Chapter 3
I slapped him.
It happened before I could stop myself.
The sound cracked through the cold yard.
Lily gasped from the horse.
Caleb’s face turned slightly with the blow, but he did not step back. He did not grab my wrist. He did not even look angry.
That made it worse.
“I am not some helpless woman waiting for a man to tell me what my life is,” I said.
My voice shook.
Not from fear.
From shame.
From exhaustion.
From five days of watching Lily ask for food I did not have.
Caleb slowly turned back to me.
“No,” he said. “You’re not.”
I hated that answer because it took the fight out of my hands.
He looked toward the shack.
“But somebody made sure you had nothing left to fight with.”
I stood there breathing hard, my palm stinging.
Lily began to cry softly.
That sound broke me.
I turned and lifted her down from the horse. Her little arms went around my neck. She felt hot beneath the new coat.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered into her hair.
She trembled.
“Don’t let the sheriff take me.”
My heart tore open.
“Never.”
Caleb looked away, giving us the only privacy the open yard allowed.
Then he carried the supplies inside.
The shack looked worse with him in it.
Too small.
Too bare.
Too honest.
Two blankets lay on the straw tick. The stove door hung crooked. A kettle sat empty. Daniel’s old shirt was folded on a crate beside the bed because I could not bring myself to sell it.
Caleb set the food down and went still.
He saw the shirt.
I saw him recognize the patch on the sleeve.
His hand hovered over it but did not touch.
“He wore that at Fort Kearny,” he said.
I swallowed.
“He wore it when he asked me to marry him.”
Caleb closed his eyes for one breath.
Then he opened them.
“Grace, Daniel’s letter said men were pressuring him to sign over his claim.”
I frowned.
“Claim?”
“The tunnel share. His portion of the Monarch strike.”
A laugh escaped me.
It sounded bitter and strange.
“Daniel had no share. He was paid by the day.”
Caleb’s eyes sharpened.
“That’s what they told you?”
“That’s what Mr. Pike said after the cave-in. He said Daniel owed the company store more than his last wages covered.”
“Ellis Pike?”
“Yes.”
Caleb’s face changed.
Not surprised.
Certain.
I felt the floor shift beneath my feet.
“What?”
He reached into his coat again and removed another paper, folded inside Daniel’s letter.
“I didn’t want to hand this to you in the street.”
My fingers shook as I took it.
The paper was stained at the edges.
Daniel’s handwriting crossed the page.
Grace, if this reaches you, I have been threatened or worse. Pike and Coldwell are stealing shares from dead men and calling it debt. I have proof hidden where Lily first saw snow. Trust Caleb Rourke. Trust no badge in Silverton until he knows the truth.
I read the words three times.
They did not become easier.
Where Lily first saw snow.
My breath caught.
“The old chapel,” I whispered.
Caleb stepped closer.
“What?”
“When Lily was a baby, the first snow came during Sunday service. Daniel carried her outside the old chapel and held her up so flakes landed on her face. She laughed.” Tears burned my eyes. “He said she looked like she was blessing the whole mountain.”
Caleb folded the letter gently.
“Then that’s where we go.”
“No.”
His brows drew together.
“If there’s proof—”
“If there’s proof, then that is why Coldwell wants Lily gone. That is why Pike cut off credit. That is why every door in town closed at once.”
I gripped the edge of the crate.
“They didn’t just forget us. They wanted us desperate.”
Caleb said nothing.
He did not have to.
The truth was already standing in the room.
If I looked like an unfit mother, Coldwell could take Lily.
If Lily went to Denver, I would have no reason to stay.
If I left, no one would ask about Daniel’s proof.
My husband had died in the dark, and they had buried the truth with him.
Or thought they had.
Lily coughed.
The sound dragged me back.
Her face was flushed. Her eyes had gone glassy.
Caleb reached for the fever medicine.
I snatched it first.
Pride again.
Always pride.
He let me have it.
I mixed the powder with milk and coaxed Lily to drink. She wrinkled her nose but swallowed because she trusted me even after hunger had made my promises thin.
Caleb fixed the stove door with wire from his saddlebag. Then he built a fire that finally held.
Warmth filled the shack.
Lily fell asleep wrapped in his coat.
For a few minutes, the only sound was the crackle of burning wood.
Caleb stood by the patched window.
“Do you have somewhere else to go?”
“No.”
“Family?”
“My parents are dead. Daniel’s mother lives two valleys over, but she hasn’t spoken to me since the funeral.”
“Why?”
I looked at Daniel’s shirt.
“She blamed me.”
“For the cave-in?”
“For Daniel taking extra shifts. For him being tired. For him marrying me instead of a girl with land and money.”
“That true?”
“That he took extra shifts? Yes. That it was my fault? I don’t know anymore.”
Caleb’s voice turned firm.
“It wasn’t.”
I wanted to believe him.
I was too tired to know how.
A knock sounded at the door.
Not friendly.
Three hard strikes.
My heart jumped.
Caleb’s hand dropped near his gun.
I moved to Lily.
The door opened before I could answer.
Sheriff Coldwell stepped inside with two men behind him.
His eyes went first to the food.
Then to Caleb.
Then to Lily asleep by the stove.
“Well,” he said softly. “Looks like charity came just in time.”
I stood.
“What do you want?”
Coldwell smiled.
“I came to inform you the arrangement has changed.”
My hand tightened around Lily’s blanket.
May you like
“You said three days.”
“I did.” His gaze slid to Caleb. “But after receiving concern from citizens about a strange armed man occupying your home, I have reason to remove the child tonight.”
