Callum Mathew’s's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

Callum spent the next three days repairing fence line. He stretched new wire, hammered posts, and kept his hat low when riders passed on the far side of the border. On the fourth morning, he saw the dust trail from the road before he heard the wagon. A single rider came up the main road toward the Carson place, mounted on a bay horse with an ornate saddle that caught the sun like polished brass. Callum recognized the type before he saw the man's face — a rancher from the valley with money to show and ambition to match it. The horse moved with show ring precision, and the man sat straight-backed like he was riding into town for a parade. Callum's gut tightened. He drove another fence staple and watched the rider turn up the long drive to the Carson house. An hour later, Anna Mae came riding out alone toward the canyon where they sometimes met. He left the fence and rode to meet her halfway. She pulled up hard and he saw the anger in her face before she spoke. "My father invited him to supper," she said. "Told him I'd be pleased to have his company." Callum's hands tightened on the reins. "What did you tell him?" Her eyes flashed. "I told my father I wasn't interested. He said I'd change my mind once I got to know the man properly." She looked past Callum toward the fence line. "He's coming back tomorrow. And the day after that." Callum knew he had no right to say what he wanted to say. He had no claim on her that her father would recognize, and no standing to challenge another man's courtship. But he also knew what he'd seen in her face when she rode toward him. "Do you want him gone?" he asked. She met his eyes. "I want to make my own choices." He nodded once. "Then I'll be at the canyon tomorrow at noon. If you come, we'll figure something out. If you don't, I'll know you changed your mind." She studied him for a long moment, then turned her horse and rode back without answering. But the next day at noon, she was waiting at the canyon when he arrived. She stood beside her horse near the boulder that marked the end of the canyon run. Her face was harder than he'd ever seen it. "He's staying in the guest house now," she said. "My father opened it up special. Says the man deserves proper hospitality while he makes his intentions known." Callum dismounted and walked to where she stood. "What are his intentions?" She laughed, but there was no humor in it. "To marry a Carson and get water rights to our land. My father thinks it's a smart match." Callum looked at her directly. "And what do you think?" She was quiet for a moment. Then she stepped closer. "I think I'm tired of men deciding things for me," she said. "My father. That rancher with his fancy horse. Even you, if you're here to tell me what I should do." He shook his head. "I'm not here to tell you anything. I'm here because you came." Something shifted in her expression. She pulled a necklace from her pocket — white stone set in elaborate metalwork — and held it up between them. "He gave me this yesterday at supper. Said it reminded him of moonlight on water." She looked at the necklace with disgust. "I told my father this morning I won't marry that man. Told him I'd choose my own future, even if it meant choosing nothing at all." She threw the necklace into the dust at their feet. "But I'm not choosing nothing." Callum felt the weight of what she was saying. She'd drawn a line her father couldn't ignore. She'd made her stand, and now everyone would know it. He reached down and picked up the necklace, then handed it back to her. "Keep it," he said. "Return it to him yourself. Make sure he knows it came from you, not your father." She took it and nodded. For the first time that day, he saw her smile. It wasn't much, but it was real. She'd chosen him over the safe path, and that changed everything.