with his dogs. And if he got here alone he was alone all the way from Mason Land."
Geoff said nothing for a moment. Then: "You love him, don't you?"
"Love him!" Margaret drew in a breath and could not speak more.
"Then if we find him you won't keep that bargain with Price?"
"Geoff, I made it."
He knew her, and knew that was her answer.
"But Price won't hold you to it," he tried to persuade himself rather than her.
His sister seized his sleeve suddenly. "Geoff, don't make anything harder for me."
"You mean he'll hold you?"
"Geoff, you've seen how hard this sort of life, what he's had to do, has been for him. Do you think the passion that would drive him to that will allow him to let me off? Why, sometimes I've thought if we found Eric at Mason Land he wouldn't let me go."
Geoff stamped his foot. "Meg, how could you have done it?"
"I'd do it again," she cried.
"But"
