Chapter 3 - The Coat Hanging Behind the Door
Morning arrived gray and windless.
Hannah expected Caleb to disappear.
Instead she found him repairing the chicken coop.
He had somehow located Thomas’s hammer, replaced two rotten boards, reset a leaning fence post, milked the goat, chopped enough wood for several days, and fed Lucy before Hannah had finished making biscuits.
“You don’t have to do all that,” she told him.
Caleb drove another nail.
“You paid for six months.”
“I released you.”
“You never said that.”
“I am saying it now.”
He stopped hammering.
“You’re free.”
He looked at her as though she had spoken in another language.
Hannah wiped flour from her hands.
“I did not spend forty dollars because I needed a hired man.”
“Then why?”
“You know why.”
His eyes moved toward Lucy sleeping inside a basket near the open door.
“No,” he said. “I know why you think you did.”
Hannah frowned.
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
“You looked at that child and remembered being helpless.”
The words struck too close.
Caleb went back to hammering.
Hannah stood there for several seconds.
“You are extremely irritating for a man who refused to give me his name.”
“I’ve been told.”
“By whom?”
“My sister.”
His hammer stopped.
Hannah softened.
“Lucy’s mother?”
Caleb gave one short nod.
Hannah did not ask more.
Not yet.
The hidden paper from Thomas’s coat remained on the kitchen table beneath a flour jar.
Every time Hannah passed it, she felt as though Thomas himself were waiting for her.
By noon, Gideon Vane arrived.
He came alone.
That frightened Hannah more than if he had brought men.
Gideon always brought witnesses when he intended to conduct business.
When he intended something else, he preferred privacy.
He removed his hat at the porch.
“Hannah.”
“Mr. Vane.”
His gaze shifted toward Caleb.
“So the purchase survived the night.”
Caleb leaned against a fence post.
“Disappointed?”
Gideon smiled.
“No.”
But his eyes said yes.
Hannah stepped between them.
“What do you want?”
“To discuss your loan.”
“It is not due for eight days.”
“I know.”
“Then come back in eight days.”
Gideon’s smile remained patient.
“Hannah, I’m trying to help.”
Caleb muttered, “Men who say that usually aren’t.”
Gideon ignored him.
“I heard what happened yesterday. You were distressed.”
“I was not distressed.”
“You spent your mortgage payment at an auction.”
“I remember.”
“I could extend your loan.”
Hannah became suspicious immediately.
“Why?”
“Because Thomas was my friend.”
Caleb laughed.
It was not a pleasant sound.
Gideon finally looked directly at him.
“Have we met?”
“No.”
“You seem familiar.”
“Maybe you’ve cheated other men with my face.”
Hannah gave Caleb a warning look.
Gideon’s expression tightened.
Then his eyes drifted toward the cabin.
Thomas’s coat hung behind the open doorway.
Only the sleeve was visible.
Gideon froze.
It lasted less than a second.
Hannah would have missed it yesterday.
Today she did not.
His smile returned.
“Cold morning?”
Hannah followed his gaze.
“No.”
“Then why is Thomas’s coat out?”
Caleb pushed away from the fence.
“That seems like an odd question.”
Gideon’s eyes sharpened.
Hannah answered before Caleb could create trouble.
“I was going through his things.”
“I see.”
Gideon placed his hat back on his head.
“My offer stands. I’ll forgive the missed payment.”
“Forgive?”
“Extend.”
“That’s different.”
A pause.
“Of course.”
“What do you want in return?”
“Only a revised agreement.”
Caleb’s voice became low.
“How revised?”
Gideon looked at him.
“This is private business.”
“Then conduct it privately.”
“I am.”
Caleb smiled without humor.
“I’m standing here.”
Gideon returned his attention to Hannah.
“I’ll bring the papers tomorrow.”
“No.”
“Hannah—”
“No new agreement. I’ll pay what Thomas signed.”
Something dark crossed Gideon’s face.
Then vanished.
“As you wish.”
He mounted his horse.
Before leaving, he looked once more at Thomas’s coat.
That evening Hannah opened every seam.
Thomas had hidden more than one thing.
Inside the right cuff she found a tiny strip of paper.
Three words.
OLD MILL. FLOOR THREE.
Caleb stared.
“There hasn’t been a working mill near Red Willow in twenty years.”
“There’s the Stanton mill.”
“That place is half collapsed.”
“It still has three floors.”
Hannah folded the paper.
“We go tomorrow.”
“No.”
She raised an eyebrow.
Caleb sighed.
“You’re seven months pregnant.”
“I have noticed.”
“Someone watched this house last night.”
“Another excellent observation.”
“You’re not coming.”
“Caleb.”
“No.”
Hannah moved closer.
“This is my husband.”
“It may be dangerous.”
“It is still my husband.”
They stared at one another.
Caleb finally looked away.
“At sunrise.”
Hannah smiled.
“I knew you were reasonable.”
“I am beginning to understand why Thomas drank coffee so strong.”
The next morning they left Lucy with Mrs. Bell, who lived three farms south and owned two milk goats.
The Stanton mill stood five miles north beside a dry creek.
Its windows were broken.
The roof had partially collapsed.
Floor three creaked beneath their weight.
Hannah found nothing.
Caleb found everything.
A boot mark.
Recent.
A nail disturbed in a wall plank.
A piece of twine.
Then a loose floorboard.
Underneath was a tin box.
Hannah knelt.
Her hands shook as she opened it.
Inside lay a small leather notebook.
Thomas’s initials were stamped on the front.
T.M.
Hannah pressed it against her chest.
For one moment she could not breathe.
Caleb turned away.
Giving her privacy.
She opened the notebook.
The first twenty pages contained measurements and property descriptions.
Then names.
Dates.
Payments.
Gideon Vane appeared again and again.
So did Prairie Continental.
Near the end Thomas had written:
If anything happens to me, Vane knows I found the original deeds.
Hannah swallowed.
The following page had been torn out.
The next line was worse.
Caleb has the key.
Hannah slowly looked up.
Caleb was staring at the words.
“What key?”
“I don’t know.”
“Thomas says you have it.”
“I don’t.”
“Then why would he write that?”
Caleb’s face had gone pale.
His hand moved unconsciously toward his neck.
A leather cord disappeared beneath his shirt.
Hannah saw it.
“Caleb.”
He did not move.
“What is around your neck?”
His eyes closed.
Then he pulled out the cord.
A small brass key hung from it.
Hannah stared.
“You said you didn’t know.”
“I didn’t.”
“That looks remarkably like a key.”
“Thomas gave it to me two years ago.”
“And you never wondered what it opened?”
“He told me I’d know when the time came.”
Hannah nearly shouted.
“The time appears to have arrived!”
A noise came from below.
Wood creaked.
Caleb extinguished the lantern instantly.
Hannah froze.
Footsteps.
Someone had entered the mill.
More than one person.
A voice rose through the broken floorboards.
“Check upstairs.”
Caleb took Hannah’s hand and pulled her behind an old piece of machinery.
She recognized the second voice.
Deputy Rusk.
Gideon Vane’s closest friend.
Hannah looked at Caleb.
He placed one finger against his lips.
Footsteps climbed the stairs.
Slowly.
Closer.
Caleb slipped Thomas’s notebook beneath Hannah’s shawl.
Then he leaned toward her and whispered so quietly she barely heard him.
“If they find us, you run.”
“And you?”
His gray eyes hardened.
“I make sure they follow me.”
The footsteps reached the third floor.
And Hannah understood something terrifying.
Gideon Vane was no longer trying to take her farm.
May you like
He was trying to find whatever Thomas Mercer had died protecting.
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