Chapter 13 - Fire Beneath the Snow
Caleb had heard the plan in Timber Crossing.
Two men.
One narrow bridge.
An accident.
A wagon going through ice.
Nothing traceable to Warren.
“Who?” Rufus demanded.
“Men I don’t know.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
Dela’s pulse quickened.
“The hearing is tomorrow afternoon.”
Caleb nodded.
“They know your route.”
Rufus paced.
“We take another.”
“They’ll watch both.”
“Then we leave tonight.”
Caleb shook his head.
“Snow’s too deep beyond the western trail.”
Dela looked between them.
“What if we don’t travel by road?”
Rufus stopped.
“There’s an old mining trail south.”
“In January?”
“Difficult.”
“Can it be done?”
Rufus thought.
“Yes.”
“Then we do it.”
Caleb laughed without humor.
“You understand it might kill you without Warren’s help?”
Dela looked at him.
“I’ve spent seven years arranging my life around what Warren might do.”
She pulled on her coat.
“I’m finished.”
They left at sunset.
Caleb accompanied them as far as the fork.
Then he continued toward Timber Crossing to mislead anyone watching.
Rufus and Dela turned south.
Bear followed.
The mining trail climbed sharply.
Snow reached the horses’ knees.
Wind increased after midnight.
At one point Dela lost feeling in her fingers.
Rufus noticed.
“Stop.”
“We can’t.”
“You’re freezing.”
“I’m fine.”
“You lie badly.”
“So do you.”
Despite the circumstances, he smiled.
They sheltered in an abandoned prospectors’ cabin until the worst wind passed.
There was no door.
Rufus hung a blanket across the opening.
They sat close to a small fire.
Dela’s hands shook.
Rufus removed his gloves.
“Give me your hands.”
She hesitated.
“Dela.”
She gave them.
He enclosed her fingers between his palms.
Warmth slowly returned.
Neither spoke.
Their faces were close.
Firelight moved across his features.
Dela became intensely aware of how safe his hands felt.
That realization frightened her more than the storm.
She withdrew gently.
“Thank you.”
Rufus nodded.
After a moment he said, “Can I ask something?”
“You usually do.”
“If this ends—”
“When.”
His brow rose.
“When this ends,” he corrected, “what do you want?”
Dela stared at the fire.
For years she had thought only in terms of escape.
Leave the room.
Survive the night.
Reach the road.
Find employment.
She had never considered what came after safety.
“I don’t know.”
“Anything.”
“A room with a door I can lock.”
Rufus nodded.
“Books.”
Another nod.
“A garden.”
“You’ll fight deer all summer.”
“I have Bear.”
“Traitor already.”
Dela smiled.
“And work.”
“You have work.”
“My own work.”
Rufus considered.
“What kind?”
“I used to keep Warren’s household accounts.”
“You’re good with numbers?”
“Very.”
“That how you understood the ledger?”
“Yes.”
She stared into the flames.
“I might like to help people who don’t understand contracts. Women like Mrs. Hayes.”
“Sounds useful.”
“And you?”
“What about me?”
“What do you want?”
Rufus leaned against the wall.
“Quiet.”
“You already have that.”
“Had more before you started reading aloud.”
She threw a pinecone at him.
He caught it.
“Anything else?”
Rufus looked at her.
The humor faded.
“Yes.”
Dela waited.
He did not say it.
She knew anyway.
For the first time, knowing did not make her feel trapped.
It made her feel warm.
They resumed traveling before dawn.
By late morning, Granite Falls appeared below.
They had almost made it.
Then Bear growled.
Rufus stopped.
A man stepped from behind a rock.
Then another.
The same two private agents from the mountain pass.
The first sighed.
“You people are exhausting.”
Rufus positioned himself in front of Dela.
The agent drew his revolver.
“Get off the horse.”
Dela’s heart hammered.
Rufus slowly dismounted.
The second agent approached.
“We only want the ledger.”
“Don’t have it,” Rufus said.
“Then we take Mrs. Marsh.”
Dela said, “No.”
The first agent smiled.
“This isn’t a negotiation.”
Bear snarled.
The gun shifted toward the dog.
Dela screamed, “Don’t!”
Rufus moved.
Everything happened at once.
Bear lunged forward but stopped when Rufus shouted his name.
The second agent grabbed Rufus.
They crashed into the snow.
Dela kicked her horse forward.
The first man turned.
She drove straight toward him.
He leapt aside.
His revolver fell into the snow.
Dela jumped down and kicked it beneath a fallen log.
Rufus shoved the second agent away.
No shots fired.
No heroic duel.
Just snow, breath, confusion and four people discovering violence was less elegant than stories pretended.
Then whistles sounded from below.
Deputies.
Hannah had sent men to meet them when they failed to arrive by the expected road.
The Pinkertons froze.
Within minutes both were disarmed.
The first shouted that they had legal authority.
Hannah’s deputy laughed.
“From who?”
“Warren Marsh.”
“That isn’t law.”
Dela looked at Rufus.
Snow covered his beard.
A bruise formed near one cheek.
“You all right?”
“Ask me after coffee.”
She laughed from pure relief.
Then, without thinking, she hugged him.
Rufus froze.
So did Dela.
She almost stepped away.
Then his arms slowly closed around her.
Gentle.
Loose enough that she could leave whenever she wanted.
She did not.
For three breaths, the frozen mountains disappeared.
There was only warmth.
Then Dela stepped back.
Rufus’s eyes held hers.
Neither spoke.
They reached Granite Falls forty minutes before the hearing.
Hannah met them at the courthouse.
“You look terrible.”
Rufus brushed snow from his coat.
“Thank you.”
Hannah turned to Dela.
“Ready?”
Dela looked at the tall courthouse doors.
Warren was already inside.
Judge Harcourt was inside.
Every fear she had carried for seven years waited beyond them.
She took a breath.
“Yes.”
They entered.
Warren sat at one table.
When he saw Dela alive, disbelief flashed across his face.
Then anger.
Judge Harcourt entered.
Everyone stood.
Dela looked at the judge whose name appeared beside a bribe.
He looked back.
And smiled at Warren.
Her heart sank.
May you like
The hearing had not even begun.
Yet she already knew the man deciding whether she belonged to herself had been purchased long before she entered the room.
