Daniel’s beard had considerably more.
The valley was quiet.
Emily leaned against him.
“Do you remember our wedding night?” she asked.
Daniel looked at her.
“Hard to forget.”
“I ruined it.”
He laughed.
“We were attacked by nine armed criminals, the barn burned down, I got shot, you killed a man, a federal marshal revealed our fathers had been secret partners, and we learned our marriage was connected to a conspiracy involving stolen government bonds.”
Emily nodded solemnly.
“So yes.”
Daniel put an arm around her.
“I’ve attended worse weddings.”
She struck his shoulder gently.
For a while they watched the stars.
Then Emily grew quiet.
“There’s still one thing I never told you.”
Daniel turned.
Even after ten years, those words had power.
He narrowed his eyes.
“What?”
Emily smiled.
“Don’t look so frightened.”
“You said that sentence once before and the barn burned down.”
She laughed.
Then her expression softened.
“When Marshal Cole told us everything, he didn’t quite tell everything.”
Daniel stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
Emily reached into the pocket of her dress.
She removed something folded and old.
Daniel recognized the paper immediately.
His father’s letter.
But there was another sheet behind it.
“I found this inside the lining of your father’s envelope,” Emily said.
Daniel frowned.
“When?”
“The day after we read it.”
“And you waited ten years?”
“I wasn’t sure what it meant.”
She handed it to him.
Daniel unfolded the second page.
It contained only three lines.
Samuel kept his promise.
The money was never stolen.
Ask Emily about the cottonwood.
Daniel slowly looked up.
Emily was smiling strangely.
“No.”
She nodded.
“You knew?”
“Not until last month.”
“What happened last month?”
“The big storm knocked down part of the tree.”
Daniel stood.
Emily laughed.
“Sit down.”
“What is under the cottonwood?”
“I said sit.”
Daniel sat.
Emily reached into her pocket again.
This time she removed a small object wrapped in cloth.
She placed it in his palm.
Daniel unfolded the cloth.
A gold coin gleamed beneath the moonlight.
He stared at her.
Emily whispered, “There’s a metal box beneath the roots.”
Daniel’s mouth opened.
“How much?”
She shook her head.
“Not sixty thousand.”
Daniel exhaled.
“Good.”
“Closer to eighty.”
Daniel stared.
Emily began laughing.
“Eighty thousand dollars?”
“In old federal gold certificates and coins.”
“You waited a month to tell me?”
“I wanted to be certain.”
Daniel looked toward the distant cottonwood.
Then at the coin.
Then back at his wife.
“Emily.”
“Yes?”
“Our wedding night never ended, did it?”
She laughed so hard tears appeared.
But Daniel stopped smiling.
Something about his father’s words bothered him.
The money was never stolen.
He looked again at the paper.
“Why would your father hide government money?”
Emily shook her head.
“He didn’t.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What?”
“Marshal Cole came last week.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
Emily continued.
“The government confirmed the certificates.”
“And?”
“They were payment.”
“For what?”
Emily looked toward the sleeping valley.
“For twenty years of undercover work.”
Daniel stared.
“Samuel Harrow and Thomas Mercer.”
She nodded.
“They weren’t just informants.”
A chill moved through Daniel.
“What were they?”
Emily smiled.
“Federal agents.”
Daniel looked again at the handwriting.
His father.
The quiet rancher who had taught him to rope cattle.
The man who whistled while fixing fence.
The man Daniel had spent most of his life believing had been ordinary.
