Silas stared at the ledger.
Then at the cellar.
“You found the money.”
Clara stepped backward.
“How do you know about the money?”
Silas closed his eyes.
There it was.
The question he had known would eventually arrive.
“I came looking for it.”
Clara’s face went white.
Her hand moved instinctively toward the rifle hanging near the door.
Silas noticed.
He made no movement to stop her.
“You came here for Thomas’s money.”
“No.”
“You just said.”
“It was never Thomas’s.”
Clara froze.
Silas looked toward the door Jake exited through.
“It belonged to Jonah.”
She stared.
“Jake’s father?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Silas pulled out a chair.
Did not sit.
“Jonah worked cattle drives before he came here.”
“I knew him.”
“How well?”
Silas looked at her.
“He was my brother.”
Silence.
Clara stared.
“No.”
“Half-brother.”
“We had different fathers.”
“He used Hartley.”
“I kept Maddox.”
Clara’s mind raced backward.
Jonah Hartley.
Quiet.
Thirty-three.
Brown hair like Jake.
Kind eyes.
Never spoke much about family.
He had worked for Thomas almost two years.
Died when a fence post collapsed during a storm repair.
At least that was the story.
Clara whispered:
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“He had reasons.”
“What reasons?”
“Me.”
Clara’s hand tightened on the ledger.
Silas continued.
“Jonah and I had not spoken in eight years.”
“Why?”
“I did something stupid.”
“That narrows nothing.”
He almost smiled.
Then did not.
“I ran with men who stole cattle.”
Clara stared.
“I was never caught.”
“I got out.”
“Jonah found out.”
“He told me I was becoming our father.”
“That ended us.”
Silas swallowed.
“Years later he wrote.”
“Not to forgive me.”
“To tell me about Jake.”
Clara looked toward the door.
Silas continued.
“His wife died when Jake was six.”
“He had nobody.”
“He wrote because he wanted Jake to know he had an uncle somewhere.”
“Did you answer?”
“Yes.”
“Did you come?”
“No.”
The shame in Silas’s face was immediate.
“Why?”
“Pride.”
Clara stared.
“He died.”
“I know.”
“And you never came.”
“I know.”
Anger entered her.
“How did you know about the money?”
Silas looked toward the ledger.
“Jonah wrote me two weeks before he died.”
“He said Thomas had been withholding wages for over a year.”
“Thomas claimed Jonah owed him for damaged cattle.”
“Jonah said it was false.”
“He had also discovered Thomas sold three horses Jonah owned personally.”
Clara’s stomach turned.
Silas continued.
“Jonah confronted him.”
“Thomas promised settlement.”
“Five hundred dollars.”
“That is what the ledger shows.”
Clara looked toward the cellar.
“I thought it was Thomas’s savings.”
“No.”
“Jonah wrote that if anything happened, he wanted the money kept for Jake.”
Clara looked at him.
“Anything happened.”
Silas nodded.
Her voice lowered.