Nobody spoke.
The statement seemed too large to fit inside the cabin.
Eleanor stared at Josiah Reed.
“What did you say?”
The old man removed his wet gloves.
“Your father’s debt was fraudulent.”
Rose covered her mouth.
Kate stepped closer.
Lucy simply looked confused.
Caleb had pushed himself upright despite Eleanor’s warning.
“You better explain.”
Josiah nodded.
“I intend to.”
He opened the leather case.
Inside were folded papers protected with waxed cloth.
Some were receipts.
Some were handwritten copies of bank ledgers.
Others bore seals Eleanor recognized from county documents.
Josiah selected one.
“Thomas Whitmore borrowed one hundred and eighty dollars from Hollow Creek Bank four years ago.”
Eleanor nodded slowly.
She knew about that loan.
Her father had taken it after drought damaged their corn crop.
“He paid it back,” she said.
“Every cent.”
Josiah placed three receipts on the table.
“One payment of sixty dollars. Another of seventy. Final payment of fifty, plus interest.”
Rose stared at the papers.
“Then where did six hundred come from?”
Josiah’s mouth tightened.
“Silas Crowe.”
The fire cracked behind them.
“For years,” he continued, “Crowe has been purchasing debts from settlers, modifying the balances, and using Mayor Pike to authorize seizures.”
Kate’s eyes narrowed.
“So they’re thieves.”
“Yes.”
“Then why hasn’t anyone stopped them?”
Josiah looked tired.
“Because Crowe controls the bank. Pike controls the court. Marshal Bell enforces their orders. And most people who challenge them lose everything before they can reach another judge.”
Eleanor thought of the auction platform.
The laughter.
Vernon Briggs bidding thirty dollars.
Her stomach turned.
“How many families?”
Josiah did not answer immediately.
“Thirty-seven that I can prove.”
Caleb swore.
“Why do you have the records?”
“Because I copied them.”
The old man’s hand trembled slightly.
“I was county clerk for seventeen years. Three years ago, I noticed mortgages changing after they were recorded. Numbers increased. Dates moved. Signatures appeared that I knew men had not written.”
He looked toward Caleb.
“Your family was one of the first.”
Caleb froze.
Eleanor saw the transformation immediately.
The room seemed to darken around him.
“My family?”
Josiah nodded.
“The mine company debt used to seize your home was also falsified.”
Caleb stared at him.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“My wife signed papers.”
“Under threat of eviction.”
“She owed money.”
“Not what Crowe claimed.”
Caleb stood.
Or tried to.
Pain folded him almost instantly.
Eleanor caught him before he struck the floor.
His entire body trembled.
“You’re lying.”
Josiah did not flinch.
“I wish I were.”
Caleb shoved Eleanor’s hands away and gripped the table.
“Why tell me now?”
“Because I was afraid then.”
The old man’s voice broke slightly.
“I saw what they did to you. I watched them drag you through the street. I watched Crowe’s men put your wife and daughter out of that house during a winter storm.”
Caleb’s face became something Eleanor barely recognized.
“You watched?”
“Yes.”
“And did nothing?”
Josiah lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
Caleb lunged.
His injured leg failed.
He crashed into the table, scattering papers.
Eleanor grabbed him.
“Caleb!”
“Get him out!”
Josiah did not move.
“You have every right to hate me.”
“Get out!”
“I was a coward.”
Caleb’s fist struck the table.
Lucy began crying.
The sound stopped him.
His chest heaved.
Slowly, Caleb looked toward the child.
The rage drained from his face, leaving something worse.
Pain.
He sat.
Eleanor knelt beside him.
Josiah gathered the fallen documents.
“I left Hollow Creek two years ago,” he said. “I took copies because someday I hoped I would become brave enough to use them.”
Kate crossed her arms.
“And today is someday?”
“I was traveling toward the territorial capital when the storm trapped me in Caleb’s shelter.”
He looked toward Rose.
“Then these young women arrived and told me what had happened.”
Eleanor studied him.
“Why were you going to the capital now?”
“Because Crowe is preparing something larger.”
He unfolded a map.
A railroad route crossed the valley south of Hollow Creek.
“The territorial rail commission announced three months ago that this route is under consideration.”
Caleb looked at it.
Crowe had been buying land along the corridor.
Or rather, stealing it.
Josiah tapped several marked parcels.
“Thirty-seven properties. Possibly more. If the route is approved, these farms become worth ten times what Crowe paid—or seized.”
Eleanor understood.
“Our farm.”
“Directly beside the proposed line.”
“So our parents died, and Crowe saw his chance.”
Josiah nodded.
“He probably intended to seize the land and place you girls into service before anyone could question the balance.”
Rose looked sick.
Kate whispered something Eleanor pretended not to hear.
Lucy climbed onto the bench.
“Can we get our house back?”
The simple question silenced everyone.
Eleanor looked toward Caleb.
For two months, the cabin had been safety.
The farmhouse remained filled with memories of illness, death and men hammering a notice onto the door.
Did she even want it back?
Then she realized the question was larger than a house.
Crowe had taken their parents’ labor.
Their inheritance.
Their freedom.
“Yes,” Eleanor said quietly.
“We’re going to try.”
Caleb turned.
“No.”
Kate snapped toward him.
“What?”
“You’re not going anywhere near Hollow Creek.”
“We can’t hide forever,” Eleanor said.
“You’re safe here.”
“Until Crowe returns with ten men instead of five.”
Caleb said nothing.
Josiah nodded.
“She’s right.”
Caleb’s eyes hardened.
“Nobody asked you.”
Josiah accepted the rebuke.
Eleanor sat across from Caleb.
“What happens if we do nothing?”
“He eventually loses interest.”
“Does he?”
Caleb looked away.
“No.”
“What happens if Josiah reaches the capital?”
“Crowe tries to stop him.”
“And if the documents disappear?”
Silence.
“Then nobody believes us,” Eleanor said.
Caleb’s jaw clenched.
“You want to carry evidence through two mountain passes in winter?”
“I want my sisters to live without wondering when Crowe will arrive.”
Kate leaned forward.
“I want him in jail.”
Rose looked at her.
“Kate.”
“What? I do.”
Lucy whispered, “I want Mama’s rocking chair back.”
That nearly destroyed Eleanor.
Their mother had rocked every daughter in that chair.
Silas Crowe had placed it outside during the seizure.
Eleanor had watched Vernon Briggs purchase it for two dollars.
Caleb closed his eyes.
“All right.”
Eleanor blinked.
“All right?”
“We don’t go to Hollow Creek.”
“Where?”
“Fort Mason.”
Josiah looked surprised.
“There’s a federal territorial judge there.”
“Judge Samuel Hart.”
“You know him?”
Caleb nodded.
“He sentenced me.”
Eleanor stared.
“And you want his help?”
“He also reduced the charges after hearing why I fought Crowe’s men.”
Josiah considered that.
“Hart has authority over interstate rail fraud and territorial land disputes.”
“Exactly.”
Eleanor leaned back.
“When do we leave?”
Caleb gave her a look.
“You don’t.”
“You cannot ride.”
“I’ll manage.”
“You have stitches holding your leg together.”
“I’ve ridden worse.”
“No, you have survived worse. That doesn’t make it wise.”
Rose hid a smile.
Caleb noticed.
“You find something funny?”
“No.”
“You do.”
“I’m just glad somebody else tells you what to do.”
Kate grinned.
Even Lucy giggled.
Caleb looked personally betrayed by all four sisters.
For one brief moment, the cabin felt almost normal.
Then a rifle cracked outside.
The front window exploded.
Josiah dropped.
Eleanor screamed.
Caleb dragged her behind the stone fireplace.
Kate pulled Lucy down.
Rose crawled toward Josiah.
Blood appeared along the old man’s temple.
“He’s alive!” Rose shouted.
A bullet had grazed him.
Caleb reached for the Winchester.
“They followed you.”
Josiah pressed a hand against his head.
“I’m sorry.”
“Save it.”
Another bullet struck the logs.
Then Crowe shouted from the trees.
“Blackwood!”
Caleb’s face became stone.
“What?”
“Send Reed out with the papers, and this ends.”
Eleanor whispered, “He knows.”
Josiah looked terrified.
Crowe continued.
“I don’t want the girls anymore. Keep them if you like. I only want what Reed stole.”
Caleb raised his voice.
“Funny. Yesterday you wanted the girls badly enough to shoot through my door.”
“Circumstances change.”
“So did mine.”
Caleb slid the Winchester barrel through the broken window.
Crowe laughed.
“You’ve got five people in that cabin who can’t fight.”
Kate crawled beside Caleb holding her revolver.
“Six.”
Caleb glanced at her.
“Stay down.”
“I can shoot.”
“Paper targets don’t shoot back.”
“Then this seems like a good time to improve.”
Despite the danger, Eleanor almost laughed.
Caleb did not.
He stared through the broken glass.
“Briggs is behind the fallen pine. Mercer near the stable.”
“How can you see them?” Eleanor whispered.
“I can’t.”
“Then how—”
“They always choose cover the same way.”
He pointed toward the rear wall.
“There’s a ravine forty yards east. If we reach it, we can follow the creek north.”
“With your leg?”
Caleb looked at the girls.
“We don’t have much choice.”
Smoke suddenly appeared beneath the back door.
“They’re burning the woodshed!” Rose shouted.
This time Crowe was not bluffing.
Flames climbed the exterior wall.
Caleb looked around the cabin that had sheltered him for six years.
His expression did not change.
But Eleanor saw the pain.
This place held everything he had rebuilt after losing his family.
“Caleb…”
“Cellar. Now.”
They moved.
Josiah gathered the documents.
Rose pulled Lucy down the ladder.
Kate followed.
Eleanor helped Josiah.
Then she turned back.
Caleb remained beside the fireplace.
“What are you doing?”
“Buying time.”
“No.”
“Eleanor.”
“We already had this argument.”
“And you ignored me.”
“I plan to continue.”
He looked at her for one long second.
Then something in him surrendered.
“Fine.”
Eleanor wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
Together they crossed the room.
Smoke thickened.
The cabin groaned.
They descended into the cellar.
Caleb lit a lantern.
The narrow escape tunnel led beneath the woodshed and toward the ravine.
Behind them, flames roared.
Lucy sobbed.
“My pinecones.”
Caleb stopped.
Eleanor thought he had stumbled.
Instead, he looked back toward the burning cabin.
Everything he owned was above them.
Every tool.
Every blanket.
Every memory.
Then he faced forward.
“We can find more pinecones.”
They emerged behind a wall of snow-covered rocks.
Crowe’s men were focused on the burning cabin.
The six fugitives moved through the ravine.
Caleb leaned heavily against Eleanor.
His fever had returned.
By nightfall they reached an abandoned mining shack.
Rose started a small fire.
Eleanor changed Caleb’s bandages.
Josiah spread the documents on the floor.
One page caught Eleanor’s attention.
A list of property seizures.
She saw Thomas Whitmore.
Then another name.
Daniel Blackwood.
Caleb’s father.
Below it was Caleb Blackwood.
And beside the entry, written in a different hand:
BALANCE ADJUSTED BY S.C.
Eleanor slowly raised her eyes.
Caleb saw the page.
For a long time he said nothing.
Then he whispered, “He didn’t just take my home.”
“No.”
“He killed them.”
Eleanor touched his hand.
“Crowe created the situation that destroyed your family.”
Caleb’s fingers closed around hers.
His voice became almost inaudible.
“I spent six years believing I had failed them.”
“You didn’t.”
His eyes met hers.
For the first time, the enormous mountain man did not look frightening.
He looked exhausted.
And terribly human.
Eleanor squeezed his hand.
“We finish this.”
Caleb looked toward the papers.
Then toward the distant mountains beyond the cracked window.
“Yes,” he said.
“We finish it.”