They left before sunrise.
The burning cabin behind them had done one useful thing: it convinced Crowe that they had fled south.
Caleb led them north instead.
Or, more accurately, he gave directions while Eleanor helped him remain upright on a horse borrowed from an abandoned mining camp.
The blizzard had weakened into a pale gray snowfall.
Josiah believed they were forty miles from Fort Mason.
Forty miles sounded impossible.
Then Eleanor remembered the auction platform.
Impossible had already become ordinary.
Rose rode with Lucy.
Kate insisted on riding alone.
Josiah took the packhorse.
Eleanor remained beside Caleb.
He hated it.
“You don’t have to watch me every minute.”
“Yes, I do.”
“I’m not going to fall.”
“You almost fell ten minutes ago.”
“Horse slipped.”
“You were the part slipping.”
Caleb frowned.
Eleanor smiled.
That irritated him more.
By noon, his fever worsened.
They stopped beside a frozen creek.
Rose unwrapped the bandage.
The wounds were red around the edges.
Eleanor’s fear returned.
“Infection.”
Caleb shrugged.
“That’s unfortunate.”
Kate stared at him.
“That’s your response?”
“What would you prefer?”
“Concern.”
“I’m concerned.”
“You look bored.”
“That’s just my face.”
Lucy giggled.
It was the first laugh since the cabin burned.
They boiled water and cleaned the wounds.
While Rose worked, Eleanor wandered several yards away and found Josiah examining the trail behind them.
“Do you think Crowe knows?”
“He will soon.”
“Why is he willing to kill people over documents?”
“Because they do more than expose theft.”
Josiah lowered his voice.
“They expose bribery.”
He pulled another paper from beneath his coat.
Payments.
Crowe to Pike.
Crowe to two railway surveyors.
Crowe to Marshal Bell.
Eleanor stared at the amounts.
“With this…”
“If Judge Hart accepts the records as authentic, Crowe could lose everything.”
“Then he’ll never stop.”
“No.”
Josiah looked toward the sisters.
“He won’t.”
By late afternoon they reached a narrow passage between cliffs.
Caleb stopped suddenly.
“What?”
Eleanor followed his gaze.
A dead rabbit hung from a branch.
Not naturally.
Its hind legs had been tied with red cord.
Caleb dismounted despite Eleanor’s protest.
He examined the snow.
“Someone passed here this morning.”
“Crowe?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Crowe’s men wear horseshoes from Hollow Creek smithy. Flat heel.”
He pointed at faint tracks.
“These have military heels.”
Josiah brightened.
“Fort Mason patrol?”
“Maybe.”
They followed the trail.
An hour later, rifles appeared above the ridge.
“Hands where we can see them!”
Caleb slowly lifted his.
A mounted soldier descended.
Another followed.
Then a third.
Their blue winter coats bore federal insignia.
Eleanor nearly cried with relief.
The lieutenant in charge studied them carefully.
“Identify yourselves.”
Josiah immediately produced his former county clerk credentials.
“I need to see Judge Samuel Hart.”
The lieutenant looked at Caleb.
“And him?”
“Caleb Blackwood.”
The soldier’s expression sharpened.
“I know the name.”
Caleb sighed.
“Everyone does.”
“You’re wanted in Hollow Creek.”
Eleanor’s relief vanished.
“For what?”
The lieutenant removed a folded circular.
“Kidnapping four women. Murdering two deputies. Robbing Hollow Creek Bank of six hundred dollars in gold.”
Kate burst out laughing.
Everyone stared at her.
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
The lieutenant frowned.
Kate pointed at Caleb.
“He kidnapped us so badly that he let us escape through a cellar while men shot at him?”
Eleanor stepped forward.
“Lieutenant, Silas Crowe is lying.”
The officer’s expression remained cautious.
“Ma’am, I need everyone to lower their weapons.”
Caleb handed over the Winchester.
Kate hesitated.
“Kate,” Eleanor warned.
The girl surrendered the revolver.
They were escorted to Fort Mason under guard.
The fort appeared after dark.
Wooden palisades surrounded barracks, storehouses and administrative buildings.
For Eleanor, the sight of uniformed soldiers did not bring comfort.
She had learned too much about men with official titles.
Caleb noticed.
“Judge Hart is different.”
“You trust him?”
“No.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“That’s reassuring.”
“I trust that he prefers law to Crowe.”
“That will have to do.”
Judge Samuel Hart received them the following morning.
He was a broad-faced man in his sixties with silver hair and an expression that suggested patience had been tested too many times.
He recognized Caleb immediately.
“Blackwood.”
“Judge.”
“I hoped never to see you in my courtroom again.”
“Feeling’s mutual.”
Hart almost smiled.
Then he noticed Caleb’s injury.
“What happened?”
“Cougar.”
“Before or after the kidnapping?”
Kate groaned loudly.
Eleanor elbowed her.
For the next two hours, the sisters told everything.
Their parents’ deaths.
Crowe’s ledger.
The auction.
Caleb paying the debt.
The journey.
The cabin.
Crowe’s men.
The fire.
Josiah presented his documents last.
Judge Hart read them in silence.
Once.
Twice.
Then a third time.
“What do you need?” Eleanor asked.
Hart removed his spectacles.
“Original records.”
Josiah’s face fell.
“These are certified copies.”
“I believe you.”
“Then—”
“Belief and proof are different things.”
Hart pointed to the papers.
“These can justify an investigation. They may even justify arrest warrants. But Crowe will claim you forged them after leaving office.”
Josiah nodded slowly.
“The originals are in the Hollow Creek courthouse archive.”
Eleanor’s stomach sank.
Judge Hart continued.
“If those originals match these copies, the case changes considerably.”
Kate said what everyone was thinking.
“So we have to go back.”
“No,” Caleb said.
Hart looked at him.
“Not the girls.”
Eleanor crossed her arms.
“Stop deciding that.”
Caleb turned.
“Crowe tried to burn us alive.”
“Yes. Which is why leaving all the dangerous work to an injured man seems foolish.”
Hart looked between them.
“I remember you being less talkative, Blackwood.”
Caleb muttered, “I remember prison being quieter.”
The judge coughed into one hand to hide a smile.
Then his expression became serious.
“I can send a federal marshal.”
“Crowe owns half the town,” Josiah said.
“Not federal officers.”
“He has watchers on every road.”
Eleanor leaned forward.
“Then don’t announce the investigation.”
Hart studied her.
“What are you suggesting?”
“Send us back like prisoners.”
Caleb stared at her.
“No.”
She continued.
“Crowe already claims Caleb kidnapped us. Let him believe you accepted his accusation.”
Hart’s eyes narrowed with interest.
“We enter Hollow Creek under guard. Crowe relaxes because he thinks he has won.”
“And then?” Hart asked.
“Josiah accesses the courthouse records.”
The old clerk nodded slowly.
“I still know the archive.”
Caleb looked furious.
“You’re not walking into that town.”
Eleanor turned toward him.
“My family’s land is there.”
“So?”
“So are the people who laughed while we were sold.”
“That’s exactly my point.”
“And mine.”
Her voice softened.
“I spent the last months running from decisions other men made for me. Crowe decided we were debt. Pike decided we could be auctioned. You decided we should stay on the mountain.”
Caleb flinched.
Eleanor immediately regretted the sharpness but continued.
“You were kind to us. Kinder than anyone. But kindness doesn’t mean you get to choose my life.”
He looked down.
“No.”
“I choose to go back.”
Silence filled the room.
Then Caleb nodded.
“Then I go with you.”
“You can barely walk.”
“Wasn’t asking permission.”
Judge Hart sighed.
“I can see why you two get along.”
Neither Eleanor nor Caleb answered.
They did not look at one another.
Hart prepared the operation.
Federal Marshal Thomas Avery would lead it.
Four soldiers would accompany them.
The official story would be simple: Blackwood had been detained, the four sisters were being returned as material witnesses, and Reed would be brought to Hollow Creek to answer accusations of theft.
The real mission was to secure the original county records.
The next morning, Caleb found Eleanor beside the fort stable.
He held something in his hand.
A small folded piece of leather.
“What is it?”
“My cabin key.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“The cabin burned.”
“I know.”
“Then why keep it?”
His eyes moved toward the mountains.
“Because sometimes you carry proof that a place existed.”
Eleanor understood.
She reached into her dress pocket.
From inside she removed a tiny brass button.
“My father’s work coat.”
Caleb looked at it.
“I took it before Crowe seized the farm.”
They stood quietly.
Two people carrying keys to places that no longer existed.
“Eleanor.”
“Yes?”
“If this goes wrong—”
“No.”
He frowned.
“You don’t know what I was going to say.”
“You were going to tell me to take the girls and run.”
“Yes.”
“I already know.”
“And?”
“And I probably won’t listen.”
His mouth almost smiled.
Then Eleanor did something neither had planned.
She stepped forward and kissed his scarred cheek.
Caleb stopped breathing.
Eleanor’s own heart seemed to stop with him.
She stepped back.
“That was for carrying Lucy when she was afraid.”
Caleb touched the place she had kissed.
“Only Lucy?”
“And the rest.”
“What rest?”
Eleanor turned toward the horses.
“You’ll have to stay alive to find out.”
For the first time since she had met Caleb Blackwood, he had no answer.