“‘You are too small… can you really leave your seed in me?’ — the giantess mocked the lone rancher… but that man of the West ended up giving her a lesson no one saw coming.”
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Calder wanted to argue, but the way Talia held the board made it clear he wasn’t going to sway her with orders. So he let her be. He watched her move across the snow, wounded and weary, yet strong, as if the pain had only hardened what was already solid within her. There was something awe-inspiring about that woman. Not just her physical strength. It was the way she managed to stay on her feet after losing everything.
As evening fell, Nami was asleep, fever gone. Talia stood by the window, gazing at the white expanse as if the echo of her former life might still linger there. Calder came in with a bowl of lukewarm water and a clean cloth.
“Your wounds need attention,” he said.
Talia turned slowly. The firelight outlined her face, revealing the weariness beneath her eyes, her dignity undiminished despite the blows.
“Why are you like this?” she asked.
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Calder didn’t understand.
-As well as?
—That’s how calm. That’s how good without making it seem like a debt.
Calder placed the bowl on the table.
—I’m not as good as you think.
Talia let out a soft laugh, not joyful, but with something akin to recognition.
—Bad men always say the opposite.
Calder didn’t answer. He gestured to the chair. Talia sat down. He knelt in front of her to clean a cut on her arm. He did it slowly, gently, with that rare tenderness of men who learned late that strength can also be used to avoid causing harm.
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Talia closed her eyes when the warm cloth touched her skin.
Not because it hurt.
Because it had been a long time since anyone had touched it carefully.
That gesture, so small, opened something between them that had already been growing silently.
It wasn’t an immediate desire. It wasn’t the easy tension of those who barely look at each other and already mistake need for love. It was something deeper. The recognition of two weary people who, without planning it, had begun to become each other’s refuge.
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