“Let me sleep beside you tonight, Jacob. I know you don’t trust me, but someone is coming.”
Jacob Blackwood stared at the young woman standing in his bedroom.
Her name was Emma Reed.
She was twenty-five, exhausted, and frightened.
Earlier that afternoon, Jacob had paid twenty dollars to settle the debt keeping her at a mountain trading station.
He intended to take her safely to town.
Instead, Emma begged him to bring her to his cabin.
Now she stood beside his bed.
“Why would anyone follow you here?” Jacob asked.
Emma looked toward the window.
“Because I know something I shouldn’t.”
“About what?”
“Your wife.”
Jacob went still.
“My wife died five years ago.”
Emma shook her head.
“No.”
He stepped closer.
“What did you say?”
“Catherine Blackwood is alive.”
Jacob grabbed the bedpost.
“Don’t play games with me.”
“I’m not.”
“Then where is she?”
Emma reached beneath her shawl.
She removed a silver necklace.
Jacob recognized it instantly.
He had given Catherine that necklace on their wedding day.
“Where did you get this?”
“She gave it to me.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
Jacob felt the room spin.
For five years, he had mourned his wife.
Her wagon had been found overturned beside a frozen river.
There was no body.
Only blood on the snow.
Everyone told him she was gone.
Now this stranger claimed otherwise.
“Tell me everything.”
Emma sat on the bed.
“Catherine was taken to the trading station after the accident.”
“Why didn’t she come home?”
“Because the owner wouldn’t let her.”
Jacob’s expression hardened.
“Briggs?”
Emma nodded.
“He kept women there using false debts and stolen documents.”
“And Catherine?”
“She helped them escape.”
Jacob stared.
“My Catherine?”
Emma smiled sadly.
“She was braver than anyone.”
He remembered his wife’s stubborn courage.
The way she defended strangers.
The way she refused to ignore suffering.
It sounded exactly like her.
“Where is she now?”
Emma looked down.
“I don’t know.”
Jacob stepped backward.
“You said she was alive.”
“She was when I left.”
His jaw tightened.
“Why didn’t you tell the marshal?”
“I tried.”
“What happened?”
“Briggs found out.”
Emma pulled back her sleeve.
A deep bruise circled her wrist.
Jacob’s anger grew.
He turned toward the door.
“I’m going after him.”
“No!”
Emma grabbed his hand.
“That’s what he wants.”
Jacob frowned.
“What?”
“He knows you’ll come for Catherine.”
“Then why send you?”
Emma began trembling.
“He didn’t send me. I escaped.”
Suddenly, the cabin went silent.
Outside, a horse whinnied.
Jacob reached for his rifle.
Emma rushed toward the window.
Three riders stood beside the fence.
A woman sat on the middle horse.
Her face was hidden beneath a dark hood.
Jacob’s heart began pounding.
The woman slowly lifted her head.
Catherine.
He staggered backward.
“My God.”
Emma whispered:
“Don’t open the door.”
Jacob turned.
“That’s my wife!”
Emma’s eyes filled with tears.
“I know.”
“Then why are you stopping me?”
She pointed toward the rider behind Catherine.
Jacob recognized him.
Briggs.
He was holding a revolver against Catherine’s back.
Then Catherine called:
“Jacob! Don’t believe the girl!”
Emma began crying.
“She’s not talking to you.”
Jacob stared.
“What?”
Emma whispered:
“She’s warning me.”
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