Chapter 2 - The Box Her Father Left Behind
Caleb motioned Hannah away from the window.
“Upstairs.”
“No.”
“Hannah.”
“I spent eighteen years being sent out of rooms when men discussed my life.”
That stopped him.
The pounding came again.
“Mercer!”
Caleb looked at her for a long second.
Then nodded.
“Stay behind me.”
He opened the door.
Silas stood outside with another man.
Deputy Amos Pike.
Hannah knew him from town.
Pike's coat was half-buttoned and his eyes were bloodshot.
Silas pointed past Caleb.
“There she is.”
Pike removed his hat.
“Miss Reed.”
Hannah said nothing.
Silas pushed forward.
Caleb blocked him.
“What do you want?”
“My property.”
Hannah felt sick.
Caleb's expression became dangerously still.
“Say that again.”
“The agreement isn't valid.”
Silas pulled another paper from his coat.
“She belongs under my guardianship until the marriage is properly recorded.”
“She is eighteen.”
“Not according to this.”
Pike unfolded the document.
Hannah moved closer.
A birth record.
Her birth record.
The date made her seventeen.
“No.”
Silas smiled.
“You've got six months yet, girl.”
Hannah stared at him.
“My mother told me I was born in June of '65.”
“Your mother told plenty of stories.”
Caleb took the paper.
“Where did this come from?”
“County record.”
Caleb studied it.
Then laughed once.
There was no humor in the sound.
“You forged it.”
Pike's hand moved toward his holster.
“Careful.”
Caleb handed the document back.
“Come with a judge's order.”
Silas pointed toward Hannah.
“She's coming tonight.”
“No.”
The word came from Hannah.
Everybody looked at her.
Silas stepped toward her.
“You don't understand what you're doing.”
“For the first time, I think I do.”
“You ungrateful little—”
Caleb moved between them.
Pike caught Silas's shoulder.
“Not here.”
Silas glared at Hannah.
Then his gaze moved past her.
Toward the kitchen table.
Toward the wooden box.
His face changed.
Only for a second.
But Hannah saw it.
So did Caleb.
Silas whispered, “Where did you get that?”
Caleb followed his stare.
“You recognize it?”
Silas recovered.
“Never seen it.”
“You just asked where I got it.”
Pike looked between them.
Silas backed toward the porch.
“This isn't finished.”
“No,” Caleb said. “I don't believe it is.”
They left.
Caleb waited until the horses disappeared.
Then Hannah locked the door.
Her hands trembled.
“He knew the box.”
“Yes.”
“Open it.”
Caleb brought the lantern back.
Hannah inserted the brass key.
It turned.
Inside were papers wrapped in oilcloth.
A photograph.
A silver pocket watch.
And a letter.
Hannah recognized the handwriting before she read the name.
Thomas Reed.
Her father.
She touched the envelope.
It was addressed to her.
My Hannah.
Her vision blurred.
Caleb quietly moved away.
She opened it.
The letter had been written shortly before her father's death.
Thomas described land.
Not Silas's land.
Hannah's.
A valley parcel containing water rights along Cottonwood Creek.
He wrote that he feared his brother Silas had discovered what lay beneath the western acreage.
Hannah read the sentence twice.
Coal.
A surveyor believed a substantial coal seam crossed the property.
Thomas had intended the land to pass to Hannah when she turned eighteen.
Silas had been appointed temporary guardian after Thomas and his wife died.
Temporary.
Not owner.
Hannah looked up.
“He stole it.”
“Looks that way.”
“He wasn't trying to sell me.”
“No.”
“He was trying to make me disappear.”
Caleb nodded.
A marriage could complicate ownership.
A false birth record could delay Hannah's legal majority.
And if Silas controlled where she lived, he controlled what she knew.
“Why did you have this?”
“Your father gave the box to my wife.”
Hannah stared.
“Rebecca?”
Caleb nodded.
“She worked briefly for the territorial land office before we married. Your father trusted her.”
“Why didn't she give it to me?”
“She intended to.”
Pain crossed Caleb's face.
“Then she got sick.”
After Rebecca's death, Caleb had discovered the box among her things but had not understood its importance until Silas approached him about Hannah.
Hannah picked up the photograph.
Her parents stood together.
Her mother held a baby.
Hannah.
She covered her mouth.
Caleb sat opposite her.
“Silas thinks marrying you to me solves his problem.”
“Why?”
“Because he thinks I'm desperate.”
Hannah looked upstairs.
The children.
A widower with three mouths to feed.
A ranch carrying debt.
A man the county pitied.
Silas believed Caleb could be bought too.
“What happens now?”
“We prove your age.”
“And the land?”
“We prove that too.”
“Then what?”
Caleb's eyes met hers.
“Then you choose what happens to your life.”
Nobody had ever said those words to Hannah.
The following weeks changed everything.
She learned Mercer Ranch.
Samuel pretended not to need her.
Lucy followed her everywhere.
Ben developed the habit of falling asleep against her shoulder after supper.
Caleb kept his promise.
He never entered her room.
Never touched her unnecessarily.
Never spoke of marital duties.
In town, however, people spoke enough for everyone.
They called her Mercer’s bought bride.
Some whispered that Caleb had purchased a virgin.
Others said Silas had finally found a buyer for his troublesome niece.
Hannah endured it.
Until one morning Lucy returned from school crying.
“What happened?”
Lucy refused to answer.
Samuel did.
“Mrs. Bell's boy said Pa bought Hannah because no decent woman would have him.”
Caleb went silent.
Hannah knelt before Lucy.
“Look at me.”
Lucy did.
“Your father did not buy me.”
Samuel frowned.
“But Uncle Silas took money.”
“Yes.”
Hannah looked toward Caleb.
“He paid for my freedom.”
Caleb's eyes changed.
That night, Hannah opened more papers from the box.
Receipts.
Survey notes.
A deed.
And one sealed envelope addressed not to Hannah.
To the territorial judge in Miles City.
Caleb examined it.
“We take this tomorrow.”
Morning came.
They hitched the wagon.
But before they could leave, Samuel ran from the barn.
“Pa!”
Caleb turned.
The boy held something.
A bloody strip of cloth.
It had been tied around the barn latch.
Inside the cloth was a note.
Caleb opened it.
Four words.
BURN THE BOX OR ELSE.
Then Lucy screamed from the house.
Hannah ran inside.
May you like
Her bedroom door stood open.
The wooden box was gone.
