Chapter 5 - The Night He Chose Her
Elias pushed the ledger beneath Constance’s coat.
“Back door.”
“There isn’t one.”
“There is now.”
He kicked through two rotting boards.
Another bullet struck the shelter.
Snow blew through the opening.
“Go!”
“What about you?”
“Constance.”
“No.”
He grabbed her shoulders.
“Listen to me. Take the ledger. Follow the ravine south. Don’t stop until you reach the cabin.”
“And you?”
“I’ll draw them west.”
Her eyes filled.
“No.”
“Trust me.”
That word decided it.
Constance crawled through the opening.
She ran.
Snow dragged at her skirts.
Branches struck her face.
Behind her, Elias fired once.
Then again.
She wanted to turn back.
She did not.
She trusted him.
The ravine curved south.
Constance kept moving until her lungs burned.
At the cabin, Samuel was waiting.
“Where’s Elias?”
She could barely speak.
“Men. Ridge. Gunfire.”
Samuel grabbed his rifle.
Constance caught him.
“The ledger.”
She pulled it from beneath her coat.
Samuel stared.
“You found it.”
“Go get Elias.”
Samuel rode away.
Constance opened the ledger.
Most pages contained ordinary records.
Timber.
Furs.
Food.
Tools.
Then she found mining entries.
Nathaniel Boon and Theodore Pike.
Harvey’s father.
They had discovered coal together.
But the final pages changed everything.
Theodore Pike had secretly sold extraction rights to an eastern company.
Nathaniel objected.
The agreement was fraudulent.
The coal seam lay almost entirely beneath Boon land.
Nathaniel had documented everything.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Even witnesses.
Pike’s claim would collapse if the ledger reached court.
Constance understood why Harvey wanted it.
Then she found something else.
A loose paper.
A letter from Theodore Pike to Nathaniel.
If you keep that book, you’ll bury both our families.
Constance heard horses.
She rushed to the window.
Samuel returned.
Elias was slumped across his saddle.
She ran outside.
“Elias!”
Blood covered his side.
“He’s alive,” Samuel said.
Barely.
They carried him inside.
The bullet had passed through.
Constance cleaned the wound.
Elias drifted in and out.
At one point his eyes opened.
“Ledger?”
“Safe.”
He relaxed.
Then he looked at her.
“You?”
“I’m here.”
His hand found hers.
“Good.”
He lost consciousness.
Constance sat beside him all night.
She did not pray for the mountain.
Or the claim.
Or justice.
She prayed for Elias.
Near dawn his fever rose.
Samuel wanted to fetch a doctor.
The roads were worsening.
“I’ll go,” he said.
Constance nodded.
Hours passed.
Elias became restless.
He spoke names she did not know.
His mother.
His father.
Then hers.
“Constance.”
“I’m here.”
“Don’t leave.”
She froze.
His eyes remained closed.
“Please.”
Her throat tightened.
“I won’t.”
“Everybody leaves.”
“Not tonight.”
His fingers closed around hers.
“Not ever.”
She knew fever spoke through him.
But she answered anyway.
“We’ll discuss that when you’re conscious.”
The doctor arrived after dark.
Elias survived.
Recovery took weeks.
Constance became nurse, cook, housekeeper, bookkeeper, and tyrant.
“You’re not standing.”
“I need wood.”
“Samuel brought wood.”
“I need—”
“You need to lie down.”
Elias glared.
She glared harder.
He lay down.
By Christmas, he could walk across the room.
Constance decorated a small pine branch with scraps of ribbon.
Elias carved her a bird.
A meadowlark.
Her favorite.
She held it carefully.
“You remembered.”
“You told me.”
“That was weeks ago.”
“I remember things you say.”
Their eyes met.
Constance looked down at the bird.
“I made you something too.”
She gave him a new shirt.
Dark green.
Hand-sewn.
He touched the stitching.
“This took forever.”
“You were asleep often.”
“I like it.”
“You haven’t tried it.”
“I like it.”
She smiled.
That night snow fell softly.
Elias sat near the fire.
Constance read.
“Constance?”
“Yes?”
“Come here.”
She set down the book.
He looked nervous.
She had never seen Elias Boon nervous.
“What?”
“When you came here…”
She waited.
“I thought you’d stay one night.”
“So did I.”
“Then I thought you’d stay until the storm ended.”
“Yes.”
“Then until the hearing.”
Her heart accelerated.
“And now?”
He stood.
Slowly because of the wound.
“Now I think about you leaving and I can’t breathe right.”
Constance said nothing.
Elias stepped closer.
“I know how this started.”
Her eyes burned.
“I know you were tricked.”
He continued.
“I know you deserved to arrive somewhere because somebody chose you.”
Constance swallowed.
“Elias—”
“I’m choosing now.”
Tears filled her eyes.
He touched her cheek.
“Not because I need help.”
Another tear escaped.
“Not because Pike sent you.”
His thumb wiped it away.
“And not because I feel sorry for you.”
Constance whispered, “Then why?”
“Because this place was a house before you.”
He looked around.
“Now it’s home.”
She began crying.
Elias panicked.
“Did I say something wrong?”
Constance laughed through tears.
“You are terrible at this.”
“I know.”
“Completely terrible.”
“I know.”
She put both hands on his face.
Then kissed him.
Elias froze.
Only for a heartbeat.
Then his arms surrounded her.
Carefully at first.
Then with the force of a man who had spent years believing he needed no one and had just discovered how wrong he was.
When they separated, Constance rested her forehead against his.
“Was that clear enough?”
“No.”
She laughed.
He kissed her again.
Later, they sat together by the fire.
For the first time since arriving, Constance allowed herself to imagine spring.
A garden.
Curtains.
Perhaps chickens.
Perhaps marriage.
Not because a letter ordered it.
Because two people chose it.
Then someone knocked.
Elias reached for his rifle.
Samuel stood outside.
His face was white.
“What happened?”
Samuel entered.
“Margaret’s newspaper office burned.”
Constance stood.
“What?”
“Last night.”
“Margaret?”
“Alive.”
Relief lasted only seconds.
Samuel looked at the ledger.
“Pike knows you found it.”
Elias’s face hardened.
“How?”
“We don’t know.”
Samuel pulled a telegram from his pocket.
“And there’s worse.”
Constance read it.
The territorial judge assigned to Elias’s hearing had received new evidence.
A sworn statement.
Supposedly written by Constance.
It claimed Elias Boon had forged the matrimonial letters himself.
It accused him of kidnapping her.
May you like
And at the bottom was her signature.
Perfectly copied.
