Chapter 5 - Box Seventeen
The bank was burning.
Flames crawled through the upper windows while townspeople formed a bucket line from the horse trough.
Clara ran toward the entrance.
Elias caught her.
“No.”
“Box seventeen.”
“The roof could come down.”
“It contains whatever Samuel died for.”
“And if you die getting it?”
His voice stopped her.
Not because he shouted.
Because he did not.
He looked at her belly.
Then at his son.
“We’ve both buried enough people.”
Clara swallowed.
“Then we go together.”
They entered through the side.
Smoke filled the banking hall.
Elias wrapped wet cloth around Clara’s mouth.
The vault stood open.
Someone had already been there.
Boxes lay scattered.
“Seventeen,” Clara coughed.
They found it near the bottom.
The small key turned.
Inside was not money.
It was a marriage certificate.
Elias stared.
Clara unfolded it.
RUTH ANNE VALE.
She looked at him.
“Your wife.”
Elias went completely still.
The document listed Ruth’s father.
Jonathan Vale.
“No.”
Clara checked again.
There was no mistake.
Ruth Boone had been Ruth Vale.
The territorial land commissioner’s daughter.
Elias looked as though someone had struck him.
“She never told me.”
“She was hiding.”
“From her father.”
A second document explained why.
A sworn statement written by Ruth.
My father ordered the Dry Creek claims falsified. I copied his correspondence. If I am dead when this is found, my death was not natural.
Elias gripped the paper.
“She died giving birth.”
Clara looked at him.
“Did she?”
His face changed.
The fire roared above them.
“We need to leave.”
They escaped seconds before part of the roof collapsed.
Outside, Vane was still alive.
Doctor Hale treated him.
Clara handed Pike Ruth’s statement.
The sheriff read it.
“This is enough.”
“No,” Vane rasped.
Everyone turned.
“Vale controls the territorial court.”
Clara knelt beside him.
“Then who can prosecute him?”
“Federal marshal.”
“Where?”
“Fort Benton.”
Pike said, “Three days.”
Vane laughed weakly.
“Vale will be gone in three hours.”
Clara looked toward Elias.
“What would keep him here?”
Elias looked at the north field.
“Silver.”
They made a plan.
A dangerous one.
Clara publicly announced that Samuel had hidden the original federal silver deed beneath her north field.
It was a lie.
But Jonathan Vale could not know that.
By nightfall, word reached him.
At midnight, riders entered Clara’s land.
Pike and six armed townsmen waited in the barn.
Clara watched from the house.
Elias stayed beside her.
“You should be with Pike.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Vale wants you.”
Clara looked at him.
“You think you can protect everyone.”
“No.”
His voice softened.
“I learned I can’t.”
Baby Samuel slept nearby.
Clara’s hand rested against her belly.
“Ruth loved you.”
Elias looked away.
“She lied.”
“So did my Samuel.”
“For the same reason.”
“To protect us.”
Elias nodded.
Clara understood then that they were grieving parallel lives.
Two people who had been loved imperfectly by spouses who had died trying to shield them.
“I’m angry with him,” Clara admitted.
“Samuel?”
“Yes.”
“I’m angry with Ruth.”
“Does that make us terrible?”
“No.”
Elias looked at his sleeping son.
“Makes us alive.”
A gunshot sounded.
Then another.
Elias stood.
“Stay.”
Clara almost argued.
Then saw his expression.
He went outside.
The trap had worked.
Pike captured two of Vale’s men.
But Vale was not among them.
One prisoner laughed.
“He knew.”
Pike grabbed him.
“Knew what?”
“That it was a trap.”
Clara’s blood chilled.
“Then why send you?”
The man looked toward the house.
“To keep Boone away from town.”
Elias froze.
“Why?”
The prisoner smiled.
“Because Vale has the baby he actually wants.”
Elias looked toward the cradle.
Baby Samuel was there.
Clara’s hand flew to her stomach.
Not born.
Then she understood.
“Mercer.”
The prisoner laughed.
“No.”
Hoofbeats approached.
Doctor Hale rode into the yard.
His face was white.
“Clara.”
“What happened?”
“Vane’s gone.”
“Dead?”
“Taken.”
“By whom?”
“Judge Ward.”
Pike swore.
Hale continued.
“And Mrs. Fletcher is missing.”
Elias looked toward his son.
“Why would they take her?”
Hale stared at the infant.
“She told me something yesterday.”
“What?”
“She was there when Ruth gave birth.”
Elias stopped breathing.
Hale’s voice dropped.
“Ruth didn’t die from childbirth.”
Clara felt the night close around them.
“What killed her?”
“Poison.”
Elias’s face emptied.
“Who gave it to her?”
Hale swallowed.
“Mrs. Fletcher knew.”
A horse appeared on the road.
No rider.
A woman was tied across the saddle.
Pike ran forward.
Mrs. Fletcher.
Alive.
Barely.
Elias knelt.
“Who poisoned Ruth?”
Her eyes opened.
She looked at him.
Then at baby Samuel.
Tears filled her eyes.
“Ruth made me promise.”
“Promise what?”
Mrs. Fletcher struggled to speak.
“That if anything happened to her…”
She pointed toward the baby.
“…I would never tell you who his real father was.”
May you like
Elias stared at her.
And the entire yard went silent.
