“I was worried.”
“You crossed this storm because you were worried about me?”
“I take care of Blackpine.”
He lifted a sack.
Flour.
Enough to keep me alive for weeks.
My empty stomach nearly answered for me.
Cutter saw me looking.
His smile deepened.
“I also brought your land papers.
Thought we might settle our old disagreement.
Given the circumstances, I’m willing to be generous.”
There it was.
Food in one hand.
My land in the other.
“What circumstances?” I asked.
He glanced at the snow.
“You’re alone.”
Behind me, Jonah made no sound.
Cutter leaned closer to the gap.
“We don’t have to make this difficult, Hannah.”
I thought of sixteen-year-old me hearing Big Hannah behind my back.
I thought of men laughing when I refused Cutter’s first offer.
I thought of Rose disappearing so a powerful man could turn her husband into a monster.
Then I thought of the ledger under my floorboard.
“I’m not selling.”
Cutter’s smile vanished.
“You’ll reconsider when the flour runs out.”
“It already has.”
“Then you’re being foolish.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time Blackpine thought so.”
His eyes sharpened.
Then he saw it.
A dark smear of blood on the floor behind my boot.
He stopped breathing for half a beat.
“Hannah,” he said softly, “who is inside your house?”
I closed the door.
His hand struck it before the latch caught.
“Hannah.”
I shoved harder.
The door slammed.
Cutter’s voice changed.
“Whatever Reddick told you is a lie.”
Jonah looked at me from beside the stove.
Neither of us had spoken his name.
That mistake told me more than Rose’s letter had.
I lifted the iron poker.
Outside, Cutter seemed to realize what he had done.
For several seconds there was only wind.
Then he said, “That man killed his wife.”
Jonah almost laughed.
It was a broken sound.
I called through the door, “Then how do you know he’s here?”
No answer.
Cutter left before dawn.
The storm kept us trapped another two days.
