Guilt.
“I was riding to find you.”
Natalie’s blood went cold.
Outside, thunder rolled away toward the east.
“Why?”
Ryan reached beneath his coat.
Natalie instinctively pulled both babies closer.
He removed an oilskin packet.
Inside was an envelope.
Dirty.
Creased.
Sealed.
Natalie’s name was written across it.
She recognized the handwriting immediately.
Her heart stopped.
James.
She stared at Ryan.
“Where did you get that?”
He did not move.
“Where did you get that?”
“Your husband gave it to me.”
Natalie could hardly breathe.
“James died four months ago.”
“I know.”
“When?”
“Three days before the mine collapsed.”
She looked at the letter again.
“Why didn’t you bring it to me?”
Ryan’s jaw tightened.
“Because three days later I was in jail.”
Natalie waited until the fire was burning steadily before opening the letter.
Her fingers shook so badly Ryan finally helped break the seal.
The message began simply.
My dearest Natalie.
She stopped.
Pressed the page against her lips.
Then continued.
If Patterson gives you this letter, then something has happened to me before I could explain matters myself.
Natalie lifted her eyes.
Ryan was looking into the fire.
She read on.
You are in danger, and I am more sorry than I can ever express for leaving you ignorant of it.
Natalie’s stomach tightened.
The debts are not mine.
She read that line three times.
“What?”
Ryan looked at her.
Natalie continued.
Someone has forged my name on notes and equipment loans.
I believe it is connected to something I discovered beneath Number Seven shaft.
The Lucky Banner mine.
Natalie’s eyes moved faster.
James wrote that the company had secretly followed a rich silver vein beyond the property line into land owned by several homesteaders.
Land they did not own.
Rather than admit it, company officials had altered survey maps and bribed a territorial clerk.
James had discovered the original survey markers underground.
He had copied ledger entries.
More importantly, he had found records showing that the richest portion of the vein did not belong to the Lucky Banner at all.
It passed beneath forty acres James had purchased shortly after marrying Natalie.
Forty acres he had registered in
her name
.
Natalie looked up.
“We didn’t own forty acres near the mine.”
“You did,” Ryan said.
“No.”
“James never told you.”
“Why?”
“He thought if nobody knew, nobody could pressure you.”
Natalie returned to the letter.
The land I told you was worthless pasture may not be worthless.
That sounded so much like James she nearly laughed.
Tears blurred the words.
Patterson has copies of enough evidence to prove what was done.
Trust him even if he gives you reason not to.
Natalie frowned.
Then came the last lines.
I should have told you about Ryan long ago.
She glanced at the cowboy.
His face looked carved from stone.
There are truths in my family I was too ashamed to explain.
None of that shame belongs to him.
Natalie lowered the page.
“What does that mean?”
Ryan stood.
“Nothing that matters tonight.”
