Pierce looked at Ruth.
Then Jonah.
“You should reconsider.”
“I did.”
Jonah stopped beside Ruth.
“Now I’m certain.”
Pierce walked away.
His carriage disappeared down the ranch road.
Jonah looked at Ruth.
“You all right?”
“No.”
“Want me to follow him?”
Despite herself, she laughed.
“No.”
“Good.”
He removed his hat.
“I didn’t actually want to.”
Ruth looked toward the road.
“He knew about Edwin and me from the beginning.”
Jonah said nothing.
“He thinks I was beneath his son.”
Jonah’s jaw tightened.
Ruth turned toward him.
“Was that why he paid Edwin to leave?”
“I don’t know.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“That explains gossip.”
She looked toward the vanished carriage.
“It does not explain five thousand dollars.”
Jonah nodded.
“Exactly.”
They found the next piece through Amos Reed, a retired railway engineer living twenty miles south.
Mrs. Keller remembered Talbot had mentioned him.
Jonah and Ruth rode there together.
It was Ruth’s longest trip since the wedding.
Jonah watched constantly without appearing to.
At one stream crossing, he offered his hand.
Ruth took it.
At another she deliberately dismounted without help.
Jonah did not argue.
That mattered.
Amos Reed remembered Edwin.
“Pretty banker boy.”
Ruth winced.
Amos noticed.
“You knew him.”
“Yes.”
Amos looked at Jonah.
“My husband.”
Something strange and pleasant occurred each time she said it.
Not ownership.
Belonging by choice.
Amos invited them inside.
Years earlier, Western Prairie Railroad had surveyed a possible route through the valley.
Silas Pierce had secretly purchased options on land around the likely route before the information became public.
That alone was questionable.
But not necessarily criminal.
Then survey maps disappeared.
The railroad changed plans.
Land values dropped.
Pierce acquired even more.
Ruth asked, “Where does Edwin fit?”
Amos frowned.
“Courier.”
Her stomach tightened.
“He carried sealed correspondence between Pierce and survey contractors.”
Jonah looked at her.
Ruth whispered, “Room nine.”
Amos nodded.
“One surveyor refused to participate.”
“Talbot?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“Died.”
Ruth went cold.
“How?”
“Horse accident.”
Jonah’s expression hardened.
“When?”
“Two days after leaving Copper Ridge.”
Silence.
Ruth asked the question she did not want answered.
“Where are the maps now?”
Amos looked at her.
“If Talbot was smart?”
He leaned back.
“He made copies.”
That night, Ruth could not sleep.
She sat downstairs near the dying fire.
Footsteps came from the hallway.
Jonah appeared.
He wore only trousers and the brown blanket around his shoulders.
Ruth looked away too slowly.
Jonah noticed.
Again.
She almost smiled despite her fear.
“Can’t sleep?”
“No.”
He sat in the opposite chair.
They remained quiet.
Finally Ruth said, “What if Edwin was involved in something dangerous?”
“He probably was.”
“What if he left to protect me?”
Jonah considered.