“What?”
Silas hesitated.
“Your father rode toward Twin Falls?”
“Yes.”
“Which trail?”
“South road.”
Silas went still.
“Why?”
He looked toward the window.
“I came north on that road yesterday.”
Hattie stopped breathing.
“Did you see him?”
“No.”
Her shoulders fell.
“But I saw something.”
Silas stood.
“About nine miles south, near Cottonwood Bend, I saw a horse frozen beside the creek.”
Hattie rose.
“What color?”
Silas didn’t answer.
“What color?”
“Bay.”
Hattie was already pulling on her boots.
“No.”
“Hattie—”
“That’s Red.”
“The horse might not—”
“That’s Red!”
She grabbed her coat.
Silas blocked the door.
“You aren’t going anywhere.”
“My papa might be there!”
“Nine miles in this storm will kill you.”
“Move.”
“No.”
Hattie reached for the hunting knife.
Silas looked at it.
Then at her.
“You’re going to stab me?”
“If I have to.”
Silas sighed.
“You’re definitely Tom Pell’s daughter.”
He rubbed his beard.
“We’re not walking.”
An hour later, Silas’s freight team struggled south.
The twins were wrapped beneath blankets inside the wagon. Hattie sat beside them while Silas drove.
The storm had weakened, but snow still fell.
Cottonwood Bend appeared shortly before noon.
Hattie saw the horse first.
“Red!”
She jumped down before the wagon stopped.
The gelding lay frozen near the creek.
His saddle was missing.
So was Papa.
Silas searched the area.
Then he found tracks.
Not fresh tracks.
Marks preserved beneath wind-packed snow.
He crouched.
Hattie joined him.
“Those are boots.”
“Yes.”
“Papa walked away?”
Silas examined the impressions.
“No.”
Hattie looked at him.
Silas brushed snow aside.
There were several sets of footprints.
And something else.
A long groove.
Like something heavy had been dragged.
Silas followed it toward the trees.
Twenty yards farther, he found blood.
Frozen black against the snow.
Hattie stopped.
Silas immediately stepped in front of her.
“Go back.”
“No.”
“Hattie.”
“That’s my papa.”
He couldn’t lie to her.
They followed the trail.
But there was no body.
Instead, Silas found something beneath a cedar tree.
A broken leather strap.
Then a cartridge casing.
Then another.
Someone had fired a gun.
Hattie picked up something shining in the snow.
A brass button.
She recognized it immediately.
“Papa’s coat.”
Silas’s jaw tightened.
This was no accident.
Tom Pell hadn’t simply disappeared in the blizzard.
Someone had found him.
They reached Twin Falls near dusk.
Silas went first to Dr. Hollister’s house.
The doctor opened the door.
When he saw the babies, his face went white.
“Where did you get those?”
“The Pell place.”
Hollister stared.
“Tom Pell’s babies?”
“Yes.”
“But Tom never came here.”
Hattie felt the room tilt.
“What?”
The doctor crouched.
“Child, I haven’t seen your father since October.”
Hattie backed away.
Silas caught her.
