Chapter 12 - Fire in the Mountain Night
Snow began before they reached the northern trail.
Elias rode ahead.
Clara refused to remain behind.
Samuel followed with two men from Red Hollow.
Silver Creek appeared shortly after midnight.
The house where Rose and Ruth had been staying was empty.
Clara ran inside.
“Rose!”
“Ruth!”
No answer.
Elias checked the floor.
Furniture disturbed.
But no blood.
“Tracks.”
They followed.
Toward Vance Mountain.
Gideon wasn’t running.
He was forcing them to come to him.
By dawn they saw smoke.
Elias’s cabin.
Burning.
Clara stopped breathing.
“No.”
Flames climbed from the roof.
“Girls!”
She ran forward.
Elias caught her.
“Wait.”
“They’re inside!”
“You don’t know that.”
“I can hear—”
A baby cried.
Clara tore free.
Elias followed.
Inside the cabin, heat filled the front room.
The fire had begun near the pantry but had not yet consumed the rear.
Elias heard crying.
He kicked open the bedroom door.
An elderly woman from Silver Creek lay tied to a chair.
Beside her—
Rose and Ruth.
Alive.
Clara grabbed them.
Elias freed the woman.
“Where’s your husband?”
“They took him.”
“Who?”
“Rusk.”
They escaped seconds before part of the roof collapsed.
Clara stood in the snow clutching both babies.
Elias stared at his home burning.
Everything he owned.
Years of work.
Gone.
Clara approached.
“I’m sorry.”
He shook his head.
“They’re alive.”
“That was your home.”
Elias looked at Rose.
Then Ruth.
Then Clara.
“No.”
She frowned.
“What?”
He touched Rose’s blanket.
“This is.”
Clara began crying.
Elias pulled all three against him.
Behind them Samuel smiled despite the smoke.
Then gunfire echoed from the ridge.
A single shot.
The elderly woman shouted.
“My husband!”
Elias looked up.
Gideon stood among the trees with three men.
An older man knelt beside them.
The woman’s husband.
Gideon called down.
“Bring the ledger!”
Elias moved forward.
Clara stopped him.
“He’ll kill you.”
“Maybe.”
“No.”
Gideon shouted again.
“Ledger for the old man.”
Samuel whispered, “He doesn’t know we copied it.”
Elias understood.
Clara did too.
She handed the twins to Samuel.
“What are you doing?”
Elias asked.
“Ending this.”
“Clara.”
She walked into the clearing.
Gideon laughed.
“Still alive.”
“Yes.”
“You have become inconvenient.”
“So have the truth.”
“Give me the ledger.”
Clara held it up.
Original.
Elias stared.
She had taken it from Samuel.
“You want this?”
Gideon’s eyes locked on the book.
“Bring it.”
Clara walked halfway.
Then stopped near the burning cabin.
“Release him.”
Gideon pushed the old man forward.
He stumbled down the slope.
One of Red Hollow’s men pulled him to safety.
Gideon extended his hand.
“Now the ledger.”
Clara looked at him.
Then tossed it into the fire.
Everyone froze.
Gideon screamed.
“No!”
He lunged forward.
Clara stepped back.
The ledger disappeared into flame.
Gideon’s face twisted.
“You stupid woman!”
Clara smiled.
“We made copies.”
Silence.
His expression collapsed.
“Copies?”
“Dozens.”
Behind Clara, Samuel raised a stack.
“So did the newspaper.”
Gideon stared.
“And the judge gets one.”
Elias stepped beside Clara.
Gideon’s men looked uncertain.
One lowered his weapon.
Gideon shouted, “Pick it up!”
The man shook his head.
“You said we were recovering stolen property.”
“You are!”
“No.”
He looked at Clara.
“This doesn’t look like that.”
Another man lowered his weapon.
Then another.
Gideon stood alone.
For perhaps the first time in his adult life, nobody obeyed.
His eyes moved toward the horses.
Elias saw it.
“Don’t.”
Gideon ran.
He mounted.
Rode south.
Toward Fort Bridger.
Clara looked at Elias.
“Let him go?”
“No.”
“When do we leave?”
Elias looked at the burning cabin.
Then at her.
“Now.”
They left Samuel with the twins.
Clara kissed Rose and Ruth.
“I’ll come back.”
Then she mounted beside Elias.
Two riders.
One road.
Ahead of them was a man who had controlled Red Hollow for twenty years.
Behind them burned the home where Clara’s new life had begun.
And somewhere beyond the mountains waited the judge who could determine whether Gideon Rusk returned as a free man—
May you like
or never ruled anyone again.
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