Chapter 8 - What Rufus Refused to Surrender
They found Caleb Wicks before sunset.
Alive.
Barely conscious.
He had been thrown from his horse near an icy bend two miles below the cabin and struck his head against a fallen tree.
The threatening note, however, made no sense.
Caleb swore he had never seen it.
“I rode away from here,” he said weakly as Rufus helped him onto a makeshift sled. “Horse spooked. That’s all.”
“Who knew your route?” Dela asked.
Caleb’s eyes shifted.
“Warren.”
“Anyone else?”
Silence.
Rufus pulled the sled.
They brought Caleb to the cabin.
Dela cleaned the cut near his temple despite every instinct telling her not to trust him.
Caleb watched her.
“Why help me?”
“Because I’m not Warren.”
The answer silenced him.
He slept near the stove.
Rufus and Dela spoke quietly beside the table.
“You believe him?” Dela asked.
“About the fall?”
“Yes.”
“Mostly.”
“The note?”
“No idea.”
“Could Warren have sent someone behind him?”
“Maybe.”
“Why?”
Rufus looked toward Caleb.
“To make you think Warren hurt his own man.”
“He would.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Dela understood.
Was Warren escalating?
Or was someone trying to frighten both sides?
At midnight Caleb woke confused.
He asked for water.
Dela gave it.
Then he caught her wrist.
She froze.
Rufus was across the room instantly.
“Let go.”
Caleb obeyed.
Dela pulled away.
“Sorry,” Caleb muttered.
Rufus remained beside her.
Not touching.
Waiting.
Dela breathed until the old panic passed.
Caleb watched.
Something like shame appeared.
“He really did that to you?”
Dela stared at him.
“You worked for him.”
“I collected debts.”
“You came to drag me home.”
“I came to persuade you.”
“With threats.”
Caleb looked away.
“Warren said you were unstable.”
“And you believed him?”
“I believed the man paying me.”
Rufus spoke from behind Dela.
“That simpler?”
Caleb’s jaw tightened.
“No.”
By morning his condition had improved.
Rufus wanted him examined by Dr. Bell.
Caleb refused.
“I need to get back.”
“To Warren?” Dela asked.
“Maybe not.”
Something had changed in him.
Fear.
“You think he wrote the note?”
Caleb stared toward the fire.
“I’ve known Warren Marsh eleven years.”
“That doesn’t answer.”
“No.”
He touched the bandage near his temple.
“But I’ve seen what happens when he decides a man knows too much.”
Dela’s stomach tightened.
“What do you know?”
Caleb looked at the ledger resting nowhere visible but clearly present in everyone’s thoughts.
“Enough.”
Before leaving, he gave Dela information.
Warren planned to arrive in Timber Crossing within ten days.
He had already contacted a territorial judge.
He intended to petition for Dela’s guardianship and accuse Rufus of kidnapping.
Rufus laughed when he heard that.
Caleb did not.
“They could arrest you.”
“Let them try.”
“Don’t be stupid.”
Rufus raised an eyebrow.
Caleb looked at Dela.
“Get yourself a lawyer before Warren gets here.”
“We’re going to Granite Falls.”
“Then don’t use the main road.”
“Why?”
“Because Warren hired two Pinkerton men.”
Dela went pale.
Rufus’s expression sharpened.
“Private agents?”
Caleb nodded.
“To find the ledger.”
“Do they know she has it?”
“They know something is missing.”
He mounted slowly.
Dela stepped closer.
“Caleb.”
He looked down.
“Why are you telling us?”
His answer surprised her.
“Because when I woke on your floor, you were putting a wet cloth on my head.”
He swallowed.
“Warren would have left me in the snow if I became inconvenient.”
Then he rode away.
The next morning Rufus prepared supplies for Granite Falls.
They would travel west through an old trapping trail, avoiding the main road.
Dela watched him pack.
“You don’t have to come.”
Rufus did not look up.
“Yes, I do.”
“No.”
He stopped.
Dela continued.
“This ledger puts you in danger.”
“Already in danger.”
“You could give me a horse.”
“You know the trail?”
“No.”
“Then you’ll freeze before noon.”
“I can learn.”
“Not fast enough.”
She glared.
“You always have an answer.”
“Usually.”
“Rufus.”
He looked at her.
Dela’s anger dissolved into fear.
“I don’t want Warren destroying your life too.”
Something passed through Rufus’s expression.
“He can’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because it already happened once.”
The cabin became silent.
Dela remembered his unfinished confession.
“Who?”
Rufus stared at the straps he was tightening.
“My brother.”
She waited.
“Thomas Conn.”
“What happened?”
“Railroad company wanted land our family owned in Wyoming.”
Dela sat.
“They offered money. My father refused.”
“What did they do?”
“Found a judge who declared the title invalid.”
Her eyes moved toward Warren’s ledger.
Rufus noticed.
“Same kind of thing.”
“What happened to your family?”
“My father fought it. Lost everything.”
“And Thomas?”
Rufus’s face hardened.
“He trusted the wrong men.”
Dela waited.
“Company agents accused him of sabotage after equipment was damaged.”
“Was he guilty?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“Jail.”
Rufus looked toward the window.
“Never came out.”
Dela felt the weight beneath his words.
“I’m sorry.”
“Long time ago.”
“That doesn’t mean it stopped hurting.”
He glanced at her.
The observation seemed to surprise him.
Dela continued softly.
“So you came here.”
“Eventually.”
“To get away.”
“Far enough.”
The phrase echoed the coach driver.
Far enough.
Maybe everyone on this mountain had come here believing distance could erase something.
Dela stood.
“This is why you’re helping me.”
“Partly.”
“What’s the rest?”
Rufus held her gaze.
For the first time, something neither of them had named filled the space between them.
Care.
Not obligation.
Not pity.
Something warmer.
More dangerous.
Rufus looked away first.
“We leave before sunrise.”
The journey began under stars.
Dela rode the mare.
Rufus led them along a trail barely visible beneath snow.
Bear followed.
For hours there was nothing but white mountains and dark trees.
At midday they entered a narrow pass.
Rufus stopped.
“What?”
He lifted a hand.
Listen.
Dela heard it.
Hoofbeats.
Behind them.
More than one horse.
Rufus turned.
Two riders emerged between the trees.
Dark coats.
City saddles.
One called out.
“Rufus Conn?”
Rufus did not answer.
The man continued.
“We have business with Mrs. Marsh.”
Dela’s blood froze.
Pinkertons.
The second man opened his coat.
A revolver sat at his hip.
Rufus quietly moved his horse between them and Dela.
The first agent smiled.
“No need for trouble.”
Rufus’s voice was cold.
“Then turn around.”
“We’re taking Mrs. Marsh back to Butte.”
Dela forced herself forward.
“No, you aren’t.”
The men looked at her.
The first produced papers.
“Your husband has authorized us.”
“My husband doesn’t own me.”
“He claims you stole property.”
Rufus glanced at Dela.
She understood.
The ledger.
The agent continued.
“Hand over what belongs to Mr. Marsh, and perhaps we all go home.”
Dela looked at the steep drop beside the trail.
Then at Rufus.
Then at the two men.
She realized Warren’s strategy.
He did not need the law to take her.
He needed men willing to pretend they were the law.
Dela pulled Warren’s ledger from beneath her coat.
Both agents focused instantly.
Rufus hissed, “Dela.”
She held it over the ravine.
“Take one step,” she said, “and Warren’s secrets spend spring at the bottom of that gorge.”
The men froze.
May you like
For the first time in her life, Dela Marsh watched powerful men become afraid of something she held.
And she understood exactly why Warren wanted it back.
