Chapter 7 - The Stranger from Butte
Caleb Wicks arrived three mornings later.
He did not sneak through the forest.
He rode openly into the clearing shortly after sunrise, wearing a black coat too expensive for mountain work and a narrow smile Dela remembered from Warren’s house.
Bear growled before the horse even stopped.
Rufus stepped onto the porch.
Dela stood behind the window.
Caleb removed his hat.
“Mr. Conn.”
“Wicks.”
“So we’re acquainted now.”
“Enough.”
Caleb looked toward the cabin.
“Mrs. Marsh inside?”
Rufus said nothing.
Caleb smiled.
“Her husband would like his wife returned.”
“Ask her.”
“I’m asking the man concealing her.”
Rufus’s expression did not change.
“Wrong man.”
Caleb’s smile faded.
Dela knew how this worked.
Men like Warren and Caleb interpreted silence as a contest.
She opened the door.
Rufus looked back sharply.
Dela stepped onto the porch.
Caleb’s smile returned.
“Mrs. Marsh.”
“Mr. Wicks.”
“You’ve caused quite a commotion.”
“I’m sure Warren enjoys one.”
“Your husband’s worried.”
“No, he isn’t.”
Caleb sighed.
“He said you might be confused.”
“I’m not.”
“He said Conn may have influenced you.”
Rufus muttered something unkind.
Dela kept her eyes on Caleb.
“Tell Warren I’m not coming back.”
“He expected you to say that.”
“Then why ride fourteen miles to hear it?”
The question irritated him.
Good.
Caleb dismounted.
Bear stepped forward.
Rufus said one word.
“Stay.”
The dog stopped.
Caleb glanced at him.
“Control your animal.”
“Control yourself.”
“Rufus,” Dela said quietly.
He looked at her.
She shook her head.
Caleb saw the exchange.
A knowing expression appeared.
“There it is.”
Dela frowned.
“What?”
“Warren wondered.”
“Wondered what?”
“If Conn had taken advantage of your condition.”
Rufus moved before Dela realized.
Not toward Caleb.
One step.
Enough.
Dela caught Rufus’s sleeve.
“No.”
He stopped instantly.
Caleb’s smile widened.
“You see? Emotional involvement.”
Dela released Rufus and descended the porch steps.
Her legs trembled.
She continued anyway.
“Look at me, Caleb.”
He did.
“I left Warren before I knew Rufus Conn existed.”
“I’m sure.”
“I came here because the Helena advertisement offered employment.”
“Convenient.”
“The stagecoach driver saw me arrive alone.”
“Again, convenient.”
Dela understood.
Nothing she said would satisfy him because he had not come for truth.
He had come to manufacture a story.
“You have your answer.”
Caleb’s gaze hardened.
“Warren has paperwork underway.”
“I know.”
“He’ll be declared your lawful guardian if necessary.”
“I’m not incompetent.”
“That’s for a judge.”
“No.”
The word surprised him.
Dela stepped closer.
“That is exactly the problem with men like you. You think because a judge can be purchased, truth becomes whatever is stamped on paper.”
Caleb’s face changed.
Only slightly.
But enough.
Dela noticed.
Rufus noticed too.
Interesting.
“You should be careful,” Caleb said.
“With what?”
“Accusations.”
“I didn’t accuse anyone.”
“You implied.”
“Did I?”
A strange strength was appearing inside Dela.
Caleb had expected the woman he remembered.
Quiet.
Careful.
Always watching Warren before answering.
That woman was disappearing.
Caleb lowered his voice.
“Your husband wants something you took.”
Rufus looked at Dela.
She went still.
“What?”
Caleb smiled.
“You know.”
“I took clothes.”
“And?”
“My Bible.”
“And?”
“Seventeen dollars that belonged to me.”
His smile disappeared.
“And?”
Dela’s heart pounded.
Rufus was watching her now.
She had never told him about the ledger.
Caleb stepped closer.
“Warren says if you return his private property, he may become more reasonable.”
Dela almost laughed.
“When has Warren ever been reasonable?”
“Perhaps when you stop humiliating him.”
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The truth.”
Caleb frowned.
“He isn’t worried about me.”
She leaned closer.
“He’s embarrassed.”
For the first time, Caleb lost his composure.
“You have no idea what you’re doing.”
“Yes.”
Dela’s voice shook.
But she did not retreat.
“I’m beginning to.”
Caleb glanced at Rufus.
“Tell her this ends badly.”
Rufus folded his arms.
“She seems capable of deciding.”
“You mountain fool.”
“That supposed to hurt?”
“Warren Marsh can ruin you.”
Rufus shrugged.
“Take him a message.”
Caleb narrowed his eyes.
“What message?”
“Mountain’s steep.”
Caleb waited.
“That’s it?”
“Yep.”
“What does that mean?”
Rufus’s expression remained flat.
“Let him wonder.”
Caleb mounted.
Before leaving, he looked at Dela.
“This is your last chance to make matters easy.”
Dela thought of Turkish carpet.
Bourbon.
A fireplace mantel.
A bedroom door locking.
“No,” she said.
“This is Warren’s last chance to leave me alone.”
Caleb rode away.
Silence remained.
Rufus did not speak until the horse disappeared.
Then:
“What did you take?”
Dela closed her eyes.
There it was.
The question she had postponed too long.
She entered the cabin.
Rufus followed.
Dela pulled the canvas bag from beneath her cot.
Her hands trembled as she removed the oilcloth parcel.
Rufus watched.
“What is that?”
“The reason Warren will never stop.”
She placed the ledger on the table.
Rufus opened it.
At first he saw numbers.
Then names.
Properties.
Payments.
Judges.
Sheriffs.
Banks.
A long minute passed.
“Dela.”
“I found it behind a false panel in his study.”
“You stole it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Not true.”
She looked at the book.
“Because one night he came home laughing about an old woman named Mrs. Hayes.”
Rufus’s brow furrowed.
“Her husband had died. Warren held the mortgage on their ranch.”
Dela swallowed.
“He forged documents claiming she had defaulted. Took the property. Sold the timber rights.”
Rufus turned pages.
“She had nowhere to go.”
“You knew her?”
“No.”
“Then why risk this?”
“Because he laughed.”
Her eyes burned.
“I had spent years telling myself Warren hurt only me because something was wrong with our marriage. Then I realized he enjoyed hurting anyone he thought could not fight back.”
She placed her hand on the ledger.
“I wanted proof.”
Rufus continued reading.
His expression became darker with every page.
Finally he closed it.
“This isn’t just evidence against Warren.”
“I know.”
“It’s evidence against half a dozen powerful men.”
“I know.”
“People kill for less.”
“I know.”
Rufus stared at her.
“How many times were you planning to say you were protecting me while keeping this under my roof?”
Dela flinched.
He immediately softened his voice.
“Not angry.”
“You should be.”
“I’m concerned.”
“That feels similar.”
“Not from where I’m standing.”
She looked at him.
“I was afraid if I told you, you’d send me away.”
Rufus shook his head.
“No.”
“Then perhaps you would have tried to take the ledger.”
“No.”
“Or sell it.”
“No.”
“Or decide what I should do with it.”
“No.”
Dela’s voice broke.
“Why are you different?”
Rufus had no quick answer.
Finally he said, “Maybe I know what it feels like when somebody else’s choices destroy your life.”
She stared.
It was the first time he had hinted at a past of his own.
“What happened?”
His expression closed.
“Another day.”
Dela almost objected.
Then remembered how many times he had allowed her silence.
“All right.”
Rufus tapped the ledger.
“We need Hannah Pierce.”
“The attorney.”
“Tomorrow.”
“You said Granite Falls is almost forty miles.”
“Yep.”
“In winter.”
“Yep.”
“With Warren’s men watching roads.”
“Yep.”
Dela sighed.
“You have a wider vocabulary when you’re discussing coffee.”
“Coffee matters.”
Despite everything, she smiled.
Then Bear began barking.
Rufus moved to the door.
Dela’s smile vanished.
Another rider?
No.
A horse came galloping riderless into the clearing.
Rufus stepped outside and caught its reins.
The saddle was familiar.
Dela recognized it.
Caleb Wicks’s horse.
One stirrup was broken.
The saddle carried streaks of snow and mud.
But Caleb was nowhere in sight.
Rufus looked toward the trail.
Dela joined him.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
Then they saw the paper tied to the saddle horn.
Rufus removed it.
One sentence had been written in Warren’s handwriting.
YOU SHOULD HAVE COME HOME WHEN I ASKED.
Dela looked toward the forest.
Caleb had delivered Warren’s threat that morning.
May you like
Now his horse had returned alone.
And for the first time Dela wondered whether Warren Marsh’s cruelty had finally become dangerous even to the men who served him.
