Chapter 6 - What Jacob's Wife Knew Before She Died
Jacob reached the door first.
Nathan covered the window.
Hannah stood on the stairs holding Ruth's empty blanket.
The knock came again.
Jacob opened the door.
Samuel stood outside.
Blood covered his shirt.
Jacob caught him.
“Samuel!”
“I'm all right.”
The blood wasn't his.
Samuel had followed the kidnapper.
He had found one of Cyrus's men injured beside the creek.
“Ruth's alive,” he gasped. “I heard her crying.”
“Where?”
“Old Reed place.”
Jacob looked at Hannah.
“We're going.”
“No.”
He stared.
“We're not doing what they expect.”
“Hannah—”
“They want the ledger. They want us frightened. That's why they took Ruth.”
Jacob's face hardened.
“She's six.”
“I know.”
“Then I'm going.”
“So am I.”
They planned quickly.
Nathan would approach from the ridge.
Jacob from the barn.
Hannah would carry a false ledger through the front door.
“You won't be alone,” Jacob said.
She looked at him.
“I know.”
Those three words meant more than either acknowledged.
At Cyrus's cabin, Hannah entered alone.
Cyrus waited beside the hearth.
Ruth sat tied to a chair.
“Hannah!”
“I'm here.”
Cyrus smiled.
“You always were obedient eventually.”
“Let her go.”
“The ledger.”
Hannah held it up.
Cyrus approached.
She threw it onto the table.
He opened it.
His face changed.
Blank pages.
“You stupid—”
Jacob crashed through the rear door.
Nathan fired from outside.
A bullet shattered Cyrus's pistol from his hand.
Hannah ran to Ruth.
Cyrus escaped through a side window.
Jacob pursued him but returned minutes later.
“He had a horse waiting.”
Ruth clung to Hannah.
“I knew you'd come.”
Hannah held her.
“So did I.”
The words surprised her.
Back at the ranch, Elizabeth told them what she'd withheld.
Mary Mercer had known the entire story.
Years earlier, Mary and Elizabeth had promised each other that if anything happened, they would protect the other's child.
Mary had kept her promise.
“Before she died,” Elizabeth said, “she wrote something for Jacob.”
Jacob looked confused.
“I never received it.”
Elizabeth produced a sealed letter.
“I was afraid.”
Jacob opened it.
Mary's handwriting filled two pages.
He read silently.
Then sat down.
Hannah watched his face break.
“What did she say?”
Jacob handed her the letter.
Mary had asked him to protect Hannah.
But not merely because of Elizabeth.
She had also written:
Do not mistake protection for possession. If Hannah ever comes to you, give her what nobody else has given her—the right to choose. And Jacob, if one day she chooses you, do not refuse happiness because you think loving again betrays me.
Hannah stopped reading.
Jacob turned away.
“She knew you,” Hannah whispered.
“Better than I knew myself.”
That night, Jacob went to Mary's grave.
Hannah followed later.
He was crying.
She almost retreated.
Then he held out his hand.
She took it.
They stood together.
No kiss.
No promise.
Only hands joined in the darkness.
For Hannah, it felt more intimate than either.
The next morning, Nathan arrived with news.
Cyrus had gone to Judge Whitcomb.
A warrant had been issued.
For Jacob.
Charges: kidnapping, unlawful confinement, theft of property.
The “property” was Hannah.
“He's coming with deputies,” Nathan said.
“When?”
A rifle cracked outside.
The front window exploded.
Everyone dropped.
Jacob crawled toward his rifle.
Another shot struck the wall.
Then horses approached.
Not one.
Many.
A voice called from the yard.
“Jacob Mercer! By order of the territorial court, come outside unarmed!”
Jacob looked through the shattered window.
His face changed.
“What?”
Hannah moved beside him.
At the front of the posse sat Judge Horace Whitcomb himself.
Beside him was Cyrus.
And between them sat a shackled prisoner with a gray beard.
Elizabeth saw him.
The cup fell from her hand.
Hannah stared at the stranger.
Elizabeth whispered a name Hannah had waited eighteen years to hear.
“Daniel.”
May you like
Her father slowly lifted his head.
And looked directly at her...
