Thomas turned.
“You knew we were coming.”
Caleb removed his coat.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Three weeks.”
Eleanor stared.
“You watched me stand on an auction platform when you already intended to take us?”
Caleb faced her.
“I needed the contract completed publicly.”
“Why?”
“So nobody could later claim I stole you or the children.”
“You could have told me.”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Your Philadelphia address was empty by the time my telegram arrived.”
Eleanor felt dizzy.
“How did you know my address?”
Caleb walked toward a locked chest near the fireplace.
He took a key from around his neck.
Opened it.
Inside were letters.
Dozens.
He removed one bundle tied with blue cord.
Then turned.
The first envelope carried handwriting Eleanor recognized immediately.
Her knees almost failed.
Jonathan.
Her dead husband.
She reached for the letter.
Caleb held it out.
Eleanor took it with trembling fingers.
The date was fourteen months before Jonathan died.
She opened it.
Caleb,
I don't know whether this letter will reach you, and I don't know whether I deserve an answer after so many years. Eleanor knows nothing about you. I told myself silence protected her. Perhaps it only made me a coward.
Eleanor stopped reading.
Her vision blurred.
She looked at Caleb.
“Your name.”
Caleb nodded.
“What were you to him?”
He did not answer.
Eleanor looked again at the letter.
If anything happens to me, there are things she must know. The children must never fall into Cromwell’s hands.
Eleanor’s breathing changed.
She continued.
You promised me once that blood meant something even when family failed. I am asking whether that promise still lives.
The letter slipped from Eleanor’s hand.
Caleb caught it before it reached the floor.
He looked at the children.
Then at her.
“My mother was Abigail Roar.”
“After my father died, she married Samuel Hayes.”
Eleanor stared.
“Jonathan’s father.”
Caleb nodded.
“Jonathan was my younger brother.”
Sarah gasped.
Thomas stepped forward.
“No.”
Caleb’s expression tightened.
“Same mother.”
“Different fathers.”
“Same house.”
“Same childhood.”
Eleanor whispered:
“Jonathan told me he had no family.”
“He thought I was dead for six years.”
“Then he found out I wasn't.”
“He still didn't tell me.”
Caleb looked down.
“Because knowing me was dangerous.”
The room became silent.
Edward wandered closer to Caleb.
The toddler looked up.
“You Uncle?”
Caleb stared at him.
Something changed in his face.
His eyes glistened.
“Yes.”
Edward considered.
Then held up both arms.
“Up.”
Eleanor nearly laughed from shock.
Caleb looked helpless.
Of everything she had seen from the mountain man, uncertainty was the strangest.
He eventually lifted Edward.
The child touched Caleb’s beard.
“Scratchy.”
For the first time, Caleb Roar smiled.
It transformed him.
Not into a gentle man.