Chapter 4 - Her Father’s Price
“Josephine?”
She froze.
Harlan moved between her and the door.
Silas Bell stepped into the room.
He looked ten years older than he had at the wedding.
His coat was torn.
Blood had dried beside his temple.
Josephine stared at him.
“You.”
Silas raised his hands.
“Listen to me.”
“You sold me.”
“I was trying to save you.”
Josephine laughed once.
The sound was empty.
“For twenty dollars?”
“It wasn’t what you think.”
“That seems to be everyone’s favorite sentence.”
Silas looked at Harlan.
“You found the hidden clause.”
Harlan’s eyes narrowed.
“You knew?”
“I knew Eleanor left something in the contract.”
Josephine stepped forward.
“You used Mother’s document?”
“I had no choice.”
“You always have a choice.”
“Vale would have taken everything.”
“He already did.”
Silas looked at her.
“No. Not everything.”
Josephine understood.
“Me.”
Her father said nothing.
Harlan’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“Choose your next words carefully.”
Silas ignored him.
“Josephine, your mother left that land tied to you. Vale discovered it last summer. He knew I couldn’t sell it.”
“So you offered him your daughter?”
“No!”
The clerk flinched.
Silas lowered his voice.
“I told Vale the deed would activate when you married.”
Josephine stared.
“Why?”
“I thought I could control who you married.”
“And you chose Harlan?”
“No.”
Harlan’s eyes hardened.
Silas continued.
“Vale chose someone else.”
Josephine felt cold.
“Who?”
“His nephew, Everett.”
She remembered the gray-coated man at the courthouse.
Silver-headed cane.
“Mr. Vale.”
“Everett Vale.”
Josephine’s stomach twisted.
“He intended to marry you and have you sign the land over immediately.”
“Then why did I marry Harlan?”
Silas looked ashamed.
“Because your mother left me a second instruction.”
“What?”
“If anyone ever tried to use the deed against you, I was to find Harlan Creek.”
Harlan stared.
“You knew about Eleanor’s promise.”
“Yes.”
“You could have told me.”
“Would you have agreed?”
Harlan’s silence answered.
Silas gave a bitter smile.
“I needed you to marry her before Vale could act.”
Josephine’s anger exploded.
“You needed?”
She stepped toward him.
“You lied to me. You lied to Harlan. You put a price on me and dragged me to a preacher.”
“I saved you.”
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“You used me.”
Silas recoiled.
Josephine had obeyed her father for twenty-five years.
Now the words came faster.
“You could have told me the truth. You could have trusted me with my own life. Instead you treated me exactly the way Vale would have treated me—as something to move across a board.”
Silas looked down.
For once, he had no defense.
Harlan spoke.
“Where’s the key?”
Silas looked at Pike.
“What key?”
“Eleanor’s deposit box.”
Silas paled.
“I never knew about a box.”
Pike swore.
Harlan turned to him.
“Who knew?”
“Only me.”
“Anyone see you access the drawer?”
Pike thought.
“My deputy.”
“Where is he?”
“He left before noon.”
“What’s his name?”
“Thomas Rusk.”
Silas cursed.
“Rusk works for Vale.”
Pike stared.
“He’s worked here seven years.”
“That’s how Vale works.”
Josephine looked between them.
“What’s in the box?”
Silas shook his head.
“If Eleanor hid it from me, it matters.”
Harlan walked to the window.
“We need Rusk.”
“He’ll be at Vale’s hotel,” Silas said.
“No,” Josephine replied.
Everyone looked at her.
“If he stole the key, he already knows where the box is.”
Pike suddenly moved.
“The bank.”
They hurried across Mercer.
The bank was closed.
Its side door stood ajar.
Harlan entered first.
The vault was open.
A young night clerk lay unconscious on the floor.
Alive.
Pike rushed to him.
Harlan examined the deposit drawers.
“Which one?”
“Two-seventeen.”
The drawer hung open.
Empty.
Josephine closed her eyes.
They were too late.
Then the clerk groaned.
“Rusk…”
Pike leaned closer.
“What happened?”
“He came with authorization.”
“Where did he go?”
The clerk swallowed.
“Station.”
Harlan looked toward the window.
The evening train left Mercer in fifteen minutes.
They ran.
Josephine lifted her skirts and followed Harlan through the snowy streets.
A whistle sounded.
The locomotive was already moving when they reached the platform.
“There!”
Silas pointed.
Thomas Rusk stood on the rear platform.
He held a metal box.
Harlan ran beside the train.
Rusk saw him and drew a pistol.
Josephine screamed.
The shot cracked.
Harlan stumbled.
Josephine’s heart stopped.
But Harlan kept running.
He grabbed the railing and pulled himself aboard.
The train accelerated.
Josephine watched helplessly as it disappeared into falling snow.
Silas seized a horse from outside the station.
“Come on!”
They rode along the road paralleling the tracks.
Five miles outside Mercer, the train stopped.
Josephine saw smoke ahead.
A fallen tree blocked the rails.
Passengers poured from the cars.
“Harlan!”
She jumped from the horse.
Harlan appeared beside the final carriage.
Blood covered his sleeve.
Josephine ran to him.
“You’re hurt.”
“Grazed.”
“Where’s Rusk?”
“Gone.”
“And the box?”
Harlan opened his coat.
The metal deposit box was tucked underneath.
Josephine stared.
“You got it?”
“Rusk decided jumping from a moving train was preferable to discussing it.”
“Is he alive?”
“Unfortunately.”
Despite everything, Josephine laughed.
Harlan smiled faintly.
They returned to the courthouse.
Pike found tools and forced the damaged lock.
Inside the box lay a stack of letters, an old photograph, and a sealed envelope addressed:
TO MY DAUGHTER, JOSEPHINE.
Her hands trembled as she opened it.
My darling Josie,
If you are reading this, then the danger I feared has reached you.
Josephine’s eyes filled.
She continued.
Parcel 17 came to me from your grandfather. The federal grant proving ownership is safe, but not in this box. I learned years ago that Gideon Vale was buying land along the proposed railway route. He forged deeds when owners refused.
Josephine looked at Harlan.
She read further.
Your father knows only part of the truth because I could no longer trust his judgment where money was concerned.
Silas closed his eyes.
The final paragraph contained a clue.
The proof is where I first met the man I trusted with your life, beneath the words he carved because he thought he would die there.
Josephine looked up.
“Harlan.”
He was staring at the letter.
“You know the place.”
His voice was barely audible.
“Tanner Pass.”
They left before dawn.
Silas insisted on coming.
Harlan refused.
Josephine surprised both men.
“He comes.”
Harlan looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because if my father wants forgiveness, he can start earning it.”
Silas lowered his head.
The three rode toward Tanner Pass.
By afternoon they reached the site of the old avalanche.
Harlan found a weathered pine.
Fourteen years earlier, injured and freezing, he had carved words into its trunk.
ELEANOR BELL SAVED ME.
He knelt.
Beneath a flat stone they found a tin cylinder.
Inside was the federal grant.
Josephine nearly cried.
They had it.
Proof.
Then Harlan noticed something else.
Fresh hoofprints.
Many of them.
He stood.
“Josephine.”
She turned.
Men emerged from the trees.
Five.
Then six.
Everett Vale rode forward with his silver-headed cane resting across his saddle.
May you like
He smiled.
“Thank you for finding my document.”
