Chapter 4 - The Man Riding Toward Reed Hollow
For eleven years Maggie had imagined what she would do if Rebecca walked through a door.
She had imagined screaming.
Crying.
Hitting her.
Holding her.
Demanding explanations.
She did none of those things.
She simply stared.
Rebecca looked older than thirty.
Hard living had carved lines around her mouth and eyes.
A pale scar crossed one temple.
Her coat was patched at both elbows.
But the smile was the same.
Crooked on one side.
Their mother’s smile.
Rebecca whispered, “I didn’t know if you’d recognize me.”
Maggie slapped her.
The sound stunned the children.
Rebecca touched her cheek.
Maggie immediately grabbed her and pulled her into an embrace.
Both women started crying.
“You’re alive.”
“I know.”
“You’re alive.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I know.”
“You wrote me letters.”
“I know.”
“You didn’t send them.”
“I know.”
Maggie pulled back.
She wanted to strike her again.
Instead she grabbed Rebecca’s face between her hands.
“You idiot.”
Rebecca laughed through tears.
“That sounds more like you.”
Lily stood several feet away.
The room changed when Rebecca looked at her.
Everything else disappeared.
Rebecca sank slowly to her knees.
“Hello, Lily.”
Lily tightened her grip on the bear.
“Who are you?”
Rebecca couldn’t answer.
Maggie did.
“She’s your mother.”
Lily stared.
Children did not react the way adults expected.
There was no dramatic rush into Rebecca’s arms.
No instant recognition.
Lily stepped behind Eli.
Rebecca’s face broke.
“That’s all right.”
Lily peeked out.
“I thought you were dead.”
“So did I sometimes.”
“Papa said you were dead.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“Caleb thought I was.”
“Why didn’t you come back?”
That was the question nobody could soften.
Rebecca sat on the floor.
“Because a bad man was looking for me.”
“My father?”
Rebecca looked at Maggie.
Then back at Lily.
“Yes.”
Lily frowned.
“Papa is my father.”
Rebecca began crying again.
“Yes,” she whispered. “He is.”
Maggie let that settle.
Then she asked what mattered next.
“Why now?”
Rebecca’s expression changed.
“Because Everett knows I’m alive.”
Maggie’s stomach dropped.
“How?”
“I don’t know. Someone saw me in Wyoming.”
“Where have you been?”
“Everywhere.”
“Why stay away so long?”
Rebecca stood.
“Because the first two years after I disappeared, Everett hunted me. Every town I entered, somebody asked questions. Every letter I tried to send disappeared.”
Maggie stared.
“You tried to write?”
Rebecca nodded.
“Once to you. Twice to Eleanor. All three times, Everett appeared within weeks.”
“So you vanished completely.”
“Yes.”
“And left Lily.”
“With the only people I trusted.”
Maggie understood the cruelty of that choice.
Rebecca had lost her child to save her child.
Still, anger remained.
“You could have come back after Everett stopped.”
“He never stopped.”
“You said he did.”
“I said he stopped chasing me openly.”
Rebecca removed a folded newspaper clipping.
Everett Shaw had spent years buying land across three territories.
“He discovered what Eleanor left Lily.”
“The ranch.”
“Half of it.”
Maggie nodded.
“He doesn’t want custody. He wants control.”
Rebecca looked toward the door.
“And he brought men this time.”
“How many?”
“Eight that I saw.”
Eli whispered, “Papa’s alone.”
Maggie’s blood ran cold.
Rebecca looked at her.
“Where is Caleb?”
“At the ranch.”
“Why?”
“To give us time.”
Rebecca swore softly.
Then she moved for the door.
Maggie caught her.
“You just got here.”
“And Caleb is about to get himself killed.”
“We can’t take seven children back there.”
“No.”
Rebecca looked at Eli.
“You know the church near Cottonwood Crossing?”
“Yes.”
“Can you take the others?”
Eli straightened.
“Yes.”
Maggie shook her head.
“He’s twelve.”
Rebecca gave her a sad smile.
“At twelve, I rode Father’s stallion across a flooded creek because you dared me.”
“And nearly drowned.”
“But I made it.”
“This is different.”
Eli spoke.
“I can do it.”
Maggie looked at the six younger children.
Ruth was responsible.
The church was less than four miles away.
The preacher’s family knew Caleb.
Still, every instinct resisted.
Then distant gunfire rolled across the valley.
One shot.
Another.
Eli went pale.
“Go,” Maggie said.
The children moved quickly.
Lily refused.
“I’m staying with Maggie.”
Rebecca knelt.
“Sweetheart—”
“I don’t know you.”
Rebecca absorbed that.
Maggie stepped in.
“She stays with me.”
Rebecca nodded.
The older six slipped out the back toward Cottonwood Crossing.
Maggie, Rebecca, and Lily rode south on one horse and a mule.
They approached Reed Hollow after sunset.
No lamps burned.
The yard was empty.
Caleb’s horse was gone.
The front door hung open.
Maggie ran inside.
A chair was overturned.
Glass covered the floor.
Blood marked the edge of the table.
“Caleb!”
Nothing.
Rebecca checked the back room.
“Gone.”
Maggie found the territorial marshal’s badge near the hearth.
Bent.
No marshal.
No Caleb.
Lily began crying.
Maggie held her.
Rebecca went to the desk.
“Everett searched this.”
Papers covered the floor.
The walnut box was empty.
“He has the letters,” Maggie said.
Rebecca’s face went white.
“What?”
“He took everything.”
Rebecca searched frantically.
“Not everything.”
“What are you looking for?”
“A ledger.”
“What ledger?”
Rebecca opened drawers.
“Eleanor kept records.”
“Of what?”
“Everett.”
Maggie stared.
Rebecca stopped.
“Years ago, when I escaped him, Eleanor collected statements from other women he cheated, threatened, and stole from. Land transfers. False debts. Bribed officials.”
“You’re telling me evidence against Everett has been in this desk?”
“It was supposed to be.”
Maggie thought about Caleb’s secrecy.
Maybe he hadn’t hidden only Rebecca.
Maybe he had been waiting for the right chance to use the evidence.
Outside, a rider approached.
Maggie grabbed the revolver.
The territorial marshal stumbled through the doorway.
His shirt was torn.
Blood ran from his forehead.
“Caleb?”
The marshal leaned against the wall.
“They took him.”
“Where?”
“Shaw’s place.”
“Why?”
“He wouldn’t sign.”
“Sign what?”
The marshal laughed weakly.
“A confession.”
Maggie froze.
“What confession?”
“That Rebecca died at Reed Hollow.”
Rebecca stepped into the lamplight.
The marshal stared at her as though seeing a ghost.
Rebecca said, “I didn’t.”
He nearly collapsed.
Maggie helped him into a chair.
“Why would Everett want Caleb to confess?”
The marshal looked at Rebecca.
“Because Shaw filed murder charges.”
Rebecca’s face emptied.
“Against Caleb?”
“Yes.”
“And if Caleb is convicted?”
“Lily’s guardian becomes her surviving father.”
Maggie understood.
Then the ranch.
The money.
Everything.
The marshal reached into his coat.
“There’s more.”
He produced a telegram.
Maggie read it.
A federal circuit judge would arrive in Miles City the next evening.
Rebecca whispered, “That could help us.”
The marshal shook his head.
“Only if Caleb lives long enough to testify.”
A horse screamed outside.
Then another rider appeared in the yard.
Not one of Everett’s men.
A teenage ranch hand slid from the saddle.
He was breathless.
“Miss Whitaker!”
“What?”
“They’re moving Mr. Reed.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“Where?”
The boy pointed toward the mountains.
“To Blackstone Ridge.”
Rebecca went pale.
Maggie asked, “What’s there?”
Rebecca looked at her sister.
“The ravine where everyone thinks I died.”
The ranch hand swallowed.
May you like
“They’ve already dug a grave.”
And Caleb was riding toward it.
