Chapter 5
My body went cold from the inside out.
Your husband wants his baby back.
Not me.
The baby.
Mercy made a small hungry sound beneath the blanket. I pressed her closer to my chest, terrified even her breath would betray us.
Silas raised one finger to his lips.
Nettie moved like a shadow. She lifted a loose board beneath the bed and pulled up a trapdoor I had not noticed.
A root cellar.
Silas crossed to me.
His voice was barely air.
“Can you move?”
“I have to.”
He did not argue.
He lifted me with careful arms, blanket and all, and lowered me into the dark space beneath the floor. Pain tore through me, but I swallowed it. Nettie climbed down after me. Then the trapdoor settled above us, leaving only a hairline crack of light.
I heard Silas walk to the door.
The latch lifted.
Cold air rushed in.
“What do you want, Hiram?” Silas asked.
“Don’t play dumb. Woman belongs with her husband.”
“She ain’t here.”
A second voice spoke.
Thick. Familiar from the woods.
“Then you won’t mind us looking.”
“I mind.”
Silas’s voice changed.
It became quieter.
More dangerous.
“You step over this threshold without a warrant, Otis, and I’ll put you down where you stand.”
Silence.
Then Hiram laughed.
“You always were too proud for a man hiding up a mountain.”
“You always talked too much for a man with an empty skull.”
The floor above me creaked as someone shifted.
Nettie’s hand found mine in the dark.
Mercy began to fuss.
My heart slammed so hard I thought the men would hear it.
Nettie opened her blouse and guided Mercy against her own skin, using warmth to soothe her. The baby quieted.
Gratitude nearly broke me.
Outside, Hiram said, “Thomas filed complaint in town. Says his wife was taken by force. Says you stole his child.”
My breath caught.
Stole his child.
Silas did not answer.
Hiram continued, enjoying every word.
“He’s near sick with worry. Poor man rode half dead into Virginia City telling folks his wife vanished in the storm. Said some mountain savage must have found her.”
Otis chuckled.
I bit my hand.
Nettie squeezed my fingers.
Hiram’s boots scraped near the doorway.
“Sheriff’s coming tomorrow. Thought we’d save him the ride.”
“The sheriff can come,” Silas said. “You can leave.”
“You got no friends left, Hayes.”
“I got enough bullets.”
Another silence.
This one stretched.
At last, Hiram spat.
“Tell the woman something for me, if she crawls out from whatever hole you put her in.”
My whole body tightened.
“Tell her Thomas says she can keep breathing if she hands over the deed.”
The cabin went so still I could hear the stove tick.
Silas spoke slowly.
“Interesting.”
“What is?”
“I never said she was here.”
Hiram cursed.
A horse snorted outside.
Then Otis said, “Let it be. Sheriff will drag them out proper.”
Boots crunched away through the snow.
The door shut.
No one moved.
Silas waited a long time before lifting the trapdoor.
Light spilled down.
His face appeared above us.
“They’re gone.”
Nettie climbed out first, stiff and angry. Silas reached for me.
“I can climb.”
“You can also bleed to death proving you’re stubborn.”
I let him lift me.
Once I was back on the bed, I could not stop trembling. Not from cold. Not from pain.
From rage.
Thomas was not hiding.
He was not grieving.
He was in town telling everyone I had been stolen.
He was painting himself a broken-hearted husband while my blood was still on the hay of that shack.
“I want to go to town,” I said.
Nettie turned on me.
“You can barely stand.”
“I can speak.”
“You can die.”
“I was supposed to die already.”
The words silenced her.
I looked at Silas.
“You said Whitfield owns half the men in Virginia City.”
“He does.”
“Then let him look me in the eye in front of the other half.”
Silas stared at me for a long moment.
Then he nodded.
Nettie threw up her hands.
“Men are fools, and women who listen to them are bigger fools.”
“I’m not listening to him,” I said. “I’m asking him to help me.”
Her anger faltered.
She came to the bed and touched Mercy’s cheek.
“Your baby is too new for a fight.”
“My baby was born into one.”
No one had an answer for that.
Before dawn, Nettie dressed me in her own clean clothes. My deed stayed hidden in my hem. Mercy was wrapped against my chest beneath a shawl.
Silas saddled two horses. I rode with Nettie behind me, her arm around my waist to keep me upright. Silas rode ahead with his rifle across his saddle.
The trail to Virginia City felt endless.
By the time we reached the first buildings, my vision blurred at the edges.
People stopped in the street.
They stared at me.
At the baby.
At Silas.
Word traveled faster than hoofbeats.
By the time we reached the courthouse, Thomas was already there.
My husband stood on the steps in a clean coat, his face pale, his hair combed, his eyes wet with perfect tears.
Beside him stood his father, Amos Whitfield.
Tall. Silver-haired. Rich. Cold.
A man who looked at people the way ranchers looked at fences. Useful if standing. Replaced if broken.
Thomas saw me.
For one second, his mask slipped.
Shock.
Then fear.
Then he rushed down the steps with his arms open.
“Cora!”
I flinched.
He stopped just short of touching me.
Thank God Silas stepped between us.
Thomas looked past him at Mercy.
“My child,” he whispered.
I held her tighter.
“No.”
The crowd murmured.
Thomas’s face twisted with pain for the audience.
“Cora, you’re unwell. You don’t know what you’re saying. This man confused you. He kept you from me.”
I laughed.
It came out raw.
“You left me in a shack for three days.”
Gasps moved through the crowd.
Thomas shook his head.
“No. I rode for help. I nearly died trying. When I came back, you were gone.”
“Hiram Vale stood outside that shack after the snow started.”
Amos stepped forward.
“Careful, girl.”
Girl.
I was a mother with death still under my fingernails, and he called me girl.
I turned to the crowd.
“My father’s land is mine. My baby is mine. My life is mine. And these men tried to bury all three under snow.”
The sheriff pushed through the crowd then, red-faced and sweating beneath his hat.
“Enough of this.”
He pointed at Silas.
“Hayes, you’re under arrest for abducting another man’s wife.”
Silas did not move.
The street held its breath.
Thomas lowered his voice.
“Please, Cora. Give me the baby.”
He reached for Mercy.
May you like
I stepped back.
And the sheriff grabbed my arm.
