Chapter 5 - The Choice at Tanner Pass
Harlan stepped in front of Josephine.
Everett Vale smiled.
“Still playing husband, Creek?”
Harlan’s hand hovered near his revolver.
Everett’s men raised rifles.
“Don’t.”
Josephine looked around.
Six men.
Silas stood beside her.
For the first time in her life, her father looked genuinely afraid.
Everett dismounted.
He was handsome in the polished way Harlan was not. Clean coat. Clean gloves. Perfect hair.
Josephine hated him immediately.
“Mrs. Creek.”
“Don’t call me that as though we’re friends.”
Everett smiled.
“I had expected you to be difficult.”
“You expected me to be your wife.”
“Temporarily.”
Harlan took one step forward.
Three rifles shifted toward him.
Josephine touched his sleeve.
Not because she was afraid of him.
Because she was afraid for him.
Everett noticed.
“How touching.”
“What do you want?” Josephine asked.
“The grant.”
“No.”
“Then Creek dies.”
Silas stepped forward.
“Leave them out of this.”
Everett laughed.
“You started this, Bell.”
“I’ll repay the debt.”
“With what?”
Silas had no answer.
Everett approached Josephine.
Harlan moved.
A rifle cocked.
Josephine whispered, “Don’t.”
Harlan stopped.
Everett extended his hand.
“The cylinder.”
Josephine held it against her chest.
“You know this proves the land is mine.”
“It proves your mother’s title.”
“Which became mine.”
“Yes.”
“Then why would I give it to you?”
“Because paper burns.”
Everett’s smile disappeared.
“And people bleed.”
Josephine looked at Harlan.
Then her father.
Then the rifles.
She handed Everett the cylinder.
“No!” Silas shouted.
Everett took it.
“Smart girl.”
He opened the cylinder.
Empty.
His face changed.
Josephine smiled.
Harlan almost did too.
Everett grabbed her wrist.
“Where is it?”
Harlan’s revolver cleared leather before anyone saw him move.
The shot hit the rifle of the nearest man, knocking it aside.
Chaos erupted.
Silas tackled another rider.
Josephine drove her knee into Everett and tore free.
Harlan seized her.
“Run!”
They raced toward the rocks.
Shots cracked behind them.
Harlan pulled Josephine into a narrow ravine.
Silas followed.
“Where’s the grant?” Harlan demanded.
Josephine reached inside the loosened front of her dress.
Harlan stared.
She pulled out the folded document.
“You told me they’d expect you to carry important things.”
A grin flashed beneath his beard.
“I’m starting to like being married to you.”
Josephine’s cheeks warmed despite the bullets striking stone nearby.
“Survive first.”
“Good plan.”
Harlan knew the mountain better than Everett’s men.
He led them through a narrow passage into timber.
For two hours they climbed.
Silas struggled.
Josephine refused to leave him.
By dusk they reached an abandoned mining cabin.
Harlan barred the door.
Silas collapsed beside the wall.
Josephine noticed blood.
“Father.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re shot.”
The bullet had passed through his side.
Harlan examined it.
“He needs a doctor.”
“Mercer?” Josephine asked.
“Too far.”
Silas grabbed Harlan’s arm.
“Leave me.”
“No,” Josephine said.
“Josie.”
“No.”
Silas looked at his daughter.
“I don’t deserve—”
“No, you don’t.”
He went silent.
Josephine knelt beside him.
“But whether you deserve me isn’t the question anymore. I decide who I am.”
Tears filled Silas’s eyes.
Josephine had never seen her father cry.
“I was ashamed,” he whispered.
“Of what?”
“Your mother knew I gambled.”
Josephine closed her eyes.
There it was.
“She spent years protecting the farm from me. After she died, I thought I could win enough to pay everything.”
“You lost it instead.”
“Yes.”
“And Vale?”
“He kept lending.”
Silas swallowed painfully.
“When he discovered Parcel 17, he offered to erase my debt if you married Everett.”
Josephine felt sick.
“I almost agreed.”
Harlan’s face became stone.
Silas looked at him.
“I almost sold her completely.”
Josephine stood and walked away.
She needed distance.
Harlan followed her outside.
Snow had stopped.
Stars appeared above the mountains.
“I hate him,” she whispered.
“You’re allowed.”
“He’s my father.”
“Those things can both be true.”
Josephine looked at Harlan.
“Did you hate yours?”
“Every day.”
“What did he do?”
“Drank. Hit my mother. Hit me when I got big enough to stand between them.”
Josephine’s expression softened.
“Is that why you never married?”
“Partly.”
“And the rest?”
Harlan stared across the mountains.
“I didn’t think I knew how to be a husband.”
Josephine almost smiled.
“You solved that by buying a wife?”
He grimaced.
“When you say it like that, my plan sounds poor.”
“It was a terrible plan.”
“Yes.”
They stood in silence.
Then Harlan said, “When this is over, I’ll annul it.”
Josephine looked at him.
“The marriage?”
“You didn’t choose it.”
The words hurt unexpectedly.
“You want that?”
“What I want doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
Harlan looked at her.
Josephine’s heartbeat changed.
He took a breath.
“I want you to be free.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No.”
His voice dropped.
“It wasn’t.”
Their eyes held.
For one suspended moment, Josephine thought he might step closer.
He did not.
He respected the distance.
That somehow mattered more.
Inside, Silas coughed.
The moment broke.
At dawn, they fashioned a sled.
Harlan pulled Silas toward the nearest settlement.
Josephine walked beside him.
They reached Dr. Weaver’s cabin before noon.
Silas survived.
While the doctor worked, Harlan examined the federal grant.
“We need copies.”
“Pike can make them.”
“And witnesses.”
“To what?”
“To everything.”
Josephine understood.
“We stop hiding.”
They returned to Mercer two days later.
Josephine walked directly into the newspaper office.
Editor Margaret Shaw listened to the entire story.
Then she printed it.
The next morning, every breakfast table in Mercer carried the headline:
WIDOW’S DEED EXPOSES VALE LAND SCHEME.
Vale responded immediately.
He filed suit against Josephine.
Then he filed something worse.
A petition declaring her marriage invalid.
If the marriage was invalid, Eleanor’s deed had never activated.
The hearing was set for three days later.
The courthouse overflowed.
Everett’s attorney argued that Harlan had purchased Josephine and therefore the marriage contract was coercive and void.
Josephine nearly laughed at the hypocrisy.
Then the attorney produced a witness.
Thomas Rusk.
He swore that Josephine had begged him before the wedding to stop the ceremony.
It was partly true.
She had been terrified.
Vale’s attorney smiled.
“If Mrs. Creek entered the marriage under duress, the marriage is invalid.”
The judge looked at Josephine.
“Mrs. Creek, did you freely choose to marry Harlan Creek?”
Silence filled the courtroom.
Josephine looked at Harlan.
He did not plead.
Did not signal.
Did not claim her.
He simply waited for her choice.
Josephine stood.
“No.”
Gasps filled the room.
Vale smiled.
Harlan lowered his eyes.
Josephine continued.
“I did not choose him then.”
The judge frowned.
“Then—”
“But I choose him now.”
Harlan looked up.
Josephine walked toward him.
“My father manipulated the first vows. I won’t defend that lie.”
She faced the judge.
“So let me make a true choice.”
The judge stared.
“What are you requesting?”
“A new ceremony.”
Vale’s attorney jumped up.
“Objection!”
The judge almost smiled.
“This is not testimony, counselor.”
Josephine looked at Harlan.
“Will you marry me?”
Harlan stared as though she had struck him.
“Josephine…”
“Not for land. Not for Caleb. Not for my mother.”
Her voice trembled.
“For me.”
Harlan stepped toward her.
“Yes.”
The courtroom erupted.
The judge ordered silence.
Then a deputy burst through the rear doors.
“Judge!”
Everyone turned.
The deputy held a telegram.
His face was white.
“Federal marshal’s office.”
Vale stopped smiling.
May you like
The deputy looked directly at Josephine.
“They found Eleanor Bell’s missing witness.”
