Chapter 5 - Midnight at the Higgins Mine
Mabel had no intention of going alone.
She also knew Silas would expect that.
So she made a different plan.
At eleven forty-five, she rode toward the mine.
Gideon followed through the trees with Sheriff Dunning and two deputies.
Mabel entered alone.
Silas stood beside a lantern.
Dr. Hale was tied to a chair.
Alive.
Mabel exhaled.
Silas smiled.
“My obedient girl.”
“I'm not your girl.”
“You'll always be what I made you.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“You made one mistake.”
“Only one?”
“You convinced me nobody else would ever want me.”
Silas laughed.
“And Caldwell does?”
“Yes.”
The certainty surprised even her.
Silas's smile disappeared.
“He wanted land.”
“He had more land than you.”
“He wanted an heir.”
“He accepted my child before he knew it might be his.”
Silas's eyes hardened.
“You think that makes you special?”
“No.”
Mabel looked directly at him.
“It makes him decent.”
Silas drew a revolver.
Outside, Gideon saw the movement through a gap in the boards.
Dunning restrained him.
“Wait.”
Inside, Silas demanded the original Higgins deed.
Mabel had brought it.
Or what appeared to be it.
She handed him the folded document.
Silas opened it.
Blank paper.
His expression twisted.
“You stupid—”
“Now.”
Gideon kicked open the side door.
Dunning entered through the front.
Silas fired.
The shot struck a timber.
Gideon tackled him.
The revolver slid across the floor.
Mabel ran toward Hale.
Silas and Gideon fought brutally among old mining equipment.
Silas reached for a fallen pickaxe.
Gideon knocked it away.
Then Silas pulled a hidden knife.
Mabel shouted.
“Gideon!”
Gideon turned just in time.
He caught Silas's wrist.
The two men struggled near the edge of an abandoned shaft.
Silas slipped.
Gideon grabbed him.
For one suspended second, the man responsible for Clara's death hung over darkness.
Silas looked up.
“You want me dead.”
Gideon did.
Mabel could see it.
But Gideon pulled him up.
Dunning immediately shackled Silas.
“Why?” Silas gasped.
Gideon looked at him.
“Because my wife asked me not to give you another grave.”
Silas was taken away.
Dr. Hale survived.
The trial began two months later.
Evidence overwhelmed the defense.
Forged deeds.
Medical records.
Clara's letters.
Hale's confession.
Bank documents.
Witness testimony.
Silas was convicted of fraud, conspiracy, unlawful imprisonment, and multiple related crimes. Investigation into Clara's death produced additional charges.
Hale also faced prosecution.
He did not ask for mercy.
Mabel testified.
It was the hardest thing she had ever done.
When she left the courtroom, people lined the steps.
Some had once laughed at her.
Nobody laughed now.
Mrs. Bell approached first.
“We owe you an apology.”
Mabel looked around.
“No.”
The woman blinked.
“You don't owe me words.”
Mabel placed a hand over her growing belly.
“You owe the next person you think is safe to humiliate a different kind of behavior.”
Mrs. Bell lowered her eyes.
Gideon smiled.
That evening, they returned home.
Spring had reached the mountains.
Snow melted along the fences.
Mabel sat on the porch while Gideon worked.
“You're staring,” he said.
“I like looking at my husband.”
He nearly dropped his hammer.
Mabel laughed.
He came toward her.
“Say that again.”
“My husband.”
Gideon kissed her.
Then knelt beside her belly.
The child kicked.
He smiled.
“You felt that?”
“I've been feeling it all afternoon.”
“Strong.”
“Like somebody else I know.”
Gideon rested his cheek against her.
Their marriage had begun as a transaction.
Now, neither could remember the last day it had felt like one.
But one question remained.
Was the baby truly Gideon's?
Hale said only a blood examination after birth might provide clues, and even then certainty would be limited by the medicine of their time.
Gideon stopped caring.
“This is my child,” he told Mabel.
“Whatever blood says.”
Then, three weeks before Mabel's expected delivery, a stranger arrived.
A woman.
About forty.
She carried an old leather case.
“I need Gideon Caldwell.”
Gideon stepped outside.
“Who are you?”
“Dr. Rebecca Mercer.”
She opened the case.
Inside were medical papers.
“I worked with the physician who treated you after your logging accident.”
Gideon froze.
Rebecca looked at Mabel.
“Dr. Hale told you only half the truth.”
She removed one sealed record.
“I know exactly where the specimen used on Mabel came from.”
Gideon's face went still.
Rebecca handed him the paper.
Before he could open it, Mabel doubled over.
May you like
Water spilled across the porch boards.
Her labor had begun.
