Chapter 2 - The Woman in the Photograph
The latch lifted another inch.
Elias shoved Amily toward the trapdoor.
“Go.”
She climbed down.
He followed and pulled the door closed above them just as the cabin entrance crashed open.
Darkness swallowed them.
Amily heard boots overhead.
Several pairs.
A table scraped.
A chair fell.
Then a man said, “She was here.”
Elias pressed one finger to his lips.
Amily nodded.
They were standing in a narrow storage space beneath the cabin.
The air smelled of earth, wood smoke, and old pine.
A faint blue line of moonlight showed beneath the foundation.
Someone walked directly above them.
Amily held her breath.
“Find the papers,” another man ordered.
That voice was new.
Older.
Calmer.
More dangerous.
Cabin drawers slammed.
Glass broke.
Amily looked at Elias.
He seemed to recognize the speaker.
His jaw had hardened.
The robber with the injured nose muttered, “Maybe Reed sent her through the tunnel.”
Amily’s eyes widened.
Tunnel?
Elias grabbed her hand.
He guided her through darkness until his fingers found a wooden panel.
It opened silently.
A narrow passage stretched into the mountain.
Amily stared.
“How many secrets does this cabin have?”
“Too many.”
They entered.
Elias closed the panel.
The tunnel was barely wide enough for his shoulders.
Amily stopped.
She looked at the stone walls.
Then at herself.
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I built it wide enough for Anna.”
The words landed quietly.
Amily said nothing more.
They moved.
After several yards, the tunnel widened.
Elias lit a small oil lamp.
Shelves appeared along the walls.
Canned food.
Tools.
Blankets.
A locked chest.
At the far end stood another ladder leading upward.
“How long until they find this?”
“Not long.”
“Where does it lead?”
“Old mine entrance.”
They kept moving.
Amily clutched her satchel.
“What did that man mean?”
“Which man?”
“Don’t do that.”
Elias stopped.
She faced him.
“He said Anna’s name. He said you should tell me who she really was.”
Elias’s eyes moved toward the ladder.
“We survive first.”
“No.”
“Amily.”
“You knew my mother’s family.”
“Yes.”
“You knew my grandfather.”
“Yes.”
“You built a bath for a woman named Anna Holloway.”
“Yes.”
“And armed men attacked my stagecoach for papers belonging to my father.”
“Yes.”
Her voice tightened.
“So stop protecting me from information that is clearly trying to kill me.”
Elias stared at her.
Then he reached for the locked chest.
He opened it.
Inside were papers wrapped in oilcloth.
A Bible.
A silver locket.
And a photograph.
Elias lifted the photograph.
His hands were careful.
Almost reverent.
He handed it to Amily.
The picture had faded badly.
A young woman stood beside a wagon.
She was large.
Round-faced.
Smiling.
Beside her stood another woman.
Thin.
Dark-haired.
Serious.
Amily’s heart stopped.
“That’s my mother.”
Elias nodded.
Amily pointed at the smiling woman.
“Anna?”
“Yes.”
The two women were holding hands.
Not casually.
Like sisters.
Amily looked closer.
There was writing beneath the image.
Anna and Maggie.
Summer, 1869.
“She called my mother Maggie.”
“They grew up together.”
“But my mother never mentioned her.”
Elias sat on an overturned crate.
“Anna was Margaret’s older sister.”
Amily stared at him.
“My aunt?”
“Yes.”
The tunnel seemed to tilt.
“My mother had a sister?”
“Yes.”
“She told me she was an only child.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Elias looked down.
“Because after Anna married me, Samuel Holloway erased her from the family.”
Amily could barely speak.
“Why?”
“Because she married a poor trapper.”
“That’s all?”
“No.”
Elias looked at her satchel.
“Anna knew what Samuel had done.”
“What had he done?”
“Your grandfather stole land.”
Amily stared.
“From whom?”
“Families all through Cedar Hollow.”
Elias reached into the chest and removed a folded survey map.
“After the railroad announced plans to build through the valley, Samuel began buying property through false tax claims. Some owners never knew their land had been transferred.”
Amily shook her head.
“My grandfather was a judge.”
“That helped.”
“My mother adored him.”
“That helped too.”
Amily lowered herself onto another crate.
Her knees felt weak.
“What does this have to do with my father?”
“Your father discovered it.”
“When?”
“Years later.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he came here.”
Amily looked sharply at him.
“My father knew you?”
“Twice.”
She could not breathe.
“When?”
“The first time was fifteen years ago.”
She searched her memory.
Her father had traveled often.
Business, he always said.
“The second?”
“Last month.”
Amily stood.
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
“He was sick.”
“He was dying.”
Elias’s voice softened.
“That’s why he came.”
Amily looked down at the satchel.
Her father had died in bed three weeks ago.
He had taken her hand and made her promise one thing.
Take the sealed documents to Silver Creek.
Give them only to Nathaniel Cole at the Territorial Bank.
Tell no one what you carry.
She had assumed it concerned money.
Inheritance.
Something dull and legal.
Not murderers.
Not stolen land.
Not a dead aunt her mother had erased.
“What did my father want from you?”
Elias opened the Bible.
A letter lay inside.
“He wanted Anna’s evidence.”
“Why?”
“Because he planned to return the land.”
Amily felt tears sting.
Her father had been many things.
Strict.
Quiet.
Often absent.
But dishonest?
No.
She had never believed that.
“He found out after marrying your mother,” Elias continued. “By then Samuel was dead, and Margaret begged him not to expose the family.”
“My mother knew?”
“Yes.”
Amily looked away.
Elias let the silence stay.
“My father kept the secret for her.”
“For years.”
“What changed?”
“Your mother died.”
Five years earlier.
Fever.
Amily remembered sitting beside her bed.
Margaret had whispered something during her final night.
I should have told you about Anna.
Amily had assumed fever had confused her.
It had not.
“Who attacked the coach?”
Elias’s expression darkened.
“Men working for Silas Creed.”
“Who is that?”
“Your grandfather’s former clerk.”
The older voice upstairs.
Amily knew instantly.
“He’s still alive?”
“He owns half of Silver Creek now.”
“And the stolen land?”
“In companies controlled by him.”
Amily understood.
“If my father returned it…”
“Creed would lose everything.”
A crash echoed faintly through the tunnel.
They both looked back.
The men had found the entrance.
Elias extinguished the lamp.
“Move.”
They reached the ladder.
He climbed first.
Amily followed.
The opening emerged beneath a rock shelf fifty yards above the cabin.
Snow hit her face.
Elias pulled her up.
“Stay low.”
Below them, lanterns moved near the cabin.
Five men.
Maybe six.
A seventh remained on horseback.
Amily recognized the broad man with blood crusted under his nose.
“He’s the one I hit.”
Elias glanced at her.
“With what?”
“A rock.”
Something almost like approval touched his face.
“Remind me not to insult you.”
Despite everything, Amily nearly laughed.
Then the older man stepped into lantern light.
Tall.
Silver-haired.
Well dressed beneath a black coat.
Silas Creed.
He removed one glove.
“We know you can hear me, Reed.”
Elias went still.
Creed smiled toward the mountain.
“You’ve spent seven years guarding papers that belong to dead people.”
Amily whispered, “He knows.”
“He suspects.”
Creed continued.
“Give me Harper’s daughter and the documents, and I’ll leave your cabin standing.”
Elias’s expression did not change.
Creed sighed.
“Or perhaps she would rather know the truth about why her father died.”
Amily grabbed Elias’s sleeve.
“What does he mean?”
“Keep moving.”
“He said my father—”
“Amily.”
She pulled away.
“No.”
Below them, Creed raised his voice.
“Charles Harper did not die from illness.”
Amily stopped.
The snow seemed to disappear.
Elias seized her arm.
“He’s trying to draw you out.”
“My father had consumption.”
“That’s what you were told.”
Amily stared at him.
“What do you know?”
Elias looked away.
Wrong answer.
She stepped backward.
“What do you know?”
Creed shouted again.
“Ask Reed who delivered your father’s medicine!”
Amily’s blood turned cold.
Elias did not move.
She whispered, “You?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
He looked toward the trees.
A lantern suddenly appeared behind them.
Not below.
Behind.
Someone had circled the mountain.
Elias raised his rifle.
A woman stepped from the pines.
She wore a dark riding cloak.
Her face was hidden beneath a hood.
Elias slowly lowered the rifle.
“No.”
The woman pushed back the hood.
Amily stared.
She had seen that face before.
In the photograph.
Older.
Thinner.
But unmistakable.
The dead woman from Elias’s chest looked directly at Amily.
May you like
Then she said:
“My name is Anna Holloway Reed.”
