Chapter 12 - The Ledger Hidden in Her Bag
They spent the afternoon washing kerosene from the cabin wall with snow and sand.
Rufus barely spoke.
Dela recognized the silence.
Not fear.
Fury.
That frightened her too.
“Don’t.”
He stopped scrubbing.
“Don’t what?”
“Do whatever you’re thinking.”
“I’m thinking this wall still smells like kerosene.”
“You’re thinking about Warren.”
Rufus returned to work.
“Hard not to.”
“You can’t go after him.”
“Wasn’t planning to.”
Another poor lie.
Dela stepped in front of him.
“If you hurt him, he wins.”
Rufus’s jaw tightened.
“If somebody had struck a match—”
“They didn’t.”
“Because Bear found it.”
“And we’re alive.”
“This time.”
Dela took the rag from his hand.
“Look at me.”
He did.
“You said Warren spent years deciding things for me.”
“Yes.”
“Then don’t let him decide what kind of man you become.”
The anger in Rufus’s face shifted.
Slowly.
Pain beneath it.
“I hate that you’re right.”
“I’m learning to enjoy it.”
He almost smiled.
Almost.
That evening they moved the copy of Warren’s ledger.
Rufus had hidden it inside the stove chimney’s unused summer damper.
Dela called the hiding place ridiculous.
Rufus pointed out nobody had found it during the search.
She conceded the argument.
They wrapped the copy in oilcloth and placed it inside a hollow beneath a loose rock near the creek.
“If the cabin burns,” Rufus said, “this survives.”
Dela hated hearing the sentence.
But he was right.
The next day brought an unexpected visitor.
Mrs. Talley.
She arrived in a sleigh loaded with flour and gossip.
“I heard Marsh came up.”
“How?” Rufus asked.
Mrs. Talley looked offended.
“Town has seven buildings. You think six strangers visit without becoming news?”
She turned to Dela.
“Also heard about the search.”
Dela poured coffee.
“Anything else?”
“Plenty.”
Mrs. Talley sat.
“Your husband’s been offering money for people to say Conn kept you here.”
Rufus’s expression darkened.
“Who took it?”
“No one yet.”
“Yet?”
Mrs. Talley shrugged.
“Five hundred dollars makes honesty difficult for some people.”
Dela thought of the stagecoach driver.
“Did he speak with the coachman who brought me?”
“Trying.”
Dela sat slowly.
The driver was one of the only people who could prove she had arrived voluntarily.
“What’s his name?”
“Silas Trent.”
“Where is he?”
“Usually runs Helena to Timber Crossing twice a week.”
Rufus looked at Dela.
“We need him.”
Mrs. Talley nodded.
“Already thought of that.”
She produced a folded paper.
Dela opened it.
A signed statement.
I, Silas Trent, transported Dela Marsh from Helena toward Timber Crossing on November 12. She traveled alone, paid her own fare, and requested to be let off at the road leading toward Rufus Conn’s property. No man accompanied or coerced her.
Dela stared.
“How?”
Mrs. Talley smiled.
“I sell Silas tobacco.”
“You did this for me?”
“I did it because I dislike rich men assuming everyone is for sale.”
Rufus lifted his coffee cup toward her.
Mrs. Talley added, “Though Silas insisted I mention he wants the price of his tobacco reduced.”
Rufus laughed.
Dela’s eyes filled.
More people were helping.
Not because she owed them.
Because they believed her.
The world Warren had built was beginning to crack.
Over the next week, more pieces arrived.
Dr. Bell’s medical statement.
Silas’s affidavit.
A letter from Hannah confirming copies of the ledger had been delivered safely to the territorial prosecutor.
Then a telegram.
FEDERAL INVESTIGATOR REQUESTS INTERVIEW AFTER HEARING.
Warren’s problem was becoming larger than Dela.
That should have made her feel safe.
It did not.
Powerful men were often most dangerous when losing power.
Two nights before the hearing, the mountain temperature fell brutally low.
Rufus slept near the stove.
Dela woke after midnight to Bear growling.
She sat up.
“Rufus.”
He was already awake.
A sound came from outside.
Scrape.
Pause.
Scrape.
Rufus moved toward the window.
Moonlight illuminated the snow.
Nothing.
Then Bear rushed toward the door.
Someone shouted outside.
“Fire!”
Rufus ripped the door open.
The woodshed was burning.
Flames climbed one wall.
Dela grabbed buckets.
Rufus shouted, “Stay back!”
“No.”
They worked together.
Snow.
Water.
Blankets.
Bear barked frantically.
The fire spread to stacked wood but had not yet reached the cabin.
Dela’s ribs screamed as she carried water.
She ignored them.
Then she smelled something.
Kerosene.
Again.
Rufus realized it too.
“This was set.”
A figure moved between trees.
Rufus started after him.
“Rufus!”
He stopped.
Dela pointed toward the burning shed.
“The house.”
He looked from the trees to her.
Then chose the fire.
Together they fought until flames collapsed into smoking black timber.
By dawn, the shed was destroyed.
The cabin survived.
Dela sat exhausted on the porch.
Rufus lowered himself beside her.
Neither spoke for a while.
Then Dela said, “He’s afraid.”
Rufus looked at her.
“Warren.”
She stared at the smoking ruins.
“He never did this before because he never had to.”
Her voice became stronger.
“He could frighten people with a look. A letter. A threat.”
She turned toward Rufus.
“Now he’s burning buildings.”
Rufus understood.
“He’s losing control.”
“Yes.”
Dela looked toward the sunrise.
“And I’m done letting his fear become mine.”
She stood.
“Tomorrow we go to court.”
Rufus stood too.
“You sure?”
“No.”
He waited.
Dela smiled.
“But I’m going anyway.”
A horse appeared on the trail.
Both tensed.
It was Caleb Wicks.
He looked exhausted.
He dismounted without greeting.
“You need to leave.”
Rufus frowned.
“For court?”
“No.”
Caleb stared at Dela.
“Warren knows about the federal investigator.”
Her stomach tightened.
“So?”
“So he isn’t planning to win the hearing anymore.”
“What is he planning?”
Caleb looked toward the burned shed.
May you like
Then back at her.
“To make sure you never reach it.”
