“Grady. Jonah Grady.”
“I eat what I need, Mr. Grady,” Ruth said. “Same as your horses. Same as your cattle. You want to weigh me before I come in, or can I get out of this snow before my feet go black?”
Something shifted in his face. Not a smile. He didn’t look like a man who remembered how to smile. But something moved behind those ice-water eyes, a flicker of surprise at being answered.
He stepped back. “Back room off the kitchen. Rope bed. Two blankets. Meals at six, noon, and six.”
Ruth walked past him.
“The east hallway is off limits,” he added.
Ruth stopped in the kitchen and turned her head slightly. “What’s in the east hallway?”
“My son,” Jonah said.
Ruth studied him. He said my son like it hurt to say it aloud.
“Your son is off limits to you,” he continued, voice hardening. “To everyone. Don’t go near him. Don’t talk to him. Don’t look at him if he comes out. He don’t need another stranger making things worse.”
