Chapter 8 - The Woman Who Knew Hannah Boon
Rebecca had imagined this moment for six years.
In some versions she ran into her mother’s arms.
In others she screamed.
In the darkest versions she turned away.
When the moment finally arrived, Rebecca did none of those things.
She simply stared.
Hannah looked older than forty.
A white scar crossed one hand.
Her hair, once nearly the same chestnut brown as Rebecca’s, held threads of gray.
She carried a rifle.
The wooden button around her neck was newer than Rebecca’s.
Rebecca’s voice came flat.
“You’re alive.”
Hannah nodded.
“Yes.”
“You were in Colorado.”
“Yes.”
“You sent Father money.”
“Yes.”
“You read my letters.”
Hannah’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Rebecca stood.
“And you still didn’t come home.”
Hannah flinched.
The people around them quietly moved away.
Micah led Thomas and Caleb toward the outer tunnel.
Lydia hesitated, then followed.
Rebecca and Hannah remained alone.
“You don’t get to cry first,” Rebecca said.
Hannah wiped her eyes.
“Fair.”
“Why?”
“I was afraid.”
“So was I.”
“I know.”
“No. You don’t.”
Rebecca’s voice rose.
“You weren’t twelve years old watching Father bring your horse home without you.”
Hannah closed her eyes.
“You weren’t the one listening to town women whisper that your mother ran away.”
“I know.”
“You don’t know.”
“You’re right.”
Rebecca had expected excuses.
Hannah’s agreement left her without a target.
She turned away.
“Explain.”
Hannah sat slowly.
“The day I disappeared, I went to Silver Junction to meet a man named Amos Bell.”
“Who?”
“He had worked as clerk in the county office when my father vanished.”
“Elias.”
Hannah nodded.
“Amos sent word that he wanted to confess something before he died.”
“What?”
“He altered the land records.”
Rebecca stopped.
“For Puit?”
“For Harlon’s father.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That the original Mercer filing had been removed. That another deed had been prepared in case anyone challenged it. That Wyatt Kums knew.”
Rebecca thought of the deposition.
“And then?”
“I left Silver Junction before dark. Two men followed me.”
“Who?”
“I never knew their names.”
“What happened?”
“They caught me near the south road.”
Rebecca’s anger shifted.
Hannah looked at her scarred hand.
“They wanted to know what Bell had given me.”
“Did he give you something?”
“A written confession.”
Rebecca leaned forward.
“Where is it?”
“Gone.”
“They took it?”
“No.”
Hannah looked up.
“I swallowed it.”
Rebecca stared.
Hannah laughed faintly.
“Not my finest meal.”
Despite herself, Rebecca almost smiled.
“Then why run for six years?”
“Because one of the men told me something.”
“What?”
“They knew your name.”
Rebecca’s smile vanished.
“They knew your school route. They knew when Silas worked outside town. They knew which window was your bedroom.”
Rebecca felt cold.
“I escaped.”
“How?”
“Belle kicked one of them.”
Rebecca remembered Hannah’s horse returning riderless.
“I fell into the river and stayed beneath the bank until dark.”
“Why didn’t you go home?”
“Because they were watching the roads.”
“So you went to Lydia.”
“Yes.”
“And Father?”
“I sent him word after three months.”
“Three months?”
“It took that long to be sure the messenger wasn’t followed.”
Rebecca stared at the floor.
“Why not take us away?”
“We tried.”
Rebecca looked up.
“Silas refused?”
“No.”
Hannah’s voice became quiet.
“I did.”
“Why?”
“Because I found evidence that my father might still be alive.”
Rebecca froze.
“Elias?”
Hannah nodded.
“Twenty years after disappearing?”
“I found freight records showing payments to E.M. for surveying work under another name.”
Rebecca thought of the tunnel.
“Where?”
“Montana Territory.”
“You went looking.”
“Yes.”
“Did you find him?”
“No.”
“So you spent six years chasing a possibility.”
“I spent six years trying to end something that had already killed or scattered most of my family.”
Rebecca stood abruptly.
“And Father died while you were gone.”
Hannah’s face crumpled.
“I know.”
“You knew he was sick?”
“Not until too late.”
Rebecca turned away.
“Micah sent word. I was two hundred miles north.”
“Then you came back?”
“I reached Pine Hollow the night after his burial.”
Rebecca spun.
“You were there?”
“In the cemetery.”
Rebecca’s anger returned like fire.
“You watched me bury him?”
“From the trees.”
“And you didn’t come to me?”
“I saw Kums watching the road. Harlon had men outside your house.”
“So?”
“So I believed if I came to you, they would know everything had come together.”
Rebecca laughed bitterly.
“They threw me out anyway.”
“I didn’t know they would.”
“That’s the problem. Everybody made decisions based on what they thought might happen.”
Hannah stood.
“I failed you.”
The directness stopped Rebecca.
Hannah continued.
“I can explain every choice. I can tell you what frightened me. I can tell you what I thought I was protecting. None of that changes what those choices cost you.”
Rebecca’s eyes burned.
“I hated you.”
“I know.”
“I loved you too.”
“I know.”
“That made it worse.”
“I know.”
Rebecca covered her face.
Hannah did not touch her.
Several seconds passed.
Then Rebecca dropped her hands.
“Are you staying?”
“Yes.”
“Even if Harlon knows?”
“Yes.”
“Even if I tell you to leave?”
Hannah smiled sadly.
“If you tell me to leave, I’ll move to the other side of the valley and annoy you from a respectful distance.”
Rebecca laughed unexpectedly.
Then started crying.
Hannah crossed the space between them.
Rebecca let her.
The embrace was awkward at first.
Six years existed between them.
Then Rebecca held tighter.
Hannah did too.
Neither apologized again.
Not then.
Some wounds did not need more words.
Outside the tunnel, Micah looked away when they emerged together.
Rebecca noticed.
“You knew she was nearby.”
Micah scratched his beard.
“I suspected.”
Rebecca pointed at him.
“I’m angry with you too.”
“Wouldn’t expect otherwise.”
Hannah looked toward Lydia.
“We need to move.”
“Why?”
“The man who threatened Rebecca.”
“You know him?”
“No. But he knows somebody has returned to the tunnel.”
Hannah entered the hidden room and removed a small tin from beneath the cot.
Inside was a notebook.
“I’ve been keeping track of people entering the valley.”
Rebecca looked at the dates.
Harlon.
Delbert.
Kums.
Others.
“This goes back two years.”
“I came here whenever it was safe.”
Rebecca stared.
“You’ve been sleeping forty yards from the shack?”
“Sometimes.”
“While I was in Pine Hollow?”
“Yes.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“That is deeply irritating.”
Hannah almost smiled.
Then Rebecca found a recent entry.
October 20.
D. MARSH brought two men. Discussed removing records before girl arrives.
Rebecca pointed.
“They knew I would come here before I did.”
Hannah nodded.
“Someone told them Silas planned it.”
“Who?”
They all looked at Micah.
Micah bristled.
“Wasn’t me.”
Rebecca thought.
Only a handful of people knew about her father’s final wishes.
Micah.
Perhaps Widow Amory.
Maybe the doctor.
Then Hannah spoke.
“Silas wrote a letter before he died.”
Rebecca turned.
“To whom?”
“Harlon.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Micah told me he saw it on Silas’s table.”
Micah nodded slowly.
“I did.”
Rebecca felt uneasy.
“What did it say?”
“I never read it.”
Hannah looked toward Pine Hollow.
“If Harlon received that letter, it may explain why he moved so quickly after Silas died.”
Rebecca thought of the leather folder.
The debt seizure.
The armed escort.
Harlon had not simply wanted her gone.
He had wanted her sent here.
Why?
Rebecca looked at the mine records.
Perhaps Harlon believed something remained hidden in the valley that only a Mercer heir could uncover.
And Rebecca had just done exactly that.
Then Caleb shouted from the tunnel entrance.
“Riders!”
Everyone went still.
“How many?” Thomas called.
Caleb’s answer echoed through the stone.
“Too many.”
Rebecca ran outside.
Across the snow-covered valley, riders descended from three directions.
Ten.
Maybe twelve.
At the front rode Sheriff Wyatt Kums.
May you like
Beside him was Harlon Puit.
And this time their rifles were not lowered.
