I wondered if she was so willing because I had earned some trust . . . or because I was now trying to heal Cate instead of my daddy.

I decided it didn’t matter.

I carried the pot back to where Cate lay waiting.

She watched me carefully as I took out my knife and sliced away a broad strip of deer hide from her leggings.

She said nothing out loud, though her face made a comment or two, especially her eyebrows, before it settled into a smile.

“Larkin told you some things about his father’s luthing, didn’t he?”

“He did,” I said, wiping my knife on my sleeve and folding it away.

I draped the deer hide over my arm and picked up the old pot.

“This will take a while,” I said.

“Not so long if you boil it hard,” she replied. “An hour over a fire is all you’ll need, though be ready to stir it right along.” She smiled sadly. “It would be different if I were a mandolin. For that, all night long, slowly, in an oven, works best.”

I didn’t say, We don’t have all night long. Nor did I say, You’re not a mandolin. I said, “Close your eyes and rest while I do this. Captan’s here, and I don’t imagine he’ll leave you.”

—

Esther was in the kitchen with my mother when I came back through on my way to the yard.

“How’s Larkin?” I said, though I didn’t like to be the one asking . . . or her the one answering.

“He’s sad and angry and ashamed of himself,” she said. “For you being the one who’s helping her.”

So I was not the only one feeling out of sorts about such things.

I wanted to go find him, right then, to tell him that I understood . . . and to be the one he understood in return.

Later, I would do that. Find him.

After I’d helped Cate. After I’d helped my father. After all that. If he hadn’t come to find me first.

“What’s that?” my mother said, nodding at the deer hide that hung from my arm.

“Deer hide,” I said.

“What for?” she said as I gathered up my pack.

“You’ll see. It’s hard to explain.”

She followed me to the cabin door and stood watching as I laid the deer hide on the ground and scraped the hair away with my knife until nothing but leather remained.

But she went back to her work when I knelt to build a fire where we had made soap. Before the fire got too big, I laid stones in a small circle around its edge so the pot would sit above the ground and the flames would stay where I wanted them.