Chapter 1 - The Scream in the Pines
Catherine Miller clawed at the floorboards and screamed:
"Help me!"
A mountain man named Elias Boone stepped through the broken doorway and saw a brass property key beneath Caleb's boot.
Three fresh scratches marked its head.
The key belonged to a door Catherine had never seen.
This wasn't only about the cabin.
Caleb Miller tightened his fist around his sister's arm.
"Stop screaming."
Catherine screamed louder.
Pain tore through her shoulder, hot enough to blur the room around her. Her cheek pressed against the rough pine boards her father had laid twenty-two years earlier. Flour covered the floor from the table Samuel had smashed during the struggle, turning every desperate movement into a pale streak through the dust.
"Caleb, you're hurting me."
"Then quit fighting."
"You came into my house!"
"Our house," Samuel snapped from behind the overturned table.
Catherine turned her face toward him.
Samuel was thirty-eight, eight years older than she was, and had spent most of his adult life wearing resentment as comfortably as other men wore coats. His dirty beige shirt clung to his shoulders with sweat. A dark beard shadowed his jaw.
Caleb, thirty-two and stronger than Samuel, had always been the quicker-tempered brother.
Their father used to call Samuel the match and Caleb the powder.
Catherine had once thought it was a joke.
Not anymore.
"Papa left this cabin to me," she gasped.
Samuel's expression hardened.
"He made a mistake."
"The deed says otherwise."
"That deed can disappear."
Catherine stopped struggling.
For one terrible second, even Caleb seemed to realize Samuel had said too much.
Then Catherine understood.
They weren't trying to frighten her.
They intended to take the cabin.
And if she refused—
A floorboard creaked near the entrance.
None of them had heard the door open.
Caleb looked up first.
A tall man stood in the doorway.
He wore a weather-beaten brown hat low over dark, wavy hair. A worn frontier coat hung from broad shoulders. Dust covered his boots and trousers, and several days of beard darkened his face.
He didn't reach for the revolver at his belt.
He didn't need to.
His stillness was more threatening than a drawn weapon.
His gray eyes moved from the shattered furniture to Catherine's bleeding lip.
Then to Caleb's hand wrapped around her arm.
"Let her go."
Caleb stared.
Samuel stepped forward.
"This doesn't concern you."
The stranger's gaze never left Caleb.
"I heard her screaming half a mile down the ridge."
"Family disagreement," Samuel said.
The stranger finally looked at him.
"Funny. Where I come from, disagreements don't usually require two men to hold one woman on the floor."
Caleb released Catherine and stood.
Not because he wanted to.
Because the stranger had started walking toward him.
Caleb was large.
The stranger was larger.
Catherine dragged herself backward, clutching her injured shoulder.
Caleb raised both hands.
"She attacked us."
Catherine stared at him.
"You broke into my cabin!"
"Enough," Samuel said.
The stranger crouched beside Catherine.
"I'm going to help you sit up."
His voice had changed completely.
Quiet now.
Careful.
Catherine nodded.
He slipped one hand beneath her good arm and helped her against the wall.
"Can you move your fingers?"
She tried.
Pain shot through her shoulder, but her fingers moved.
"Yes."
"Good."
His gaze fell to her split lip.
"Anywhere else?"
"I'm all right."
"No, you're not."
Something about the plainness of the statement nearly broke her.
She swallowed hard.
"Who are you?"
"Elias Boone."
The name meant something.
Catherine had heard it in town.
Boone lived alone farther north in the mountains. Some called him a trapper. Others said he had guided Army surveyors through passes nobody else could cross. Mrs. Bell at the mercantile claimed he'd once carried an injured miner six miles through a blizzard.
Catherine had never met him.
Samuel apparently had.
His face had gone pale.
"Boone."
Elias glanced over.
"You know me?"
"I've heard things."
"Then you've heard I don't like repeating myself."
Caleb took a step toward the door.
Elias stood.
"Nobody leaves."
Caleb stopped.
"You can't hold us here."
"No."
Elias nodded toward Catherine.
"But she can decide whether to ride into Pine Creek and fetch Sheriff Dalton."
Samuel laughed nervously.
"Over a family argument?"
Catherine pushed herself upright.
"Over breaking into my home and assaulting me."
Samuel's smile vanished.
Elias noticed something beside Caleb's boot.
A brass key.
He bent and picked it up.
Caleb moved instantly.
"Give me that."
Elias closed his fist around it.
Interesting.
Until then Caleb had been angry.
Now he looked frightened.
Catherine saw it too.
"What's that key for?"
"Nothing," Caleb said.
"Then you won't mind if she keeps it."
Samuel looked at Caleb.
A silent exchange passed between them.
Catherine extended her hand.
Elias placed the key in her palm.
It was old brass, heavier than an ordinary cabinet key. Three fresh scratches ran diagonally across its head.
Catherine frowned.
"I've never seen this."
Samuel moved toward her.
Elias stepped between them.
Samuel stopped.
"Where did you get it?" Catherine asked.
Caleb wiped sweat from his forehead.
"Found it."
"Where?"
"Outside."
"You're lying."
"Think whatever you want."
Catherine studied the key.
Something about its shape bothered her.
Her father had kept dozens of keys on a wooden rack near the kitchen. Barn keys. Trunk keys. Shed keys.
But never this one.
She looked toward the rack.
Then noticed something else.
One hook was empty.
The little brass label beneath it was almost hidden by years of grime.
Catherine walked closer.
She rubbed it with her thumb.
Three letters appeared.
N.R.D.
"What does that mean?" Elias asked.
Catherine shook her head.
"I don't know."
Samuel did.
She saw it immediately.
His eyes moved toward the window.
"Samuel?"
He said nothing.
"Papa labeled everything."
"Doesn't mean anything."
"Then tell me what N.R.D. stands for."
"I don't know."
Caleb muttered something under his breath.
Samuel snapped toward him.
"Shut up."
Catherine's heartbeat quickened.
Elias watched both men.
"What did he say?"
Caleb shook his head.
"Nothing."
"I heard 'north ridge,'" Catherine said.
Nobody moved.
Their father owned eighty acres stretching from the creek to the northern ridge.
Catherine had grown up exploring almost every acre.
Almost.
Her father had forbidden the children from going beyond an old lightning-split cedar near the northern boundary.
She remembered asking why.
Dangerous ground, he'd said.
Nothing up there worth finding.
Samuel suddenly lunged.
Not at Catherine.
At the key.
Elias caught his wrist before he reached her.
Samuel grunted.
Elias twisted just enough to stop him.
"Try that again," Elias said quietly, "and we'll have a different kind of conversation."
Samuel pulled free.
Catherine stared at her brothers.
"What is on the north ridge?"
Neither answered.
Her fear was changing.
Becoming anger.
"Papa left me this land six months before he died. Both of you knew it. You've spent three years telling everyone he wasn't thinking clearly."
"He wasn't," Samuel said.
"He knew exactly what he was doing."
Samuel's face tightened.
"You were his favorite."
"No. I was the one who stayed."
The words landed hard.
Samuel looked away.
Caleb didn't.
Catherine continued.
"When Mama died, you left. When Papa got sick, Samuel was gambling in Carson City and you were working cattle in Wyoming. I stayed here. I fed him. Washed him. Sat beside him every night when he couldn't sleep."
"You think that makes everything yours?" Caleb asked.
"No. Papa's signature makes it mine."
Samuel slammed his hand against the table.
"He stole from us!"
Silence.
Catherine stared.
"What?"
Samuel breathed heavily.
Then Caleb said, "Samuel."
But it was too late.
Catherine stepped closer.
"What did Papa steal?"
Samuel looked at Elias.
"This isn't your business."
Elias leaned against the wall.
"Then pretend I'm furniture."
Catherine almost smiled despite herself.
Samuel didn't.
"Get out," he told Elias.
"No."
Catherine held up the key.
"Tell me."
Samuel stared at it.
Finally he said, "Ask your precious father."
"He's dead."
"Exactly."
Catherine felt something cold move through her.
"What did you come here looking for?"
Neither man answered.
Elias looked at the shattered table.
"They weren't only attacking you."
Catherine followed his gaze.
Drawers had been pulled from the sideboard.
Her father's old desk stood open.
Cupboards had been emptied.
The flour barrel had been overturned.
They had searched the cabin.
Catherine had been too terrified to notice.
"You were looking for something," she whispered.
Caleb glanced at Samuel.
Samuel said, "We're leaving."
Elias straightened.
Catherine stopped him.
"Let them."
Elias looked at her.
"You sure?"
She nodded.
Samuel grabbed his coat.
Caleb hesitated near Catherine.
For a moment she saw something unexpected in his face.
Regret.
"Catherine—"
"Go."
His jaw tightened.
Then he followed Samuel outside.
Catherine waited until the sound of their horses disappeared.
Only then did her legs begin shaking.
Elias caught her before she fell.
"I've got you."
She gripped his sleeve.
"I'm fine."
"You're terrible at lying."
That almost made her laugh.
Almost.
He helped her into a chair.
For several minutes neither spoke.
Then Catherine looked at the key again.
"Why were they so afraid of this?"
Elias crouched beside the broken table.
He examined one of the scratches.
"These aren't accidental."
"What are they?"
"Marks."
"For what?"
"Could be directions."
He turned the key.
Three scratches.
One long.
Two short.
Catherine suddenly remembered something.
Her father had carved marks like those into trail posts.
Not letters.
Directions.
"North ridge."
Elias looked at her.
"You know where?"
"I think so."
"You shouldn't go tonight."
"Why?"
"Because your brothers know you have the key."
Catherine looked toward the door.
"You think they'll come back?"
"I'd count on it."
She studied Elias.
"Why are you helping me?"
He was silent for a moment.
"Because I heard someone scream."
"That's all?"
"Should there need to be more?"
Catherine didn't know how to answer.
They spent the next hour repairing the door enough to lock it. Elias fashioned a sling for her shoulder and cleaned the cut on her face.
He never touched her without warning.
Never asked questions she didn't want to answer.
When dusk arrived, Catherine lit a lamp.
Elias stood near the window.
"Someone's out there."
Her stomach tightened.
"My brothers?"
"Don't know."
A shape moved between the trees.
Then disappeared.
Elias extinguished the lamp.
Darkness swallowed the cabin.
Catherine whispered, "What do we do?"
"Stay behind me."
A sound came from the rear wall.
Not footsteps.
Metal scraping against metal.
Catherine turned.
The noise was coming from behind her father's old wardrobe.
Elias moved it aside.
Behind it was a narrow wooden panel Catherine had never noticed.
Three scratches had been carved beside its lock.
Exactly like the marks on the brass key.
Catherine stared at it.
"The north ridge isn't where this key goes."
She inserted the key.
The lock clicked.
The hidden door opened inward.
May you like
A staircase descended beneath the cabin.
And somewhere in the darkness below, someone whispered Catherine's name.
