He shook his head without turning to her. “It was a foolish hope,” he said quietly. “I pray thee forgive me.”

They walked side by side down the road, the sun a blazing pumpkin as it fell rapidly behind the western mountains. Luke’s long legs purposefully shortened their stride so that she would not have to skip to keep up. For a long time, neither spoke, but as the sun disappeared, and the dusk began to gather about them, he set his gaze far down the road ahead and asked softly, “Then if thee will not stay, where will thee go?”

“I’m off …” she said, and knew as she spoke what it was she was off to. To stare down the bear! The bear that she had thought all these years was outside herself, but now, truly, knew was in her own narrow spirit. She would stare down all the bears!

She stopped in the middle of the road, her whole body alight with the thrill of it. “I’m off,” she said, “to Ohio. There is a college there that will take a woman just like a man.” The plan grew as she spoke. “First I must go tomorrow to say good-bye to Charlie and little Rachel, and then I’ll take the coach to Concord, and from there”—she took a deep breath—“the train. I’ll go all the rest of the way by train.”

He watched her face as though trying to read her thoughts, but gave up the attempt. “Thee is indeed a wonder, Lyddie Worthen,” he said.

She looked up into his earnest face as he leaned to speak to her and saw in his bent shoulders the shade of an old man in a funny broad Quaker hat—the gentle old man that he would someday become and that she would love.

Tarnation, Lyddie Worthen! Ain’t you learned nothing? Don’t you know better than to tie yourself to some other living soul? You’d only be asking for trouble and grief. Might as well just throw open the cabin door full wide and invite that black bear right onto the hearth.

Still—if he was to wait—

He was looking right at her, his head cocked, his brown eyes questioning. His face was so close she could see a trace of soot on it. Like Charlie. The boy could never mess with a fire without getting all dirty. She held her hand tightly to her side to keep from reaching up and wiping his cheek with her fingers.

Will you wait, Luke Stevens? It’ll be years before I come back to these mountains again. I won’t come back weak and beaten down and because I have nowhere else to go. No, I will not be a slave, even to myself—

“Do I frighten thee?” he asked gently.

“Ey?”

“Thee was staring at me something fierce.”