Chapter 7 - The Truth Jedodiah Hid
They reached an abandoned trapping shelter shortly after midnight.
The cabin was little more than four walls and a roof, but it kept the worst of the wind away.
Jed tied Clayton to a support post.
Then he lit a small stove.
Alandre immediately unrolled her bedroll.
The quilt appeared.
Green and cream.
Thomas’s mother had made it for their wedding.
Alandre ran her fingertips along the edge.
One section had been repaired with noticeably crooked stitches.
She had teased Thomas about them.
You sew like a drunken spider.
He had laughed.
Now she felt something hard beneath the seam.
Jed crouched beside her.
Clayton watched from across the room.
“Knife,” she said.
Jed handed her one.
She cut carefully.
A folded packet slid out.
Clayton stopped smiling.
Alandre’s hands shook.
Inside were pages covered with numbers, names, land descriptions and signatures.
Copies.
Thomas had hidden everything in plain sight.
Jed exhaled.
“Smart man.”
Alandre’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
She looked through the pages.
There were payment records connected to Clayton.
Names of territorial clerks.
Families.
Properties.
Dates.
And near the bottom of one sheet:
J. BOONE — $4,000 — SILVER CREEK CLAIM
Alandre looked up.
“Your name.”
Jed went still.
Clayton watched with satisfaction.
“What is this?”
Jed took the page.
His expression darkened.
“I never received four thousand dollars.”
Clayton chuckled.
“Records disagree.”
“You forged it.”
“Perhaps.”
Alandre looked at Jed.
“Was Silver Creek the family?”
“Yes.”
“The one that made you leave?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Jed sat across from her.
For the first time, he did not look away.
“We were hired to frighten Amos and Rebecca Hale off their claim. Clayton said there was no family living there. Said speculators owned it.”
Clayton interrupted.
“You believed what you wanted to believe.”
Jed nodded.
“That part’s true.”
Alandre noticed his lack of excuses.
“We arrived after dark,” he continued. “Clayton’s men started tearing apart the barn. Amos came out with a rifle. Everything went wrong.”
Alandre waited.
“Someone fired. Amos was hurt. His oldest boy was inside the barn when a lantern fell.”
Jed’s voice roughened.
“I went in and pulled him out.”
Clayton rolled his eyes.
“The heroic portion.”
Jed ignored him.
“When I saw the children, I realized exactly what we were.”
“You left that night?”
“Yes.”
“And Clayton?”
“He told everyone I caused the trouble. Later, two men were found dead near a stage road. My name went on the poster.”
“Did you kill them?”
“No.”
Clayton said, “But you had killed before.”
Jed looked at Alandre.
“Yes.”
She appreciated the truth even though it hurt.
“What did Thomas have to do with you?”
Jed rubbed his hands slowly.
“Three years ago, I found Amos Hale.”
“He survived?”
“Yes. So did his family. Barely.”
Alandre listened.
“I helped them buy another claim. That’s when I began tracking the properties Clayton stole. I needed somebody who understood records. Thomas discovered irregularities before I ever contacted him.”
“So you approached him?”
“He approached me.”
Alandre frowned.
“How?”
“He found Amos. Amos told him about me.”
Jed stared at the stove.
“Thomas hated me at first.”
Alandre gave a broken laugh.
“That sounds like him.”
“He said if half the stories were true, I belonged in jail.”
Clayton smiled.
“Still does.”
Jed ignored him.
“But Thomas also believed evidence mattered. We started exchanging letters.”
Alandre wiped her cheek.
“He never told me.”
“He wanted to keep you safe.”
“It didn’t.”
“No.”
The simplicity of Jed’s answer made her anger weaken.
Alandre looked through the documents.
“Why didn’t you tell me everything the first day?”
Jed’s gaze met hers.
“Because I was ashamed.”
“That isn’t enough.”
“I know.”
“Try again.”
He breathed slowly.
“Because Thomas died after trusting me.”
Alandre’s throat tightened.
“I thought if I had reached that crossing sooner, he’d be alive.”
“That still doesn’t explain lying.”
“No.”
Jed looked at her.
“Then you came to my cabin half-frozen. I recognized you from the small photograph Thomas sent.”
Alandre remembered the tintype Thomas had once mailed to an unnamed friend.
“You had seen me.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew you owed him.”
“Yes.”
“At first, that’s why you helped me?”
Jed did not pretend otherwise.
“At first.”
The two words changed the air.
Alandre looked away.
“And afterward?”
Clayton groaned.
“Oh, spare me.”
Jed turned.
“Another word and I put you outside.”
Clayton smiled but remained silent.
Alandre kept her eyes on the quilt.
“Afterward?” she repeated.
Jed’s voice softened.
“Afterward, Thomas had nothing to do with it.”
Alandre’s chest tightened.
She had no answer.
Too much stood between them.
Thomas.
The gun.
The lies.
And a feeling neither was ready to name.
Outside, a horse whinnied.
Jed stood instantly.
He extinguished the lamp.
Darkness swallowed them.
Hoofbeats approached.
More than one rider.
Clayton whispered, “Told you.”
Jed handed Alandre the papers.
“Inside your coat.”
“What are you doing?”
“Getting you out.”
“We’re all getting out.”
His expression told her that was not his plan.
Alandre caught his arm.
“Don’t.”
“Alandre.”
“I already buried one man who decided protecting me meant keeping me ignorant and making decisions alone.”
Jed froze.
She held his gaze.
“If you want to be different from Thomas, start by trusting me to stand beside you.”
Outside, a man shouted.
“Boone!”
Clayton smiled in the darkness.
Jed looked at Alandre.
Then, for the first time, he nodded as though she were his equal rather than someone he needed to save.
“All right.”
He handed her the cabin’s second rifle.
“Then stay beside me.”
May you like
And outside, five riders surrounded the shelter.
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