“I was there with her,” Chace said.  “I saw what she’d been through.  The only obligation I recognize is mine to her.”

Samuel bowed his head.  When he was ready to speak again, his remarks were addressed to everyone.  “What are your plans?  Where will you live?  It can’t possibly be here in this fort.”

“We’re heading to Oregon Territory, Grandfather,” Ada said.  She was holding tightly to Charlotte’s hand.  “When the passes are clear.”

“Oregon Territory,” Samuel said softly.  “Could you go any farther away?”  He paused for another moment and Charlotte could see his waning resolve.  “Would you even consider the desert?  Charlotte has family there.”

Charlotte almost laughed out loud.  Poor Tobias, he was her one fragile link to the desert, along with a nameless conscript no longer bound to a doomed marriage.

“I’ve been there,” Chace said.  There was silence again.

“I meant where Tobias lives.”

“That’s what I meant too.  When I came down out of the canyons, they were hard to miss.  There’s nothing else around them anywhere.  I want to show you something.”  He went to the sideboard, puzzled looks following him, and returned with stationery, a pen and ink.  He sat back down, moved his plate away and quickly drew a design within a larger circle.  Then he slid it across the table.  Everyone’s eyes were on the drawing.  Samuel gasped.

“Do you know what this is?” Chace said.

“Yes.  But how do you?”

“I understand you make them out of your crops, but Tobias never had to.  This one built with stones was there long before he ever arrived.”

“Why?” Samuel said.  “How could that be?”

“That was the land of the tribes once and before that, the old ones say it was the First People’s land, and before that, not even the old ones could tell you, though they would guess it belonged to the spirits that come down from the sky.”

Samuel sat back, appearing weary.  He cast his gaze from face to face around the table, inwardly framing his thoughts.  He came back to Chace.  “There’s the child and I see now that you comprehend everything.  The child will be a member of the Family.”

“And of the People Touched By The River.  This is just the truth, nothing more.”

Charlotte stayed silent, keeping her own thoughts to herself.

“But in the end,” Chace said, “be aware that I haven’t ever intended to cause you grief in any way.”