All Chapters of No More Crossing Mountains for Her: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

"What's so bad about the Blackridge Mountains? Even if you really want to leave, you shouldn't pin your hopes on a woman like that."The village chief coughed around the dry pipe between his teeth."She carries a camera around all day, films one man in this village, then moves on to the next. If she were serious about you, would she have let you make seven trips down to town for nothing?"The smoke stung my nose.Four years. Her camera had traveled through nearly every corner of these mountains, and she'd filmed every young man in the villages. Everyone except me.I swallowed the ache in my throat and nodded. "I'm done waiting, Silas. I'm getting married in three days."On the way back to my village I saw Claire Reed coming up the path with Ash, holding him carefully because his leg was hurt. When she noticed me standing at the fork in the trail, she frowned."Noah? Didn't I tell you to wait down in town? We were supposed to register our marriage tomorrow. Coming all the way bac

Chapter 2

The next morning, fog covered the mountains. Claire didn't come back until noon. She found me and held out her phone, the screen full of tailored suits."I remember you liked these when you were scrolling through my phone. Pick one. When we go down for the license, you can wear it at the wedding."I ran a rough finger across the screen. Men up here spend their lives carrying wood, working fields, and climbing steep ground. We wear clothes that can survive stone and mud and rain. Four years ago Claire showed me a video of her friend's wedding, and that was the first time I'd ever seen a suit like that. Back then I dreamed of wearing one and walking out of the mountains beside her. Now the dream felt like it belonged to someone else."No." I shook my head.Her fingers tightened around the phone. "You're still angry?""No." I met her eyes calmly. "Grandpa already has my wedding clothes ready."The night before, he'd measured me for the coat, using cloth Silas brought over. I w

Chapter 3

Claire's hand clenched around the tube of ointment, and green salve squeezed out across her palm."Noah, what did you say?""We're over." I said it again.Disgust flashed across her face. "I already said I'd marry you. Now you're threatening to leave just to hurry me along?"I nodded. "That's right. And when the threat doesn't work, I'll go marry somebody else."She laughed, cold. "If you could really walk away from me, you wouldn't have come all the way out here to put on a show. You went after Ash just now to back me into a corner. I promised I'd marry you. Why do you have to be jealous over nothing?"She turned back toward Ash and ignored the tears gathering in my eyes.I watched her from behind. My legs were getting heavier and they shook every time I shifted my weight, but I made myself walk away anyway. I only wanted distance from the sight of the two of them."Noah." Claire called after me. I stopped, and some small, stupid part of me still hoped.Then she said, "We're

Chapter 4

Three days went by fast. Claire spent every one of them finishing the documentary and never came to see me again. When she spotted me from a distance, the only thing left in her eyes was irritation. I stopped explaining.On the morning of my wedding, Grandpa woke me before sunrise. He combed my hair and helped me into my wedding clothes, and the heavy coat sat so stiff across my shoulders that for a moment it was hard to breathe. He took my hand and patted it."A man up here takes a wife and that's him settled. Build yourself a quiet home and let the hard years end here."I nodded.The moment I stepped outside, the music broke across the mountain and the whole village heard it."The groom's up! Wedding party, move out!"I'd barely settled onto the horse when my phone buzzed. Claire. I stared at her name for a long time, and only once the horse had started moving under me did I answer."Where are you?""On the wedding road."She either didn't hear or didn't understand,

Chapter 5

Claire's camera hung in midair and the smile drained out of her face, inch by inch."Noah?" She stared at me, and then the disbelief turned into certainty. "What kind of tantrum is this? I told you I'd take you down for the license once the film was finished. You really had to do this to force me?"I almost laughed. Even now she thought my wedding was a performance, as if I had no life outside of waiting on her.Villagers stopped along the road and the whispers spread."Director, you've got no business stopping a man's wedding.""Shut up. Noah is mine. He's only angry with me."The villagers laughed at that. "He waited four years and went down the mountain seven times. You didn't value him, and now he's marrying and you're yelling at us?"Claire went still. Then she lowered the camera, grabbed the reins, and caught my hand."If you're angry because I broke my promise, I can explain. I'll make it up to you. Tomorrow. We'll go down tomorrow and get married. Noah, stop this."Her

Chapter 6

The ceremony was solemn, and the feast was the best the Blackridge villages could put on. But Claire's scene on the mountain road had already started people talking, and the whispers worked their way through the hall."Ivy's groom spent four years chasing that woman with the camera.""She never wanted him. Guess Ivy's ended up with a loyal one, at least.""Who knows if he's really done with the director. Can a marriage like that hold?"My fist tightened. Then warm fingers closed around my hand, and Ivy stepped forward. Before anyone could react she flipped one of the tables, and the dishes shattered across the floor. The whole hall went silent."From today on, anybody who runs their mouth about my husband is picking a fight with me."I stared at her narrow back. She was smaller than most of the people in that room, and she stood in front of me anyway.For years, people in the villages had whispered that I'd followed Claire only because I wanted an easy way out of the mountains

Chapter 7

Claire didn't leave that night. She stood on the stone steps outside our yard until morning. The wind up here cuts, and through the gap in the shutter I could see her, not moving.When I opened the gate at dawn there was frost on her shoulders and her face was white with cold. The moment she saw me, something lit up in her eyes."Noah. We need to talk."I looked at her calmly. "We don't."The words came out of her fast, like she was afraid a second of silence would make me disappear. "I know I was wrong. I shouldn't have broken my promises, I shouldn't have ignored what you were going through, and I shouldn't have taken everything you gave me for granted."I stepped around her. "I'm married. I said my vows on the altar stones. I'm staying here.""You can end it. Or I'll give up the city and stay in the mountains — I won't film anymore, I don't need any of it, I'll stay here with you properly. Please."I listened until she'd run out of ways to bargain. Then I said, "Claire, I'm

Chapter 8

I went back inside.Over the next few days Claire stopped working altogether. She sent the crew home, blocked the producers' calls, and shelved the documentary she'd spent four years on. Instead she followed me around at a distance. When I washed clothes at the stream, she stood on the far bank and filmed me. When I worked the vegetable patch, she hauled water back and forth. When I crouched in the yard drying herbs, she stood nearby and kept the sun off me.Finally I couldn't take it. "Would you get out of my life?"Claire froze. Then, shaking, she held out the silver bracelet — the broken one. She'd mended it."Noah. One more chance."I looked at the cracks running through the metal. "We don't get another chance."I turned the herbs over. Her hand stayed out. She looked worn through; days without sleep had hollowed out every bit of the confidence I used to admire in her."Noah." Her voice was rough. "I stayed up all night fixing it. Look. It's just like it was."I loo

Chapter 9

I turned around. Ivy was coming up along the side of the house.Claire followed my eyes and saw her, then came at me, crying openly. "You still love me. If you didn't, you'd never have told me any of that. Noah, look at me. Look me in the eye and tell me you don't love me at all."I did. "Claire, I don't love you anymore. I used to think you were the one light in my life."I reached for Ivy's hand. "But now I don't need a light I can never reach, one that comes and goes whenever it feels like it."Claire swayed. She bit down on her lip, and her voice came out shaking, pleading. "Then why did you break the bracelet? Why did you cry that much over me?""Because I was saying goodbye to who I used to be. I wasn't crying for you, I was crying for the fool who gave everything until there was nothing left of him. I broke that bracelet to tell him to stop waiting. It's over."Claire's tears finally fell. I looked at her one last time."From here on we owe each other nothing. I hope you

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP