She gripped the edge of the table.
“Harlon, what happened to my mother?”
He took a slow breath.
Then stood.
For a moment, she thought he was going to avoid answering.
Instead, he crossed the cabin toward the bearskin rug.
He rolled it back.
Opened the wooden hatch.
Then looked down into the hidden stone chamber.
“The hot spring isn't the secret,” he said.
Amily rose slowly.
Harlon glanced toward her.
“There's something behind the lower wall.”
He paused.
“Something my father believed should never fall into Silas Vale's hands.”
Amily approached.
The warm steam rose between them.
She looked into the chamber.
Then back at him.
“What?”
Harlon's gray eyes were filled with a strange mixture of anger and grief.
“The truth about who owns the valley.”
And somewhere beyond the cabin, concealed by miles of white wilderness, three armed men were struggling back toward Silverpine to tell Silas Vale that the woman he'd been searching for had reached the one man who could prove his empire was built on a lie.
Harlon lit a second lantern and placed it beside the open hatch.
The iron ring glistened with moisture. Beneath it, the stone steps descended into the hidden chamber, where steam drifted across the surface of the natural spring.
Amily stood beside him wearing the oversized flannel shirt and wool skirt. Her damp curls had begun drying around her cheeks, and the warmth of the cabin had restored some color to her face.
She looked into the opening.
“There's more?”
Harlon nodded.
“Behind the spring.”
She frowned.
“Another room?”
“Something like that.”
He studied her carefully.
“Are you strong enough to go down?”
Amily almost gave the answer she'd been trained to give.
Of course.
She had spent years pretending she wasn't tired, wasn't frightened, wasn't uncomfortable, and didn't need help.
But the truth was that her legs still ached from the climb through the mountains.
She looked toward the steps.
“I can manage them if we go slowly.”
Harlon nodded.
“Then slowly it is.”
He descended first, holding the lantern high.
Amily followed, keeping one hand against the stone wall.
The chamber beneath the cabin was larger than she'd realized while bathing.
Its natural walls curved around the clear pool, and mineral deposits formed pale lines where warm water had flowed for generations.