Chapter 4 - Beneath Ethan’s Floor
Mara dropped to her knees.
“Caleb?”
“Quiet.”
She pulled at the loose board.
It lifted.
Caleb Bell’s face appeared beneath the floor.
This time she knew instantly.
Not Samuel.
Caleb had a tiny white mark beside his left eyebrow from the day a frightened colt kicked him into a fence.
Samuel didn’t.
Mara had kissed that scar a hundred times.
Her relief turned to rage almost immediately.
She slapped him.
Hard.
Caleb blinked.
“I probably deserved that.”
“You think?”
He climbed through the opening.
He was filthy.
Bruised.
Thin.
A chain hung broken from one wrist.
“Where’s Ethan?”
Mara hurried toward the door.
Caleb grabbed her arm.
“Don’t.”
She yanked free.
“Never touch me like that again.”
He released her instantly.
“Sorry.”
“Why shouldn’t I call him?”
“Because I don’t know if he’s alone.”
Mara stared.
Caleb pointed downward.
“There’s a tunnel.”
“Under Ethan’s cabin?”
“Old mining tunnel.”
Mara had seen no entrance.
Caleb continued.
“It runs nearly half a mile beneath the ridge.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I hid there.”
“When?”
“Eight months ago.”
Mara’s anger cooled into confusion.
“You’ve been here?”
Caleb nodded.
“Ethan found me after Rourke’s men shot me.”
Mara stopped.
“Ethan knew you were alive?”
“No.”
“Then how—”
“I gave him a false name.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t know who Rourke owned.”
“Ethan saved you.”
“Yes.”
“And you repaid him by hiding under his cabin?”
Caleb almost smiled.
“You sound like yourself.”
Mara’s eyes filled.
“Don’t.”
The smile died.
“You don’t get to disappear for eight months and then tell me I sound like myself.”
“I know.”
“You don’t know anything.”
Her whisper was more violent than a scream.
“You weren’t there when they took our cows. You weren’t there when men came into our kitchen and counted chairs like they already belonged to them. You weren’t there when I had to sell my wedding ring to buy food.”
Caleb looked down.
“You weren’t there when I buried you.”
His face crumpled.
“I watched.”
Mara stopped.
“What?”
“From the trees.”
She stared at him.
“You watched your own funeral?”
“I had to know you were safe.”
“Safe?”
Her voice rose.
Caleb grabbed her shoulders.
“Quiet.”
Mara shoved him away.
The bedroom door opened.
Ethan stood there.
Gun raised.
Caleb froze.
Mara stepped between them.
“No.”
Ethan’s gaze moved to Caleb’s face.
Recognition flickered.
“Thomas Reed.”
Caleb gave a weary nod.
“The name I used.”
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
Ethan lowered the gun slightly.
“You're Mara’s husband.”
“Yes.”
Ethan looked at Mara.
She could not tell what he felt.
Perhaps betrayal.
Perhaps disappointment.
Perhaps simply calculation.
“How’d you get under my floor?”
Caleb explained.
Ethan listened.
Then he knelt and looked into the tunnel.
“You’ve been using this?”
“Rourke has.”
Ethan’s head snapped around.
“What?”
Caleb pointed toward the opening.
“They discovered the old mine entrance three weeks ago.”
“Which entrance?”
“North face.”
Ethan cursed.
Mara had never heard him curse.
That frightened her.
“You said you didn’t know whether Ethan was alone,” she said.
Caleb nodded.
“I saw two riders near the ridge.”
Ethan extinguished the lamp.
Darkness swallowed the room.
“Get down.”
They crouched.
A faint creak came from the porch.
Then another.
Boots.
Ethan whispered, “Bedroom window.”
Mara moved.
Caleb followed.
Ethan caught his arm.
“You stay.”
Caleb looked at him.
“I can fight.”
“Good. You can fight from here.”
Mara slipped through the window.
Ethan followed.
They moved beneath the trees.
Caleb emerged seconds later despite the instruction.
Ethan glared.
Caleb shrugged.
“My wife is out here.”
“She’s not a parcel.”
Caleb stiffened.
Mara almost smiled.
Then gunfire erupted inside the cabin.
The front window shattered outward.
Ethan fired toward the porch.
A man fell.
Caleb fired into the trees.
Mara crouched behind a stump.
The attack lasted less than a minute.
Then silence.
Ethan waited.
One breath.
Two.
Three.
A horse galloped away.
“Gone,” Caleb said.
“No.”
Ethan pointed toward the cabin.
Smoke seeped from beneath the door.
“They set it on fire.”
Mara stared.
Ethan ran.
She grabbed him.
“What are you doing?”
“My things.”
“You’ll die.”
“Not tonight.”
He disappeared through the door.
Mara shouted his name.
Caleb held her back.
Seconds later Ethan emerged carrying a rifle, saddlebag, and small wooden box.
Flames climbed behind him.
His sleeve burned.
Mara slapped at it with her skirt.
“Are you insane?”
“Sometimes.”
“You went back for a box?”
“My mother’s letters.”
Mara stopped.
Ethan looked embarrassed.
She said nothing.
She only took the box from him carefully.
The three of them watched the roof ignite.
Ethan’s home burned.
No complaint came from him.
But Mara saw his jaw tighten.
Everything he owned had been in that cabin.
Rourke had burned it because Ethan helped her.
“I’m sorry.”
Ethan looked at her.
“No.”
“It happened because of me.”
“It happened because of him.”
He meant Rourke.
“Never confuse those.”
They took two surviving horses and rode through darkness.
Caleb explained everything.
He had discovered the land fraud nearly a year earlier while repairing accounts for a freight company.
Rourke learned he knew.
Caleb staged his death after an attack left another man dead.
The body was mistakenly identified as Caleb.
Rather than correct the mistake, he used it.
He gathered evidence.
But Rourke captured him two months later.
Samuel began impersonating him.
“Why?”
Mara asked.
“Money.”
“Of course.”
Caleb looked ashamed despite having no control over his brother.
“He always hated me.”
“Why?”
“Because Father left me the Bell farm.”
Mara stopped.
“Your father didn’t own the farm.”
“I know.”
“Then what are you talking about?”
Caleb looked at her.
“That’s what I discovered.”
Mara waited.
“The Bell farm was never Bell property.”
Ethan glanced back from his horse.
Caleb continued.
“Your father bought it before our marriage. He put my father’s name on a temporary deed because he was hiding it from creditors.”
“So?”
“So the original deed under the kitchen floor proves you owned it before marrying me.”
Mara understood.
Rourke’s forged debt against Caleb could not legally touch property Mara owned separately.
The entire seizure collapsed if the deed survived.
“The marriage certificate?”
“Shows the correct date.”
Mara nodded slowly.
Rourke’s forged records probably used a false date to show the land entering the marriage estate.
Caleb continued.
“With the deed, certificate, and ledger, a federal judge can unwind everything.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was afraid they’d torture you for the location.”
Mara looked at him.
“They humiliated me instead.”
Caleb closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“No. You keep saying that. You don’t.”
Silence followed.
At dawn, they reached an abandoned shepherd’s shack.
Ethan checked it.
Empty.
They entered.
Mara collapsed onto a bench.
Caleb sat opposite her.
For a long time neither spoke.
Then Caleb whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Mara looked at him.
He didn’t justify himself this time.
Didn’t explain.
Didn’t say he had done it for her.
He simply said it.
“I’m sorry.”
Her anger loosened slightly.
Not forgiveness.
Not yet.
But something.
Ethan stood outside.
Mara joined him.
“You lost your home.”
“It was wood.”
“It mattered.”
“Yes.”
She waited.
“Can it be rebuilt?”
“Probably.”
“I could help.”
Ethan looked at her.
“You have your own home to get back.”
“Maybe people can help with more than one house.”
His mouth almost curved.
Behind them, Caleb appeared.
“Walker.”
Ethan turned.
Caleb held something.
A page torn from the ledger.
“I found this folded inside the back cover.”
Ethan took it.
His face changed.
Mara stepped closer.
At the top was the name:
ELIAS WALKER.
Below it was a list of payments.
Then one final note.
ELIAS WALKER — acquisition completed. Northern ridge and Walker cabin secured for mining access.
Ethan stared at the words.
Mara whispered, “Your brother sold your land?”
“No.”
Caleb pointed to the date.
Three weeks ago.
Ethan looked toward the smoke rising from the direction of his cabin.
His brother hadn’t simply sold the land.
He had helped Rourke burn him out.
Then hoofbeats sounded outside.
Ethan drew his gun.
Caleb moved toward the window.
A single rider stopped outside the shack.
“Ethan!”
Ethan froze.
The voice came again.
“Brother!”
Mara looked at the ledger.
Then at Ethan.
May you like
Elias Walker was standing outside.
And he had brought Gideon Rourke’s white horse with him.
