Chapter 2 - Three Breaths Beside the Fire
Elias did not answer the door immediately.
That alone made the men outside nervous.
People in Blackridge knew enough about Elias Vance to understand silence from his cabin was rarely accidental.
Another knock struck the wood.
“Vance!”
Elias walked calmly toward the window.
Three riders.
Caleb Mercer was not among them.
Elias recognized the oldest: Gideon Shaw, overseer for the Mercer ranch.
A broad man with a drooping gray mustache, expensive boots, and the permanent expression of someone who believed other people existed to make his life convenient.
Two younger riders waited behind him.
Elias glanced at Clara.
Her entire body had gone rigid.
“Stay there,” he said.
“They’ll take them.”
“No.”
“You don’t know them.”
Elias looked at her.
“No. They don’t know me.”
He opened the door.
Cold rushed inside.
Gideon Shaw attempted to look past him.
Elias filled the doorway.
“Morning.”
Shaw frowned. “We’re searching for a woman.”
“Plenty of those in town.”
“Clara Mercer.”
Elias’s gaze did not change.
“What about her?”
“She’s missing.”
“Sounds careless.”
One of the younger men shifted on his horse, fighting a smile.
Shaw did not appreciate it.
“She ran away from the Mercer place after committing a serious offense.”
Behind Elias, one of the babies cried.
All three riders heard it.
Shaw’s eyes sharpened.
“There.”
Elias remained still.
“Baby goat.”
“Goat?”
“It’s a talented animal.”
Shaw stepped forward.
“We know she gave birth two nights before she disappeared.”
“Then your mathematics need work. She’s been missing at least four days.”
Shaw blinked.
Elias smiled without warmth.
“If you're going to lie at my door, Gideon, organize the details first.”
Shaw’s expression hardened.
“Those children belong to Caleb Mercer.”
From behind Elias came a weak voice.
“No.”
Clara.
Elias closed his eyes briefly.
So much for keeping her hidden.
She stood several feet behind him, wrapped in one of his wool blankets.
Her face was pale.
Her body trembled.
But she was upright.
Gideon smiled.
“Well.”
Clara’s hand went protectively across her stomach though the babies were behind her.
“Tell Caleb he will never touch them.”
Shaw removed his hat.
“You’re confused.”
“I am not.”
“You embarrassed your husband.”
“I gave birth.”
“You failed your duty.”
Elias’s jaw tightened.
Shaw continued.
“Caleb only wants this settled quietly.”
Clara laughed once.
It held no humor.
“Quietly? He had me dragged through Blackridge.”
Elias turned his head.
She had not told him that.
Her eyes stayed on Shaw.
“He let people watch.”
Shaw shifted.
“That’s enough.”
“No. He said daughters were useless. He said I had shamed his name. Then he ordered me taken outside town.”
Elias’s eyes moved to Shaw.
The overseer looked suddenly less comfortable.
“Her condition is affecting her memory.”
Elias stepped onto the porch.
Snow creaked under his boots.
“No.”
Shaw glanced at him. “No what?”
“No one enters my cabin.”
“We have authority.”
“From whom?”
“Caleb Mercer.”
“That’s a man. Not authority.”
“The sheriff will disagree.”
“Then send him.”
Shaw lowered his voice.
“You want to think carefully, Vance.”
“I did. That’s why you’re still standing there instead of sliding downhill.”
Silence.
The two younger riders exchanged looks.
Everyone in Blackridge knew pieces of Elias’s past.
Nobody knew all of it.
That uncertainty had protected him better than any fence.
Shaw put on his hat.
“We’ll return.”
Elias nodded.
“I assumed you weren’t smart enough to learn the first time.”
Shaw mounted his horse.
Before turning away, he looked at Clara.
“Caleb says the girls are Mercers.”
Clara’s face changed.
Not fear.
Fury.
“They are mine.”
The riders left.
Elias watched until the trees swallowed them.
Then he closed the door.
Clara nearly collapsed.
He caught her before she reached the floor.
“You shouldn’t be standing.”
“I couldn’t let you speak for me without knowing what happened.”
“Fair.”
He helped her toward the bed.
Once she was settled, he poured water.
She drank slowly.
Elias waited.
Eventually she said, “Caleb Mercer is my husband.”
“I gathered that.”
“His family owns half of Blackridge Valley.”
“Closer to a third.”
She almost smiled.
“You keep track?”
“I dislike exaggeration.”
Clara looked toward the fire.
“I married him three years ago.”
“Why?”
“Because he seemed kind.”
Elias said nothing.
“He wasn’t like his father. Or I thought he wasn’t. He talked about changing the ranch. Building a school. Hiring families instead of drifters. He listened when I spoke.”
“What changed?”
“Nothing.”
Elias frowned.
Clara looked at him.
“That was the problem. Nothing changed. I simply stopped seeing what I wanted to see.”
She told him slowly.
Her first pregnancy ended early.
The Mercer family blamed her.
The second did too.
Caleb became colder.
His mother, Beatrice Mercer, began inviting physicians, preachers, and women with old remedies into the house without Clara’s permission.
When Clara became pregnant a third time, everyone expected a son.
Then the doctor heard two heartbeats.
Caleb became obsessed.
“Two sons,” he kept saying.
Two heirs.
Two Mercers.
Clara remembered telling him they might be daughters.
He refused to discuss it.
Then the twins were born.
Anna first.
Rose eleven minutes later.
Elias looked toward the crate.
“They have names?”
Clara’s expression softened.
“I named them while Caleb was downstairs.”
“Anna and Rose.”
“Yes.”
“When he came into the room and saw them, he didn’t touch either one.”
Clara looked at her hands.
“He stared at me like I had committed a crime.”
Elias’s voice was quiet.
“What happened next?”
“He drank.”
She hesitated.
“He shouted. His mother told everyone the Mercer name had been humiliated.”
Elias’s expression grew harder.
“By babies?”
“By girls.”
“Idiots.”
This time Clara actually smiled.
Only for a second.
“The next morning Caleb gathered workers and townspeople in the yard.”
Elias understood before she finished.
“He accused me of betrayal.”
“You cannot betray someone by giving birth to daughters.”
“I know.”
“Does he?”
“He didn’t care.”
Caleb had turned superstition into judgment.
Rumors into accusations.
He claimed Clara had cursed the Mercer line.
That she had deceived him.
That the children might not even be his.
Everyone knew that was absurd.
But Caleb did not need truth.
He needed witnesses.
“And afterward?” Elias asked.
“They took us north.”
“Who?”
“Shaw. Two ranch hands.”
“They abandoned you?”
Clara closed her eyes.
“Caleb told them not to kill me.”
Elias leaned forward.
“He specifically said that?”
“Yes.”
“But he sent you into a blizzard?”
“He said God could decide.”
Something dangerous became still inside Elias.
He had known men like Caleb Mercer.
Men who outsourced cruelty so they could keep their own hands clean.
Cowards with vocabulary.
“What do you want?” Elias asked.
Clara opened her eyes.
“To leave.”
“Where?”
“Anywhere.”
“With two newborns in winter?”
“I’ll find work.”
“You can barely walk.”
“I’ll heal.”
“Probably.”
She frowned at him.
“Then why are you arguing?”
“Because Blackridge Pass is closed. The southern trail won’t open until spring. You have no horse, money, food, or winter clothing.”
Clara looked away.
Elias continued.
“And Mercer’s men will watch the roads.”
“What are you saying?”
“That for now you stay.”
She stared at him.
He nodded toward the babies.
“They stay.”
Her eyes filled again.
“I can’t pay you.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“I don’t want charity.”
“Good. I’m terrible at it.”
That earned another faint smile.
Elias rose.
“There’s work here when you’re stronger.”
“What kind?”
“Whatever needs doing.”
“That sounds suspiciously vague.”
“I haven’t had three houseguests before.”
“Three?”
He looked at the crate.
“They count.”
That evening Clara ate an entire bowl of stew.
It was the first full meal she had kept down.
Elias pretended not to notice how quickly she finished.
That night, Anna cried.
Then Rose joined her.
Clara tried rising.
Elias blocked her.
“You need rest.”
“They need me.”
“They also need you alive.”
He lifted Anna awkwardly.
Clara covered a laugh with her hand.
“What?”
“You’re holding her like a sack of flour.”
“I understand flour.”
“Support her head.”
“I am supporting it.”
“Not like that.”
For the next hour, Clara instructed the most feared solitary man in Blackridge County on how to hold a five-pound infant.
By the end, Anna slept against Elias’s chest.
Rose rested beside her mother.
Clara watched him.
“You’re good with her.”
“No.”
“She disagrees.”
Elias looked down at Anna.
The baby’s tiny hand had caught in his beard.
“She has questionable instincts.”
Clara smiled.
Something shifted in the cabin.
Small.
Almost invisible.
But real.
Three breaths had become four.
Then a fifth.
For the first time in years, Elias did not feel like the fire was keeping an empty house warm.
The feeling frightened him enough that he almost welcomed the knock that came the next morning.
Almost.
This time, it was not Shaw.
Sheriff Abram Cole stood outside.
And beside him was Caleb Mercer.
Clara saw her husband through the window.
Her face turned white.
Caleb looked up at the cabin.
Then directly at Elias.
May you like
And smiled.
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