Chapter 6 - The Man Who Owned the Town
For one terrible minute Elias could not breathe.
The cabin looked wrong without them.
No crying.
No Clara moving near the stove.
No blankets drying beside the fire.
Silence had returned.
And now Elias hated it.
He forced himself to think.
No blood.
Good.
No sign of a long struggle.
Better.
One chair overturned.
Clara had fought.
The shotgun was gone from behind the pantry.
Interesting.
He checked outside.
Tracks.
Four horses.
Then another line.
Boot prints leading toward the ravine.
Elias crouched.
Someone had gone east.
Separate from the others.
He followed.
Twenty yards down the slope he found the shotgun beneath a pine.
Beside it—
a tiny pink mitten.
Then he saw Clara.
She stood behind a tree holding Ruth.
Rose was tucked inside Elias’s spare winter coat against her chest.
Clara looked furious.
“You took long enough.”
Elias stopped.
For several seconds he simply stared.
“You’re alive.”
“I noticed.”
He crossed the snow in three strides.
“What happened?”
“Three men came.”
“You escaped?”
“I lied.”
He blinked.
“What?”
“I told them you took me to Saint Mercy Mission.”
Elias stared.
“Why?”
“They believed me.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“They wanted to wait here.”
“So?”
“So I fired your shotgun through the ceiling.”
Elias looked back toward the cabin.
He hadn’t noticed the hole.
“They ran outside.”
“And?”
“I ran the opposite direction.”
For the first time in years Elias laughed.
Not a small laugh.
A real one.
Clara looked offended.
“You think this is amusing?”
“I think Gideon sent three armed men to capture one exhausted woman with two newborn babies.”
“And?”
“They failed.”
She fought a smile.
“I had motivation.”
Elias moved closer.
Then his humor disappeared.
He placed a hand behind Clara’s head and pulled her gently against his chest.
She froze.
So did he.
He hadn’t intended to do it.
But for a few seconds, neither moved.
“I thought they took you,” he whispered.
Clara’s eyes closed.
“You came back.”
“Of course I came back.”
“No.”
She pulled away enough to look at him.
“You don’t understand.”
“What?”
“People don’t come back for me.”
Elias wanted to say something.
Nothing sounded right.
So he took Rose from her arms.
“Come inside.”
That night he showed Clara the ledger.
They sat close beside the fire.
Clara turned pages carefully.
“I know these names.”
“Most of Red Hollow probably does.”
She pointed.
“Judge Wade.”
“Yes.”
“Pike.”
“Yes.”
Then Clara stopped.
Her finger rested on another entry.
“What?”
Elias asked.
She looked up.
“This payment.”
“What about it?”
“Date.”
Elias examined the page.
Three days before Thomas died.
The recipient:
D. Morrow — $600.
Clara went pale.
“Daniel Morrow drove the freight wagon the night Thomas died.”
Elias looked at her.
“You’re sure?”
“He told me Thomas’s body was found at Blackstone Ridge.”
Elias understood.
“If Gideon paid Morrow three days earlier…”
“He knew something was going to happen.”
Silence.
Then Clara saw the photograph.
“Samuel.”
“You know him?”
“Thomas trusted him.”
“Thomas wrote that he’s alive.”
Clara’s hands trembled.
“Samuel died.”
“Apparently not.”
“Where would he go?”
Elias turned the photograph.
There was another mark near the bottom.
A symbol.
A circle with three lines.
Clara squinted.
“I’ve seen that.”
“Where?”
“Thomas drew it on a map once.”
“What map?”
“He burned it.”
Elias leaned forward.
“What did it mean?”
Clara closed her eyes, trying to remember.
Then she opened them.
“Silver Creek.”
Elias knew it.
An abandoned mining settlement two days south.
“Crowe could be there.”
“If Gideon hasn’t found him.”
“Then we find him first.”
Clara looked at the twins.
“Together?”
Elias followed her gaze.
Traveling through winter with two newborns was madness.
Leaving Clara behind was worse.
“We wait until weather clears.”
“And then?”
“Silver Creek.”
For several days they prepared.
Clara mended blankets.
Elias packed food.
He modified the sled so the twins could ride protected inside a wooden box insulated with wool.
During those days, something shifted between them.
Not dramatically.
Small things.
Clara leaving coffee beside Elias before he asked.
Elias warming her boots near the fire.
Her laughter when Rose sneezed milk onto his beard.
His expression when Clara sang softly to the girls.
Neither named it.
Naming things made them real.
And real things could be lost.
On the night before departure, Clara asked, “Why didn’t you ever marry after your fiancée left?”
Elias stared at the fire.
“Didn’t see the point.”
“Because she hurt you?”
“Because I discovered I was easier to live with alone.”
Clara smiled.
“That is absolutely not true.”
“You’ve known me twelve days.”
“Longest twelve days of my life.”
Elias looked at her.
Their eyes held.
The room became quieter.
Clara’s smile disappeared.
Not from fear.
Something else.
Elias leaned slightly toward her.
Then Ruth screamed.
Both jumped.
Clara burst out laughing.
“Saved by the baby.”
“From what?”
She raised an eyebrow.
“You tell me.”
Elias picked Ruth up.
“I have no idea what you mean.”
“Coward.”
“Alive coward.”
“Barely.”
Before he could answer, a sound came from outside.
A bell.
One ring.
Then silence.
Elias’s smile vanished.
Clara stood.
“What was that?”
He moved toward the door.
Another single ring echoed from the valley.
The broken bell at Saint Mercy Mission.
Someone was there.
May you like
And they wanted Elias to know it.
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