Harlan laughed.

It was the first time Nora heard the sound.

She stared.

He stopped.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re looking at me strangely.”

“I didn’t know you could do that.”

“Do what?”

“Sound happy.”

His smile faded.

“Nell used to say the same thing.”

Nora looked toward the fire.

There it was.

The ghost between them.

Her sister.

His wife.

She could never be Nell.

She did not want to be.

Harlan seemed to understand.

“Nora.”

“Yes?”

“If you stay after this is finished, I need you to know something.”

She waited.

“I would never ask you to replace her.”

The words entered the quiet between them.

“Good,” Nora said.

“Because you couldn’t.”

Nora lifted one eyebrow.

“That sounded less flattering than you intended.”

He nearly smiled again.

“What I mean is… Nell was Nell.”

His gaze held hers.

“And you are very much Nora.”

Her pulse changed.

Nothing more was said.

Nothing needed to be.

The church in Missouri still had Aunt Beatrice’s trunk.

Inside were dresses.

Receipts.

Nora’s childhood drawings.

And seventeen unopened letters tied with ribbon.

Every envelope bore the same return address.

E. Greer, Sorrow Creek, Wyoming Territory.

Nora sat on the church floor and cried.

Nell had written for two years.

She had told Nora everything.

Their childhood.

The fire.

Their parents.

The ranch.

Her six boys.

One letter contained a line Nora read three times.

If you ever come west, don’t come because I need saving. Come because I have spent my whole life wishing I could sit across a table from my little sister and watch her eat supper.

Nora pressed the page against her mouth.

Harlan turned away to give her privacy.

At the bottom of the trunk they found a final envelope.

It was not from Nell.

It was from Aunt Beatrice.

Addressed to Nora.

Never sent.

Nora opened it.

And discovered that every story she had been told about the fire was a lie.

Beatrice had not simply rescued Nora.

She had been paid to disappear with her.

The payment came from Abner Vane.

Two hundred dollars.

Beatrice had taken the money because Vane threatened to kill Nora if she refused.

But her confession contained something else.

Samuel and Margaret Callaway had not both died in the fire.

Samuel did.

Margaret survived.

Nora’s mother had been alive when Beatrice fled.

“What happened to her?” Harlan whispered.

Nora kept reading.

Then she stopped.

Her hands began shaking.

“Oh, God.”

“What?”

She handed him the page.

Beatrice had seen Margaret dragged from the burning house by Abner Vane and another man.

She had never known where they took her.

But she remembered the man’s name.

Josiah Crowe.

The father of Sorrow Creek’s current sheriff.

They returned to Wyoming with the letters hidden inside Nora’s dress.

Vane’s foreclosure hearing was scheduled for the following morning.

The courthouse was packed.

Vane sat beside his lawyer.

Sheriff Crowe stood near the door.

Harlan sat behind Nora with all six boys.

Even Rue had come.

Nora presented Samuel’s statement.

The original deed.

Nell’s journal.

Aunt Beatrice’s confession.

Vane’s attorney attacked everything.

Old papers.

Dead witnesses.

Unverified accusations.

Then he smiled.

“Even if Samuel Callaway’s transfer was fraudulent, Miss Callaway must prove she is his lawful heir.”