Chapter 4 - Three Men Ride into the Valley
By morning, snow covered the ridge.
Not deep snow.
Only a thin white warning.
Rebecca stood outside with a cup of bitter coffee and watched sunlight move across the valley.
Juno grazed near the creek.
Micah had left before dawn.
He had wanted to remain, but Rebecca refused.
“If Harlon sees you helping me, he’ll come after your place next.”
“He already dislikes me.”
“Then don’t give him a useful reason.”
Micah had smiled.
“You sound like your mother.”
Rebecca had not known whether to take that as comfort.
Before leaving, he helped her move the iron box into a shallow cavity behind the stove stones.
He also gave her advice.
“Don’t spend the silver in Pine Hollow.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Don’t mention Mercer.”
“I won’t.”
“Don’t follow anybody who says they knew Hannah.”
Rebecca raised an eyebrow.
“That feels very specific.”
“It is.”
Then he had ridden away.
Now Rebecca was alone.
She spent the morning repairing the lean-to.
The work steadied her.
Wood made sense.
Nails did not lie.
A board either held weight or it did not.
By noon she had reinforced one wall and repaired a section of roof.
Then Juno lifted her head.
Rebecca froze.
Riders.
Again.
She went inside for the rifle.
Three men appeared.
Not Kums, Harlon, and Marsh.
These riders were strangers.
They remained at the edge of the clearing.
The oldest raised one hand.
“Miss Boon?”
Rebecca did not lower the gun.
“How do you know my name?”
“Micah Hollister.”
Rebecca narrowed her eyes.
“Micah told you?”
“No. Man at the livery saw him ride out yesterday. Said you’d taken the north valley.”
“I haven’t taken anything.”
The stranger smiled.
“Good answer.”
He dismounted.
“Name’s Thomas Reed. These are my sons, Caleb and Jesse.”
Both younger men nodded.
“What do you want?”
“Work.”
Rebecca stared.
Thomas gestured toward the creek.
“Heard somebody might need fence repaired before winter.”
“Who sent you?”
“Widow Amory.”
Rebecca almost lowered the rifle.
Almost.
“Prove it.”
Thomas chuckled.
He reached slowly inside his coat and removed a folded scrap of paper.
He set it on a stump and backed away.
Rebecca retrieved it.
Widow Amory’s handwriting was unmistakable.
Girl,
A roof is no use if your horse walks away.
These men owe me favors.
Make them work hard.
—M.A.
Rebecca looked up.
Thomas was smiling.
“She always that friendly?”
“Usually worse.”
Rebecca lowered the rifle.
For the next six hours, the Reeds repaired fences.
They asked few questions.
Rebecca appreciated that.
Caleb fixed the stove pipe.
Jesse reinforced the bunk.
Thomas inspected the creek crossing.
By sunset, Rebecca had something resembling a livable homestead.
She paid them from her eleven dollars.
Thomas refused.
“You’ll need it.”
“I don’t accept charity.”
“Neither do I.”
“Then take the money.”
Thomas studied her.
Finally he accepted one dollar.
“For nails.”
Rebecca understood the compromise.
After the Reeds left, she returned to the journal.
She kept reading until the lamp burned low.
An entry from twenty years earlier caught her attention.
NOVEMBER 3.
Lydia says the mineral is less important than the water. If Puit controls the creek, he controls every ranch south of the ridge.
Rebecca reread it.
The silver mine had been a distraction.
The creek mattered more.
Another entry:
NOVEMBER 11.
County map altered again. North fork removed from public record.
Then:
NOVEMBER 14.
Silas says Puit is buying judges as easily as cattle.
Rebecca sat back.
Her father.
Again.
He had been part of this.
Not a distant witness.
An ally.
She turned another page.
NOVEMBER 20.
Hannah discovered letters missing from the desk. Fear someone enters while we sleep.
Rebecca’s skin prickled.
Her mother had been young then.
Perhaps sixteen.
NOVEMBER 24.
Sent Hannah to Silas.
Rebecca whispered, “You trusted him.”
A floorboard creaked behind her.
Rebecca spun.
Nobody.
The shack settled in the cold.
She laughed nervously.
Then something struck the outside wall.
A rock.
Rebecca extinguished the lamp.
Another impact.
This time the window cracked.
Rebecca grabbed her rifle.
“Who’s there?”
Silence.
Then a voice from outside.
“Leave the valley.”
Rebecca’s mouth went dry.
“Show yourself.”
“Leave by morning.”
“Who are you?”
No response.
Rebecca moved toward the door.
Then smelled smoke.
Not from the stove.
She turned.
Fire licked the corner of the lean-to.
“Juno!”
Rebecca ran outside.
Flames had caught dry hay.
Juno pulled against her tether.
Rebecca released the mare and slapped her rump.
“Go!”
The horse galloped toward the creek.
Rebecca grabbed a bucket.
The attacker was forgotten.
She ran for water.
Back and forth.
Creek.
Fire.
Creek.
Fire.
The flames climbed.
Rebecca coughed, threw another bucket, then another.
Eventually she heard hoofbeats.
Thomas Reed and his sons appeared.
They had not made it far before seeing smoke.
Together they beat the fire down.
When it ended, half the lean-to was blackened.
The shack remained standing.
Rebecca sat in mud beside the creek.
Her hands shook.
Thomas crouched.
“This wasn’t an accident.”
“No.”
“You see who did it?”
“No.”
Caleb found hoofprints.
“One rider.”
Rebecca stood.
“Which direction?”
“South.”
Pine Hollow.
Thomas looked at her.
“You should come with us tonight.”
“No.”
“Miss Boon—”
“If I leave every time somebody burns something, I’ll spend my entire life moving.”
Thomas’s expression softened.
“You’re eighteen.”
“I noticed.”
“You don’t have to prove anything.”
Rebecca looked toward the shack.
“I’m not proving it.”
“What are you doing?”
She thought of her father’s house.
Her mother.
The journals.
The iron box.
“I’m keeping what’s mine long enough to learn why somebody wants it.”
Thomas did not argue after that.
The Reeds stayed until midnight.
Before leaving, Jesse handed Rebecca something.
“We found this near the south fence.”
A brass cartridge casing.
Rebecca examined it.
“What about it?”
Thomas frowned.
“Army issue.”
“So?”
“So Sheriff Kums is the only man in Pine Hollow who still uses that caliber.”
Rebecca looked toward the dark ridge.
Maybe Kums had returned.
Maybe someone wanted her to think he had.
Either possibility was dangerous.
Rebecca slept with the rifle beside her.
Near dawn she dreamed of her mother.
Hannah stood across the creek.
She kept saying something Rebecca could not hear.
When Rebecca woke, sunlight had barely touched the windows.
Someone had slipped an envelope beneath the door.
Rebecca sat upright.
She reached for the rifle.
No footsteps.
No horse.
Nothing.
She picked up the envelope.
Her name was written across it.
REBECCA BOON.
The handwriting was unfamiliar.
Inside was a single sheet.
Rebecca read the first line.
If you found Elias Mercer’s journals, you are already in danger.
She read the second.
Your mother is not buried anywhere in Pine Hollow.
Rebecca stopped breathing.
Then she read the last line.
If you want to know what happened to Hannah, come alone to the abandoned mission at Blackwater Crossing tomorrow at noon.
At the bottom was a mark.
A circle crossed by three short lines.
May you like
Rebecca had seen it before.
On one of the metal tokens inside Elias Mercer’s hidden pouch.
