Chapter 3 - The Husband Who Never Existed
The knocking came again.
Three hard blows.
Sheriff Cole drew his revolver.
Jonas pushed Ellie behind him.
Reverend Bell looked confused.
“No one else was inside.”
Jonas opened the chapel door.
A man stood near the back pew.
Gray hat.
Brown coat.
Scar along his jaw.
Ellie whispered, “That’s him.”
The stranger who had given her the warning.
He lifted both hands.
“I’m not here to hurt anyone.”
Jonas crossed the aisle in seconds and slammed him against the wall.
“Name.”
“Samuel Rusk.”
“Why were you following my wife?”
Rusk glanced at Ellie.
“To keep her alive.”
Jonas tightened his grip.
“Try again.”
“I worked for Pembroke.”
Ellie stepped closer.
Jonas didn’t release him.
Rusk continued.
“Charles sent me west six months ago.”
“To do what?”
“Find Caleb Hargrave.”
The chapel became silent.
Jonas stared at him.
“Caleb is dead.”
Rusk gave a humorless smile.
“Then somebody should tell Caleb.”
Jonas’s fist tightened in Rusk’s coat.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I found evidence he survived the Evernight collapse. Pembroke wanted him because Caleb knew what happened before the mine caved.”
“What happened?”
Rusk looked toward the windows.
“Not here.”
Sheriff Cole shut the door.
“You’re surrounded by armed men.”
“That doesn’t mean we’re safe.”
Ellie held up the telegram.
“Did Charles send this?”
Rusk’s expression changed.
“No.”
“He says I’m legally married to him.”
“You aren’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Pembroke tried to file the papers and failed.”
Ellie went cold.
“Tried?”
“He bribed a clerk in Philadelphia. Backdated license. Forged your signature. But one witness refused.”
“Who?”
Rusk looked at Jonas.
“Caleb.”
Jonas released him.
No one spoke.
Ellie tried to understand.
“How could Caleb witness something in Philadelphia?”
“He wasn’t in Philadelphia. The forged document claimed he was.”
Jonas’s eyes narrowed.
“Why use my brother’s name?”
“To connect you to her.”
“But I hadn’t even advertised for a wife then.”
“Exactly.”
Rusk reached slowly into his coat.
Jonas raised the revolver.
Rusk stopped.
“Paper.”
“Slowly.”
He removed a folded document.
Jonas took it.
It was a copy of a marriage certificate.
Charles Pembroke.
Eleanor Whitmore.
Witness: Caleb Hargrave.
Dated thirteen months ago.
Four months before Jonas had ever written his advertisement.
Ellie looked at the page.
“This is impossible.”
Rusk nodded.
“That’s why Pembroke needs Caleb dead.”
Jonas’s voice was low.
“And why does he need Ellie?”
Rusk’s gaze shifted to her.
“Because her father owned something Pembroke couldn’t buy.”
Ellie thought of her father’s debts.
“What?”
“Half the mineral rights beneath Evernight Mountain.”
She stared.
“No.”
“Your father invested in Colorado mines twenty years ago.”
“He never told me.”
“He hid the papers after discovering Pembroke’s father had been stealing from investors.”
Jonas looked toward Ellie.
“And now?”
“Those rights passed to her.”
Ellie laughed once, without humor.
“I arrived in Colorado nearly penniless.”
“You arrived owning land worth a fortune.”
Jonas understood before she did.
“If she marries Charles…”
“He controls her interest.”
“And if she marries me?”
Rusk looked at Jonas.
“Pembroke loses everything.”
The room seemed suddenly smaller.
Ellie folded the forged certificate.
“All of this because of land?”
Rusk shook his head.
“Not just land.”
“What else?”
“Silver.”
Jonas frowned.
“The Evernight vein was exhausted.”
“That’s the public story.”
Rusk leaned toward him.
“Caleb found another vein before the collapse. Bigger than anything ever recorded in Clear Creek County.”
Jonas remembered his brother coming home excited the night before the accident.
I found something, Jonas.
Something that changes everything.
Jonas had been angry with him that night.
They had argued about their father.
Caleb had left before sunrise.
Jonas never saw him again.
His stomach tightened.
“The collapse…”
“Wasn’t an accident,” Rusk said.
Ellie covered her mouth.
Jonas went completely still.
Sheriff Cole swore quietly.
“Proof?”
“Caleb had it.”
“Had?”
“Pembroke believes he still does.”
Jonas looked at the sheriff.
“Evernight is twenty miles north.”
Cole nodded.
“Closed for years.”
“Not anymore.”
They left the chapel separately.
Cole arranged a room for Rusk at the sheriff’s office under guard.
Jonas and Ellie returned to the cabin before sunset.
Neither spoke much during the ride.
Inside, Ellie removed her coat and stared at the silver ring on her hand.
“Are we married?”
Jonas stood behind her.
“As far as I’m concerned.”
“Legally.”
“Cole will wire Denver.”
“What if Charles actually managed to file something?”
“You never married him.”
“That doesn’t mean a court won’t believe his papers.”
Jonas stepped closer.
“I was there today.”
She turned.
“That is not how courts work.”
“No.”
His voice softened.
“But it’s how I work.”
Ellie looked at him.
For the first time since the ceremony, fear left her face.
Only for a moment.
“I should tell you something.”
Jonas waited.
“My father gave me a key before he died.”
“A key to what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is it?”
“Inside the silver brush.”
Jonas turned toward the table.
The brush lay among Ellie’s belongings.
She twisted the handle.
A hollow compartment opened.
Inside was a tiny brass key.
Jonas stared.
“You didn’t know?”
“Father told me never to open it unless someone mentioned Evernight Mountain.”
Jonas almost laughed at the impossible timing.
“What else did he say?”
“That the safest place for a secret is inside something everyone thinks is useless.”
The key was stamped with a number.
Jonas recognized it.
“Denver Union Bank.”
Ellie looked up.
“You’re sure?”
“My father had a deposit box there.”
“Then we go to Denver.”
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because Pembroke expects that.”
He took the key.
“We find Caleb first.”
Ellie crossed her arms.
“You believe Rusk?”
“I believe enough.”
“And if Caleb is alive?”
Jonas looked toward the darkening windows.
“I bring my brother home.”
That night, they ate quietly.
Marriage had changed nothing physically.
Jonas prepared the downstairs room for Ellie.
He would sleep upstairs.
She watched him place extra blankets on the bed.
“You don’t need to do that.”
“You’re still cold.”
“How do you know?”
“You’re wearing three pairs of socks.”
She looked down.
“You noticed?”
“I notice everything.”
“I’m beginning to see that.”
Jonas placed another log on the fire.
Ellie watched him.
“Why did you advertise for a wife?”
He froze.
“That’s a strange question now.”
“I answered an advertisement without knowing why you wrote it.”
“I told you.”
“You needed help.”
“Yes.”
“That isn’t the whole reason.”
Jonas sat.
“No.”
Ellie waited.
After a long silence he said, “I got sick last winter.”
Her expression changed.
“Badly?”
“Pneumonia.”
“You were alone?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Three weeks.”
“Who cared for you?”
“No one.”
Ellie stared.
“How did you survive?”
“Apparently out of spite.”
She smiled faintly.
Then it faded.
“That frightened you.”
“No.”
“Jonas.”
“Yes.”
He looked away.
“When I recovered, I realized if I died in that cabin, nobody would know until spring.”
Ellie sat beside him.
Not touching.
Close enough.
“So you wanted a housekeeper.”
“I wanted another human being.”
The honesty startled both of them.
Ellie looked down at her hands.
“I wanted somewhere nobody knew my name.”
“And now everyone seems to.”
“Yes.”
They laughed quietly.
For the first time, the marriage felt less like an agreement made by strangers.
Jonas turned toward her.
Snow melted from a strand of blonde hair near her cheek.
He lifted a hand.
Stopped.
Ellie noticed.
Neither moved.
Then someone pounded on the front door.
Jonas stood instantly.
“Who?”
“Cole!”
Jonas opened the door.
Sheriff Cole entered, breathing hard.
“Rusk is gone.”
“What?”
“The deputy guarding him was knocked unconscious.”
Jonas grabbed his coat.
“Horse?”
“Still tied outside.”
“So he left on foot.”
“No.”
Cole looked at Ellie.
“Someone picked him up.”
“Who?”
Cole held out a piece of paper found in Rusk’s room.
Jonas read it.
Meet me where the mountain buried me.
C.
Jonas’s face changed.
Ellie knew immediately.
“Caleb?”
Jonas nodded.
Cole looked toward the window.
“If Rusk is telling the truth, your brother may be headed for Evernight.”
Jonas reached for his rifle.
Ellie reached for her coat.
“No.”
She looked at him.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“My name is on those mine rights.”
“Exactly why you’re staying.”
“Jonas—”
“I need to know you’re safe.”
Ellie stopped.
The words were simple.
But something underneath them was not.
She lowered her voice.
“Then come back.”
Jonas held her gaze.
“I will.”
He and Cole rode into the darkness.
Hours passed.
Ellie sat beside the fire.
Midnight.
One o’clock.
Two.
Nothing.
At two-thirty, she heard a horse.
She ran to the door.
“Jonas?”
No answer.
She opened it.
A riderless horse stood in the yard.
Jonas’s horse.
Blood stained the saddle.
Ellie’s breath disappeared.
Then she saw something tied to the reins.
Jonas’s wedding ring.
And beneath it, a note.
She unfolded the paper with shaking hands.
BRING THE KEY TO EVERNIGHT BEFORE SUNRISE.
May you like
COME ALONE.
OR YOU BURY BOTH HARGRAVE BROTHERS.
