Chapter 5 - THE NIGHT THE RANCH BURNED
They saved the house.
They lost half the barn.
Two horses died before Silas could reach them.
The winter hay went up in smoke.
By midnight, black ice covered the yard where buckets had spilled.
Emiline stood near the ruins with soot on her face.
She had put Lily to sleep.
Josie stayed beside the baby.
Rose and Violet had finally stopped crying.
Sam had not spoken in an hour.
Silas found him sitting behind the woodshed.
“You hurt?”
“No.”
“That wasn’t the question I should’ve asked.”
Sam stared at his boots.
Silas sat beside him.
“What is?”
“You scared?”
The boy’s mouth tightened.
“No.”
Silas waited.
Sam’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Me too.”
Sam looked at him.
“Really?”
“Terrified.”
“But you have a rifle.”
“That helps with men.”
Silas nodded toward the house.
“Doesn’t help much with losing people.”
Sam stared into the snow.
“I thought they were going to kill us.”
“I know.”
“Deputy Pike shot one.”
Silas frowned.
“One?”
Sam nodded.
“He hit a man by the gate. They dragged him away.”
“Crane?”
“No.”
“Bell?”
“No.”
“Recognize him?”
Sam shook his head.
Then hesitated.
“He had a silver tooth.”
Silas knew a man with a silver tooth.
Reed Fallon.
Bell’s chief freight foreman.
Another piece.
Inside, Emiline sat beside Pike.
The deputy had regained consciousness.
His head was wrapped.
“You brought the ledger?” he asked.
Silas nodded.
Pike closed his eyes in relief.
“Then Mercer was right.”
“About Bell?”
“All of it.”
Silas placed the ledger on the table.
Emiline turned pages.
“Why didn’t Mercer tell us?”
“He didn’t know who to trust.”
Pike looked ashamed.
“Half the county owes Bell money.”
“Does he own you?” Silas asked.
Pike’s eyes snapped open.
“No.”
“Had to ask.”
“Fair.”
Emiline tapped a page.
“Can we send this to the territorial marshal?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Silas looked outside.
“Crane will watch the roads.”
Pike nodded.
“Telegraph in Cold Water Springs.”
“Bell owns the building.”
“Not the wires.”
Silas looked at him.
Pike managed a weak smile.
“We don’t need Bell’s operator.”
An hour later they had a plan.
Pike knew how to tap the telegraph line outside town.
He had learned as a railroad worker before becoming a deputy.
The nearest line crossed Thornton property three miles east.
If they could reach it and carry a portable key from the old station equipment, they could send directly to Pueblo.
Silas looked at the snow.
“Crane will expect me to ride toward town.”
Emiline folded the ledger into oilcloth.
“Then don’t.”
“You’re staying here.”
She looked at him.
“No.”
Silas sighed.
“We already had this argument.”
“And you lost.”
“I don’t remember losing.”
“You took me to the station.”
“That was surrender, not loss.”
Pike groaned from the chair.
“I am begging both of you to become less interesting.”
Emiline ignored him.
“You need someone to carry the ledger if they separate us.”
“I plan not to be separated.”
“So did I at the creek.”
Silas had no answer to that.
They left at three in the morning.
Pike came despite his injuries.
Silas objected.
Pike said, “I’m the only one who can make the key talk.”
Fair.
Josie watched them from the porch.
Emiline kissed each child.
When she reached Sam, he whispered, “Bring yourself back.”
Emiline’s face crumpled for one second.
“I will.”
Silas gave Sam the shotgun.
The boy stared.
“You said no.”
“I said children shouldn’t have to shoot.”
Silas crouched.
“That remains true.”
“Then why?”
“Because sometimes grown men fail to make the world safe before danger reaches the door.”
Sam’s hands closed around the stock.
“Only if someone comes inside.”
“Only then.”
Sam nodded.
Silas looked at Josie.
“Root cellar if anything feels wrong.”
“I remember.”
“And the old drainage tunnel?”
Her eyes widened.
He had shown them after the fire.
“Yes.”
“If the house burns, you use it.”
Josie nodded.
They rode east.
At the telegraph line, Pike set the portable key against the wire.
Nothing.
He adjusted.
A faint click.
“Got it.”
Emiline crouched beside him.
“Send everything.”
Pike began.
URGENT STOP SHERIFF ABDUCTED STOP ATTEMPTED MURDER DEPUTY STOP ORGANIZED LAND FRAUD STOP EVIDENCE AVAILABLE STOP REQUEST TERRITORIAL MARSHAL IMMEDIATE STOP
Silas watched the trees.
Pike continued.
Then the wire went dead.
He frowned.
“What?”
“Cut.”
Silas heard a horse.
“Down!”
Gunfire tore through the pines.
They scattered.
Pike rolled behind a stump.
Emiline dropped into the snow.
Silas fired toward the muzzle flash.
A man fell from his saddle.
Three more appeared.
Reed Fallon rode first.
Silver tooth.
Sam had been right.
“Thornton!” Fallon shouted. “Give us the book!”
Silas fired again.
Fallon ducked.
Pike worked desperately at the wire.
“Message went partway!”
“Enough?”
“Don’t know!”
Emiline crawled toward him.
“Can you reconnect?”
“Need the cut end.”
“Where?”
Pike pointed.
“North pole.”
Emiline looked.
Fifty yards across open snow.
Silas saw her intention.
“No.”
She ran.
“Emiline!”
Bullets struck the ground behind her.
Silas stood and fired so fast the rifle smoked.
One rider turned toward him.
Another chased Emiline.
She reached the pole.
Found the fallen wire.
The horseman closed on her.
Silas could not get a clean shot.
“Emiline!”
She turned.
The rider raised his revolver.
Emiline did something he did not expect.
She dropped flat.
The horse tried to avoid her.
Its front legs skidded.
The rider flew over its neck and struck the ground.
Emiline grabbed his fallen revolver.
He rolled.
She aimed.
“Don’t.”
The man froze.
Silas stared.
She had never told him she could shoot.
Apparently motherhood contained additional surprises.
“Wire,” Pike shouted.
Emiline grabbed the cut line and dragged it back.
Pike connected it.
Clicks returned.
He transmitted the rest.
Then Fallon fired from the trees.
The bullet struck Pike in the leg.
He screamed.
Silas shot Fallon’s horse.
The animal went down.
Fallon rolled free and fled on foot.
The remaining attackers followed.
Silas wanted to chase.
Again.
And again someone needed him more.
He knelt beside Pike.
“Can you ride?”
“With language unfit for children.”
“Good enough.”
They returned before sunrise.
The ranch stood intact.
Josie opened the door.
Relief flooded every face.
Then she saw Pike’s leg.
“What happened?”
“Your mother stole a revolver,” Pike said.
Josie looked at Emiline.
“Mama?”
Emiline handed the weapon to Silas.
“It seemed useful.”
For the first time since Miller’s Canyon, Silas laughed.
A real laugh.
It surprised him so much he stopped.
Emiline stared.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re laughing at me.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“Little.”
She almost smiled.
Then Sam came from the kitchen carrying Lily.
The sight of the boy holding the baby froze something in Silas’s chest.
Hannah used to hold barn kittens that way.
Carefully.
Proudly.
As if being trusted made the whole world larger.
Lily saw Silas and reached toward him.
He went still.
Emiline noticed.
“She likes you.”
“She likes ceilings.”
“That too.”
Lily made an impatient noise.
Silas slowly held out his arms.
Sam passed her over.
The baby settled against Silas’s chest.
Her tiny hand caught his shirt.
He stopped breathing.
Five years of grief opened at once.
Eleanor singing.
Hannah laughing.
A child asleep against him.
Silas’s eyes closed.
Emiline moved closer.
“You don’t have to.”
“Yes.”
His voice broke.
He opened his eyes.
“I think I do.”
Then a rider appeared outside.
Everyone tensed.
Silas handed Lily back and grabbed his rifle.
The rider waved a white cloth.
Pike dragged himself toward the window.
“Know him?”
“No.”
Silas opened the door.
The rider nearly fell from the saddle.
He was young.
Maybe seventeen.
Freight-company coat.
Blood on his face.
“I came from Bell’s warehouse.”
Silas aimed.
“What do you want?”
The boy swallowed.
“Sheriff Mercer.”
Pike limped forward.
“What about him?”
“He’s alive.”
Everyone froze.
“Where?” Silas demanded.
The boy looked over his shoulder.
“Old Silver Queen mine.”
Pike swore.
The abandoned mine sat twelve miles into the mountains.
“Why tell us?” Emiline asked.
The boy’s eyes filled with fear.
“Because Bell told Crane to kill him tonight.”
Silas’s expression hardened.
The boy continued.
“And there are women down there.”
Emiline went still.
“What women?”
“I don’t know their names.”
His voice shook.
“Three of them.”
Silas looked at Emiline.
The names in the ledger.
Mary.
Ada.
Esther.
Missing.
Perhaps not dead.
Perhaps waiting.
Just as Emiline’s children had waited.
May you like
Silas reached for his coat.
Emiline was already putting hers on.
