Mercy showed him the letter.

He went pale.

“You read it.”

“Every word.”

He closed his eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

“Is Thomas alive?”

Dutch hesitated.

“I believe so.”

“Where?”

“Black Hollow.”

“Then we’re going.”

“Mercy, Pratt will have men there.”

She looked at him.

“Good.”

Dutch stared.

“Good?”

“They’ll be expecting a frightened widow.”

She lifted her damaged hand.

“Let’s disappoint them.”

Martha knew a retired territorial marshal named Gideon Shaw who lived two valleys east.

By noon, she had reached him with Samuel.

Shaw had once investigated mining fraud in Harwick, but Pratt’s influence had ended the inquiry.

When Martha showed him Dutch’s documents, he gathered four trusted men.

They met Mercy and Dutch near Black Hollow two nights later.

The abandoned workings lay beneath a steep ridge.

A narrow rail track disappeared into the mountainside.

Smoke rose from a small guardhouse.

Shaw examined the maps.

“Three entrances. One main shaft, one ventilation tunnel, and an old drainage passage.”

Dutch pointed to the drainage passage.

“That’s our way in.”

Mercy took a lantern.

Shaw frowned.

“Mrs. Calder, this isn’t work for a woman.”

Mercy looked at him.

“Marshal, I’ve buried a husband and a child who weren’t dead. I’ve been cheated, humiliated, and nearly burned alive. If you think I’m staying outside while you search for Thomas, you haven’t been paying attention.”

Shaw studied her.

Then handed her a revolver.

“Stay behind me.”

Mercy checked the weapon.

“Try to keep up.”

The drainage tunnel smelled of damp stone and rust.

They crawled beneath broken timbers.

Water soaked Mercy’s skirt.

Somewhere deeper inside, machinery clanked.

Then they heard voices.

Two guards stood outside a locked chamber.

Shaw’s men subdued them quickly.

Dutch took the keys.

Mercy stepped forward.

Her heart hammered.

The lock turned.

The door opened.

A thin man sat on a cot beneath a weak lantern.

His hair was gray at the temples.

His beard had grown long.

One leg was bound in a crude brace.

He raised his head.

Mercy stopped breathing.

The man’s eyes widened.

“Mercy?”

Her lantern shook.

“Thomas?”

He stood too quickly and nearly fell.

“Mercy!”

She ran to him.

He caught her in his arms.

For a moment, the world disappeared.

She knew his voice.

His hands.

The shape of his face.

The way he whispered her name.

Thomas Oldgate was alive.

He held her as though he feared she would vanish.

“I thought they killed you,” he sobbed.

Mercy buried her face against his shoulder.

“I thought you were dead.”

They clung to each other.

Then Thomas pulled back.

His eyes searched hers.

“Samuel?”

Mercy’s face crumpled.

“Alive.”

Thomas stared.

“What?”

“He’s alive, Thomas. He’s safe.”

The man made a broken sound and collapsed against her.

Mercy held him while he wept.

Behind them, Dutch stood silently in the doorway.

Chapter Thirteen: The Choice No One Expected

They escaped Black Hollow before dawn.

Pratt was arrested two days later when Marshal Shaw intercepted him trying to flee toward New Mexico.

Hrix and the surviving gunmen were taken into custody.

The mining consortium’s records were seized.

Thomas’s testimony confirmed everything.

The explosion.

The forged death certificates.

The stolen claim.

The illegal imprisonment.

Within weeks, the case became the greatest mining scandal the territory had seen in years.

But Mercy faced a problem no court could easily solve.

She had two living husbands.

Thomas Oldgate, whom she had loved and mourned.

And Dutch Calder, whom she had married believing herself a widow.

The territorial judge declared her marriage to Dutch invalid because Thomas was alive.

Legally, Mercy was still Mrs. Oldgate.

She listened to the ruling without speaking.

Thomas stood beside her.

Dutch waited near the rear of the courtroom.

When the proceedings ended, Thomas took her hand.

“We can go home,” he whispered.

Mercy looked at him.

Home.

She had dreamed of hearing those words.

But the dream had changed.

That evening, Thomas found her outside the boardinghouse where Samuel slept.

Snow drifted beneath the streetlamps.

He stood beside her.

“You love him.”

Mercy closed her eyes.

“Thomas…”

“You don’t have to lie.”

Tears filled her eyes.

“I never stopped loving you.”

“I know.”

“But I thought you were gone.”

Thomas nodded slowly.

“Two years is a long time.”

She turned toward him.

“I don’t know what to do.”

He looked toward the mountains.

“When they locked me underground, I spent every day imagining you and Samuel. I told myself that if I ever escaped, everything would be exactly as it was.”