Chapter 5 - The Other Caleb Ward
The door opened an inch.
Caleb fired into the ceiling beside it.
The man outside stopped.
“Still impatient.”
“Step inside and the next one isn’t warning.”
Martha stared at the narrow opening.
“Who are you?”
Silence.
Then the door opened wider.
A man stepped into the cabin.
Martha forgot how to breathe.
He was not identical to Caleb.
But close enough.
Same height.
Same shoulders.
Same dark hair, though streaked with gray.
Same eyes.
But where Caleb’s face carried restraint, this man’s carried amusement.
“Jacob,” Samuel whispered.
The stranger smiled.
“So you do remember me.”
Caleb kept the rifle aimed.
“You’re my brother?”
Jacob looked at him.
“Older by twelve minutes.”
“You expect me to believe—”
“I don’t care what you believe.”
His gaze moved to Martha.
“Martha Bell.”
She disliked the way he said her name.
As though he owned its history.
Caleb stepped between them.
Jacob smiled.
“There he is.”
“Stay away from her.”
“That instinct always was strong in you.”
“I’ve never met you.”
“You have.”
Caleb froze.
Jacob touched a scar near his temple.
“You just don’t remember.”
Samuel whispered, “Mercer.”
Jacob’s smile disappeared.
“Do not say that name.”
Caleb lowered the rifle one inch.
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
Samuel scoffed.
“No.”
Jacob looked at him.
“You should have died with Elias.”
Samuel raised his pistol.
Martha said, “Enough.”
All three men looked at her.
She was exhausted.
Weak.
Bleeding less, thankfully.
And utterly finished with being treated like a piece on someone else’s board.
“You,” she told Jacob, “said I was your wife.”
Jacob smiled slightly.
“Future wife.”
“No.”
“You were supposed to answer my letter.”
“I answered Caleb’s.”
“You answered a letter written by me.”
Martha’s heart stopped.
Caleb looked at Jacob.
Jacob continued.
“The advertisement was moved because I needed Ward to see it.”
“Why?”
“Because I needed you both together.”
Martha looked at Caleb.
“Our courtship—”
“Was real,” Caleb said immediately.
Jacob laughed.
“Touching.”
Caleb’s rifle rose again.
Jacob ignored it.
“Your father left something with Elias. Elias left something with Caleb. I needed both bloodlines in one place.”
“The ledger?” Martha asked.
“Partly.”
“What else?”
Jacob looked at her.
“You.”
Caleb moved before anyone saw it.
He slammed Jacob into the wall.
“You speak about her like property again and I’ll—”
Jacob laughed despite Caleb’s forearm across his throat.
“There’s the Ward temper.”
Martha forced herself upright.
“Caleb.”
He looked at her.
“Let him speak.”
“I don’t want him speaking.”
“I noticed.”
Caleb released Jacob.
Jacob adjusted his coat.
“Thomas Bell survived the factory explosion because there was no explosion.”
Martha stared.
“He staged his death.”
“Why?”
“To protect you.”
“From Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“What did my father have?”
Jacob looked at the ledger.
“Names.”
“We have the names.”
“Not all of them.”
Martha waited.
Jacob smiled.
“Thomas memorized the most important list.”
Samuel frowned.
“Impossible.”
“Not for him.”
“Then the list died with him.”
Jacob looked directly at Martha.
“Did it?”
The room went quiet.
Martha felt something change.
“What are you saying?”
“Your mother gave you a Bible.”
Martha’s face drained.
“How do you know that?”
“Brown leather. Broken clasp. Your father’s portrait inside.”
No one outside her family could know.
Martha had left that Bible in Cincinnati.
Hidden beneath loose floorboards in the boardinghouse.
“What’s in it?”
Jacob stepped closer.
Caleb blocked him.
Jacob sighed.
“A code.”
Martha remembered childhood evenings.
Her father teaching her numbers.
He turned multiplication into games.
Dates into riddles.
Letters into numbers.
She had assumed it was amusement.
“What code?”
“Locations.”
Caleb asked, “Of what?”
Jacob’s expression became serious.
“The children who survived.”
Martha felt sick.
“Survived what?”
“The network.”
Some children had escaped.
Some had grown.
Some had built families.
And Mercer’s associates were still hunting evidence that could expose who had profited.
Martha understood.
“The ledger proves who paid.”
Jacob nodded.
“The Bible proves where witnesses went.”
“Why would my father give that to a child?”
“He didn’t.”
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
Martha closed her eyes.
Anna Bell had known.
All those years.
All those nights Martha had watched her mother count pennies.
All those years of silence.
Her mother had carried a secret large enough to bring armed men across the country.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“To keep you alive.”
Jacob looked toward Caleb.
“And because she didn’t know which Ward brother belonged to Mercer.”
Caleb’s expression hardened.
“What does that mean?”
Jacob’s face changed.
Something bitter.
“You were Elias’s favorite.”
“I didn’t know you existed.”
“That was the point.”
“What happened to you?”
Jacob looked toward the stove.
“When I was seven, Mercer’s people took me.”
Caleb said nothing.
“He told me Elias sold me.”
“That was a lie.”
“I know that now.”
Jacob’s voice cracked slightly.
The first human thing Martha had seen in him.
“He raised me inside that network.”
Caleb lowered the rifle.
“And you worked for him?”
“For years.”
Samuel said, “You helped him move children.”
Jacob turned sharply.
“I was a child first.”
“And later?”
Silence.
Samuel had his answer.
Martha watched Jacob carefully.
“You came here for the ledger.”
“Yes.”
“To destroy it?”
“No.”
“To give it to whom?”
Jacob looked at her.
“My father.”
Caleb froze.
“Our father is dead.”
Jacob smiled without humor.
“I didn’t say Elias.”
Samuel’s pistol came up.
“No.”
Jacob nodded.
“Mercer.”
“You said he was dead.”
“I lied.”
Caleb’s face became stone.
Jacob continued.
“He’s dying.”
“Good.”
“He wants the ledger before he dies.”
“No.”
“He has men surrounding the ridge.”
“Then they can watch him die disappointed.”
Jacob looked at Martha.
“He also has someone else.”
Martha knew before he said it.
Her stomach dropped.
“Who?”
“Anna Bell.”
Martha stared.
“My mother is dead.”
“No.”
“She died two years ago.”
“You buried a closed coffin.”
Martha remembered.
Scarlet fever.
The boardinghouse owner had forbidden viewing.
The coffin had remained sealed.
She had accepted it because she was grieving.
Because she was tired.
Because she trusted the doctor.
Jacob took one step closer.
“Your mother is alive.”
Martha’s eyes filled.
“No.”
“I saw her three days ago.”
Caleb caught Martha as she swayed.
“She’s alive?”
Jacob nodded.
“Mercer kept her because he never found the Bible.”
Martha grabbed Caleb’s shirt.
Her mother.
Alive.
Caleb looked at Jacob.
“Where?”
“Old Mercer mine. Twelve miles north.”
Samuel whispered, “Trap.”
“Obviously.”
Martha pushed away the blanket.
Caleb immediately said, “No.”
“My mother is alive.”
“You can barely stand.”
“Then carry me.”
“Martha.”
“You carried me here.”
“This is different.”
“Why?”
“Because men will be shooting.”
“They already were.”
Caleb stared.
She stared back.
Jacob smiled.
“You married well.”
Caleb gave him a look that killed the smile.
Samuel opened the ledger.
“We need leverage.”
Jacob said, “The book is leverage.”
“No. Copies.”
They worked fast.
Samuel removed pages containing the most important names.
Caleb refused to destroy the original.
Martha tucked several pages beneath her bodice.
Caleb noticed.
“What are you doing?”
“Making sure nobody solves this by shooting one man.”
He stared at her.
Then nodded.
“You frighten me.”
“Good.”
They left the hunting cabin before dusk.
Jacob led.
Samuel followed.
Caleb carried Martha for the steep sections despite her protests.
At the ridge above Mercer mine, they saw lanterns.
Six men.
Maybe more.
A large timber building stood beside the abandoned shaft.
Jacob pointed.
“She’s inside.”
Martha’s eyes locked on the building.
“Mother.”
Caleb squeezed her hand.
Then a lantern appeared behind one window.
A woman stepped into view.
Older.
Thin.
Gray-haired.
Martha stopped breathing.
Even after two years.
Even after twenty.
A daughter knew her mother.
Anna Bell looked through the window.
Straight toward the ridge.
As though she somehow knew Martha was there.
Then another figure stepped behind her.
An old man.
Tall.
Bent.
Holding a pistol.
Samuel whispered one word.
“Mercer.”
Martha took one step forward.
The old man raised the pistol.
Not toward them.
May you like
Toward Anna.
And the cabin door opened.
