Chapter 5 - The Road to Helena
Martha recognized him a heartbeat before the gun fired.
Deputy Samuel Reed tackled Mercer sideways.
The bullet tore through the porch post.
Martha dropped behind the railing.
Nathan's deputy fired once.
The stranger ran toward the barn.
"Stay down!" Reed shouted.
Naturally, Martha did not.
She grabbed the iron shovel beside the door and followed.
The gunman reached for a saddled horse.
Martha swung.
The shovel struck his forearm.
His revolver fell.
Reed tackled him into the mud.
The man cursed as handcuffs closed around his wrists.
Martha looked down.
She knew him from the railroad camp.
His name was Everett Crane.
A surveyor.
Nathan arrived twenty minutes later.
Crane refused to speak.
But inside his coat they found a railway map.
Colton's ranch was circled.
So was Martha's restored acreage.
Two properties.
Together they controlled both sides of the proposed station.
That changed everything.
Caleb Weller had not merely wanted Colton's ranch.
He needed Martha's land too.
And if forged papers could portray Martha as complicit in old fraud, Weller could challenge her claim.
Perhaps imprison her.
Perhaps remove her entirely.
Colton was furious when he learned someone had fired at her.
Martha found this oddly satisfying.
"You shouldn't be riding to Montana," he said.
"Neither should you."
"I'm recovering."
"So am I."
"You weren't sick."
"I was shot at."
"Exactly."
She crossed her arms.
"Are you suggesting getting shot at makes me less qualified to travel?"
Colton stared.
Nathan covered his mouth.
Pierce suddenly became interested in paperwork.
Colton sighed.
"No."
"Good."
They left the next morning.
Colton and Martha rode north with Nathan and two deputies.
The journey took days.
At night they camped beneath open sky.
For the first time since his illness, Colton and Martha had stretches of quiet in which neither was saving the other's life.
That proved more difficult than expected.
On the third evening, they sat near the fire while Nathan slept.
Colton handed Martha coffee.
She took it.
"You're watching me."
"I am."
"Why?"
"Trying to understand something."
"That sounds dangerous."
He smiled.
"Why does everyone in Red Hollow treat you like you're invisible?"
Martha stared into the fire.
"That's not difficult."
"It is to me."
She gave him a look.
"Colton."
"What?"
"I weigh more than women are supposed to."
"Says who?"
"Everyone."
"I never voted on it."
She laughed before she could stop herself.
He watched her.
"That's the first time I've heard you laugh."
"You were unconscious for most of our acquaintance."
"Fair."
She drank coffee.
Colton continued.
"My mother liked you."
Martha looked up.
"She did?"
"She used to say Martha Bell was the only woman in town who could make Mrs. Talbot stop talking with one look."
"That may be the nicest compliment I've ever received."
"She also said you were brave."
Martha's smile faded.
"Your mother barely knew me."
"Maybe she noticed more than people think."
The words settled between them.
Martha had spent years telling herself being overlooked didn't hurt.
You could survive almost anything if you pretended not to want what you were denied.
Invitations.
Admiration.
Romance.
A man's eyes lingering because he found you beautiful rather than because he wondered how much flour you consumed.
Colton looked at her differently.
She didn't trust it yet.
Maybe illness had softened his mind.
Maybe gratitude resembled affection in low firelight.
"You're staring again," she said.
"So are you."
"I was checking whether your fever returned."
"Did it?"
"Possibly."
He smiled.
On the fifth day they reached Helena.
Saint Luke's Mission stood beside a small chapel.
An elderly nun answered.
Nathan asked for Matthew Gray.
She studied them carefully.
"No one here by that name."
Martha took out her mother's final Christmas card.
The nun's face changed.
"Wait."
Twenty minutes later an old man entered.
He was thin, white-haired, and walked with a cane.
He looked at Martha.
Tears filled his eyes.
"Thomas Bell's girl."
Martha couldn't speak.
Elias Boone had survived.
He held both her hands.
"Your father saved my life."
For two hours Boone told them everything.
Judge Amos Weller began falsifying deeds after the drought of 1874.
He targeted struggling ranchers.
Silas Mercer financed purchases, initially pretending ignorance.
Later he joined willingly.
Boone discovered altered county books.
Colton's father helped copy them.
Thomas Bell transported Boone out of Red Hollow when Weller ordered Rusk's older brother to kill him.
"Why didn't you return?" Martha asked.
"I was a coward."
"No."
"I was."
Boone's eyes filled.
"I told myself I was protecting everyone. Really, I was afraid."
Martha thought of Doctor Pierce.
Fear had governed Red Hollow for years.
Different forms.
Fear of disease.
Fear of powerful men.
Fear of embarrassment.
Fear of being noticed.
Boone stood.
"But I kept the originals."
He opened a locked cabinet.
Inside were county seals, deeds, ledgers, affidavits.
Nathan stared.
"This can end it."
"Yes."
A voice came from behind them.
"Not if it burns."
Anna Hayes stood in the doorway.
Martha froze.
Anna held a lantern.
Beside her stood Weller's attorney, Charles Vane.
Vane had a revolver.
Colton stepped forward.
"Anna."
She looked at him.
Her face was wet with tears.
"I'm sorry."
"Again?"
"I didn't have a choice."
Vane smiled.
"Everybody has choices."
Colton's eyes hardened.
"What does he have on you?"
Anna's face crumpled.
"My husband."
"What?"
"Robert borrowed from Weller. Gambling. He forged signatures at the bank."
Colton went still.
"Weller threatened prison."
"And so you helped him?"
"He said he'd destroy the evidence if I brought him Boone."
Martha looked at Vane.
"He lied."
Anna whispered, "I know."
Vane raised the revolver.
"Enough."
Nathan slowly lifted his hands.
"Don't be stupid."
"I've spent twenty years cleaning up Weller's mistakes. I'm tired."
Vane ordered them against the wall.
Then he told Anna to pour lamp oil over Boone's records.
She picked up the can.
Her hands shook.
"Anna," Colton said.
"Don't."
"Look at me."
She did.
"You drugged me because you thought you were protecting me."
Tears ran down her face.
"You came here because you're protecting Robert."
"Yes."
"When do you protect yourself?"
Anna stopped.
Vane snapped, "Pour it."
She looked at him.
Then tipped the can.
Oil splashed.
Not across the records.
Across Vane's boots.
He stared down.
That was enough.
Nathan moved.
Colton moved.
Martha moved.
Vane fired.
The shot shattered a window.
Martha slammed the cabinet door into his wrist.
Colton tackled him.
Nathan seized the gun.
Within seconds Vane was face-down on the floor.
Anna collapsed crying.
Colton knelt beside her.
For a moment Martha watched from across the room.
Families were complicated.
So was forgiveness.
Boone agreed to return to Red Hollow.
They left two mornings later.
Halfway home, a telegraph messenger found them at a station.
Nathan read the message.
His expression became grim.
"What?"
Colton asked.
Nathan handed it over.
Caleb Weller had escaped jail.
Martha felt the air leave her lungs.
"How?"
"Guard attacked."
"Where did Weller go?"
Nathan turned the telegram over.
Nothing else.
They rode hard.
When they reached Red Hollow two days later, the town seemed normal.
Too normal.
Nathan went directly to the jail.
Colton and Martha rode toward his ranch.
Smoke appeared beyond the hill.
Colton kicked his horse into a run.
The barn was burning.
Neighbors formed a bucket line.
This time they had come.
Mrs. Talbot carried water.
Reverend Cooper dragged hay away from the flames.
The same frightened people who had abandoned Colton now fought to save his property.
Martha dismounted.
"Where's Pierce?"
Someone pointed toward the cabin.
She ran inside.
The doctor was on the floor.
Alive.
Bleeding.
"Weller," he gasped.
Colton knelt.
"Where?"
Pierce pointed toward the bedroom.
"The records..."
Martha froze.
She had hidden Boone's copied documents in the flour bin before traveling.
She ran to the kitchen.
Empty.
The bin had been overturned.
The documents were gone.
Then Colton shouted from the bedroom.
"Martha!"
She ran.
Across the wall, written in charcoal, were six words:
YOUR LAND OR THE RECORDS BURN TONIGHT.
Below it:
COME ALONE TO THE BELL FARM.
Martha stared.
Colton grabbed her shoulder.
"No."
She turned.
"He's asking for me."
"Which means you're not going."
"Which means I have to."
"Martha."
She looked at him.
"If those records burn, dozens of families lose everything."
"I don't care."
She froze.
Colton's voice broke.
"I care about you."
Neither of them moved.
Then a church bell rang in the distance.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Nathan appeared in the doorway, breathless.
"There's someone at the Bell farm."
"Who?"
Nathan looked at Martha.
"We don't know."
May you like
Then a fourth bell sounded.
And from beyond the dark fields, flames suddenly rose where Martha's childhood home stood.
