Chapter 2 - The Mark Beneath the Blanket
Eliza grabbed the fireplace poker before the stranger had both feet inside.
“Easy.”
The man raised his hands.
He was young, perhaps twenty-two, lean and dust-covered, with a torn blue shirt and blood dried near his temple.
Elijah’s broken waist chain hung from one fist.
Dr. Reed moved in front of Eliza.
“Who are you?”
“Caleb Vale.”
Eliza lowered the poker an inch.
“Vale?”
“Elijah’s brother.”
She looked at the chain.
“Where is he?”
Caleb’s expression answered before his mouth did.
“Alive.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“They took him toward Black Pine.”
Reed muttered, “Dear God.”
Eliza stared at him.
“What is at Black Pine?”
Neither man answered.
Her patience vanished.
“I have a newborn in my kitchen, a magistrate who wants her, a note suggesting something unspeakable, and the man who protected her has been dragged away. Somebody starts telling the truth now.”
Caleb looked at Reed.
“You tell her.”
Reed shook his head.
“You know more.”
“Not about Sarah.”
Eliza pointed toward the table.
“Sit.”
They did.
Caleb laid the chain down.
It had been severed cleanly near one link.
“How did you get that?”
“I found the deputies’ trail. Elijah got one cuff loose while they stopped near the creek.”
“He escaped?”
“For about two minutes.”
“What happened?”
“Fourth rider came from the trees.”
“Who?”
Caleb’s jaw tightened.
“Silas Boone.”
The assay owner.
The frightened man beside Pike.
Eliza remembered the look on his face when she bid.
“Boone helped capture him?”
Caleb nodded.
“With a rifle.”
“Was Elijah shot?”
“No.”
Eliza exhaled.
“But Boone said they weren’t taking him back to jail.”
“Where?”
“Black Pine mine.”
Dr. Reed stood abruptly.
“We’re out of time.”
Eliza looked at him.
“Then stop wasting it.”
Reed walked to the baby.
Hope shifted beneath the blanket.
The doctor carefully unwrapped the cloth.
Eliza saw tiny hands.
Tiny feet.
A pink face.
Then Reed turned the baby slightly.
Near her left shoulder, just below the collarbone, was a dark birthmark.
Roughly shaped like a crescent.
Reed went still.
Caleb whispered, “So it’s true.”
Eliza’s skin chilled.
“What is true?”
Reed rewrapped the baby.
“Harlan Pike has the same mark.”
Eliza stared at him.
“Birthmarks aren’t proof.”
“No.”
Reed looked toward the locket.
“But Sarah believed they were.”
Eliza sat slowly.
“Explain.”
Reed rubbed his forehead.
“Sarah Pike was twenty-four. Bright. Stubborn. She kept the books for her father’s land office.”
“Was she married?”
“No.”
“Then who was the father?”
Reed looked sick.
“I don’t know.”
“You just told me—”
“I told you Sarah believed Pike was responsible.”
Eliza understood the words.
Her mind rejected them.
“Harlan Pike?”
Reed said nothing.
Caleb looked away.
Eliza touched her stomach unconsciously.
“That cannot be what the note means.”
“I pray it isn’t.”
“Did Sarah ever tell you?”
“She came to me in February.”
“Pregnant?”
Reed nodded.
“She begged me not to put it in my records.”
“Why?”
“She said her father would kill the child before he allowed anyone to ask questions.”
Eliza thought of Pike at the courthouse.
Leave the child here.
The memory made her nauseous.
“What did you do?”
“I helped her.”
“How?”
“I told everyone she had gone to Denver to visit relatives. She stayed at a cabin beyond Black Pine.”
“Whose cabin?”
“Mine.”
Caleb leaned forward.
“And someone found her.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
Eliza opened the locket again.
“Why was Sarah traveling with the baby?”
“She must have fled after the birth.”
“Toward where?”
“Probably here.”
Eliza frowned.
“My ranch?”
Reed nodded.
“Sarah knew Thomas.”
“My husband?”
“He helped her once.”
Eliza stared at him.
“How?”
Reed hesitated too long.
“Eliza…”
“What did Thomas do?”
“He discovered something about Black Pine Mining.”
Caleb looked interested.
Eliza’s heart began beating harder.
“My husband died because a timber support failed.”
Reed looked at the table.
“You told me that support had been inspected the week before.”
“Yes.”
“By Silas Boone.”
The room fell silent.
Eliza remembered the funeral.
Boone had attended.
Pike had attended.
They had both told her what a tragedy it was.
She suddenly wanted to break something.
“What did Thomas discover?”
Reed said, “I only know he came to me frightened.”
“Thomas wasn’t frightened of anything.”
“He was that night.”
“When?”
“Three days before he died.”
Eliza stood.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“He made me promise.”
“He died.”
“I thought telling you would put you in danger.”
“And apparently silence worked wonderfully.”
Reed flinched.
She regretted the cruelty but not enough to apologize.
“What did he say?”
“He said Black Pine Mining was using false claims to seize ranches along the north valley.”
Eliza frowned.
“Why?”
“Silver.”
Caleb nodded slowly.
“There’s a deep vein running under the valley.”
Reed looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“Elijah and I worked Black Pine last winter.”
Eliza turned.
“You’re miners?”
“Sometimes.”
“What happened at the bridge?”
Caleb leaned back.
“The company had been hauling stolen ore after midnight.”
“Stolen from whom?”
“Small claim holders. Men who couldn’t prove it.”
“Thomas?”
“No. Ranchers.”
Eliza understood.
“If the vein runs under private ranches…”
“Then Pike needs the land.”
Her breath stopped.
The Mercer ranch lay directly north of town.
“How many ranches?”
Caleb began counting on his fingers.
“Dawson. Bell. Harper. Mercer.”
“Dawson lost his property over taxes.”
“False taxes.”
“Bell sold after his barn burned.”
Caleb nodded.
“Harper disappeared.”
Eliza felt cold.
“And Thomas died.”
Neither answered.
Her ranch was next.
The baby began crying.
Eliza lifted Hope.
The infant settled almost immediately against her.
Caleb watched.
“He likes you.”
“She.”
“Sorry.”
“What happened when Elijah found Sarah?”
Caleb’s face changed.
“I wasn’t there.”
“But you know something.”
“He came to me before dawn six days ago carrying the baby.”
“Where was Sarah?”
“Dead beside the overturned wagon.”
“Why didn’t he go to the sheriff?”
Caleb laughed without humor.
“Sheriff works for Pike.”
“So he came into town carrying evidence against the most powerful man in Cinder Gulch?”
“He came for Reed.”
The doctor looked ashamed.
“I wasn’t home.”
“Where were you?”
“Pike sent me to a ranch twenty miles south.”
Caleb nodded.
“We think deliberately.”
“What happened to Elijah?”
“Deputies saw him.”
“They arrested him for the bridge?”
“They arrested him because he had the baby.”
Reed sat heavily.
“Pike needed a legal reason to hold him.”
“So he invented one.”
Caleb shook his head.
“The bridge really was destroyed.”
Eliza looked at him.
“By whom?”
“Boone.”
“Why?”
“To stop Sarah.”
Eliza froze.
“What?”
Caleb drew a rough map in spilled flour on the table.
“Black Pine road crosses a narrow bridge here. Sarah was coming down from the cabin.”
“He destroyed the bridge while she was on it?”
“No. He damaged it before she reached it.”
“The wagon went through?”
“Not there.”
Caleb rubbed out the line.
“She turned around after seeing the bridge. Someone followed her through the pass. Her wagon went over the ridge.”
Eliza looked at Reed.
“So Elijah witnessed it.”
“Part of it,” Caleb said.
“What part?”
“The riders.”
“Who?”
“Boone.”
Caleb paused.
“And Pike.”
The house seemed suddenly very quiet.
Hope’s breathing sounded loud against Eliza’s chest.
“What did Elijah see?”
“He saw them return from the ridge without Sarah.”
Eliza sat down.
“Then Pike knows he witnessed it.”
“Yes.”
“And now they have him.”
“Yes.”
“What happens at Black Pine?”
Caleb looked toward the window.
“People disappear.”
Eliza felt anger replace fear.
“When can we reach him?”
Reed stared at her.
“We?”
“Yes.”
“You’re pregnant.”
“I continue being reminded.”
“You cannot ride into a mine controlled by Pike.”
“Then we don’t ride into it.”
Caleb smiled faintly.
Eliza looked at him.
“You know another way?”
“A ventilation tunnel.”
“How far?”
“Six miles.”
“Get the horses.”
Reed stood.
“No.”
Eliza faced him.
“Doctor, you have known for months that a pregnant woman feared her own father. You knew my husband discovered fraud. You knew Elijah was innocent. Every time you stayed silent, Pike gained another day.”
Reed’s face collapsed.
“You’re right.”
“I know.”
“I’ll come.”
“No.”
He blinked.
“You just—”
“Stay with Hope.”
Caleb pointed at her stomach.
“And you?”
“I’m coming.”
He almost argued.
Then decided against it.
Twenty minutes later Eliza changed into Thomas’s riding coat and tied a pistol belt over her dress.
She disliked guns.
Thomas had taught her anyway.
Caleb saddled two horses.
Before leaving, Reed handed her a small medical bag.
“For Elijah.”
Eliza looked at him.
“You think he’s hurt.”
“I think Pike wants something from him.”
“What?”
“The locket.”
Eliza touched her pocket.
Reed nodded.
“If they believe he still has it, they’ll keep him alive.”
“For how long?”
“Until they believe him when he says he doesn’t.”
They rode north.
Caleb kept them off the main trail.
Twice he stopped to listen.
By late afternoon they reached a narrow canyon behind Black Pine.
The mine entrance was invisible from the road.
Caleb led her to a gap in the rocks.
“We leave horses here.”
The tunnel smelled of damp earth and old timber.
Eliza followed him inside.
The passage narrowed.
She had to turn sideways in places.
Her pregnancy made every squeeze difficult.
“You all right?” Caleb whispered.
“Yes.”
“That means no.”
“It means keep moving.”
They crawled under a collapsed brace.
Voices echoed ahead.
Caleb extinguished the lantern.
They moved in darkness.
Then light appeared through wooden slats.
Caleb peered through.
Eliza moved beside him.
Below lay the main mine chamber.
Three lanterns burned.
Elijah sat tied to a chair.
His face was bruised.
Pike stood before him.
Boone held a rifle.
“You had the locket,” Pike said.
Elijah said nothing.
“Where is it?”
Silence.
Pike leaned closer.
“The woman won’t protect you.”
Elijah lifted his head.
“You don’t know her.”
Eliza nearly smiled despite herself.
Boone struck the chair with the rifle stock.
“Where is the silver?”
Elijah spat blood onto the floor.
“Lost.”
Pike looked toward a third man.
Sheriff Denton.
“Search Mercer’s ranch.”
Eliza’s stomach tightened.
Pike continued.
“Bring the infant back.”
Elijah surged against the ropes.
The chair nearly toppled.
Pike smiled.
“There he is.”
“Touch that child and I’ll—”
“You’ll do nothing.”
Pike walked closer.
“You should have left Sarah on the mountain.”
Elijah froze.
“You killed her.”
Pike’s expression did not change.
“She made a foolish choice.”
Eliza gripped the wooden slat so hard her fingers hurt.
Caleb leaned toward her.
We need to go.
She nodded.
Then Pike said something that stopped both of them.
“Sarah was never supposed to live long enough to name the father.”
Eliza slowly turned back.
Elijah stared at him.
Pike smiled.
“And neither is the baby.”
A sound came from behind Eliza.
A boot scraping stone.
She turned.
Sheriff Denton’s deputy stood at the tunnel entrance.
May you like
His pistol was pointed directly at her.
And he whispered, “Don’t move.”
