison.”
“If the right person sees it.”
“We’ll find the right person.”
The next morning Sheriff Hollis agreed to help.
He knew a federal investigator traveling through the territory within weeks.
For the first time, Eveina believed the company might truly be defeated.
Voss struck before that could happen.
Bear began barking shortly before midnight.
Callahan woke instantly.
Glass shattered.
A burning bottle landed inside the kitchen.
“Fire!”
Callahan stamped it beneath a blanket.
Another struck the porch.
Eveina grabbed the wooden box.
Gunfire cracked outside.
Callahan pulled her behind the wall.
“Stay down.”
“No.”
“You are carrying a child.”
“And you are not bulletproof.”
Even in danger, his eyes almost smiled.
They escaped through the rear door.
The barn was already burning.
Eveina’s heart broke.
“Animals.”
“I opened the lower gate earlier.”
Callahan fired one warning shot toward the ridge.
A rider fled.
Sheriff Hollis arrived with men from town before dawn.
They saved the house.
The barn was lost.
Among the ashes, they found something important.
A Northern Timber oil tin.
Voss had made his mistake.
By afternoon, Hollis had enough evidence for arrests.
But Voss himself had disappeared.
Eveina stood before the ruined barn.
Callahan joined her.
“I brought this here.”
“No.”
“If I had never come—”
“If you had never come, this place would still have an empty nursery and a man spending midnight talking to ghosts.”
Eveina looked at him.
Callahan turned fully toward her.
“You did not bring ruin here.”
He touched her cheek.
“You brought life.”
The words frightened them both.
Callahan lowered his hand.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I shouldn’t—”
Eveina kissed him.
It was not dramatic.
No thunder.
No swelling declaration.
Just two people standing in ashes, finally refusing to pretend.
When they separated, Callahan whispered, “Eveina.”
She rested her forehead against his.
“I know.”
The baby kicked.
Callahan looked down.
Eveina laughed.
“Apparently we have an opinion.”
Callahan knelt.
He placed his palm against her dress.
Another movement.
His face softened.
Then Bear barked from the road.
A rider approached.
Sheriff Hollis carried a message.
The federal investigator would arrive in three days.
And Hiram Voss had been seen heading toward Black Ridge.