“Good idea. You might lose your train of thought. Not much left of those gates,” Rodland said. “I think I see Caleb just ahead…”

And Jane was already talking to him. “We’re right behind you. Could you rein in and let me talk to you? Rodland is stopping when we reach the road.”

“Any problem?”

“A misunderstanding. We’ll take care of it.” She ended the call.

“Brief and to the point.” Rodland was already stopping on the edge of the road. “Not necessarily warm.”

“I wasn’t aiming for warmth. I wanted clarity.” She opened the car door. “Caleb will understand. At the moment he’s probably rapidly going over in his mind all the things that I might be about to say.” She got out of the car. “And because he’s really quite brilliant and knows me very well, no doubt he’ll reach the right conclusion before I have a chance to go into it with him.” She was walking toward where Caleb was sitting on Jocko a short distance away. “I don’t think I’ll be long.”

“A misunderstanding?” Caleb was smiling faintly as she approached. “Then let’s take care of it. You didn’t like me doing the advance sweep to make certain we weren’t going to have company in that forest.”

“I told Rodland that you’d have it worked out before I had to open my lips. You probably knew it was a possibility before you told Rodland to saddle Jocko.” She looked him in the eyes. “You were very persuasive about the fact that you knew I’d be reasonable about never wanting the baby to be in danger and I was the natural guardian because I’m carrying that child. All that was true. I will be careful, but I won’t let you go riding off and taking chances that aren’t necessary. There will be times when I’ll have to make decisions, but this wasn’t one of them. I won’t lose this baby and I won’t lose you. You went alone today, and I could have been there and helped. Don’t do that again.”

“Do I dare ask what you’d do if I did?”

“I’d come after you. I almost did today. I won’t hesitate again.” She smiled crookedly. “The solution is that you find a way to use me to help, and you won’t have to worry about it.”

“Oh, I’ll worry.” He paused. “But I’m reading you loud and clear. I don’t believe we’ll have to have this conversation again.”

“Thank God,” she said wearily. “I didn’t want to face arguing with you. Because I’m going to have to get back in that car and go down to that burned-out gate and face MacDuff. It’s going to hurt, Caleb.”