Caleb stepped between them.
Bell stopped inches away.
His eyes rose toward Caleb’s scar.
“You really want to threaten me inside a property I own?”
Caleb’s voice became quiet.
“Touch her.”
Bell backed away.
Not from fear exactly.
Calculation.
He looked at Abigail.
“Your father was confused toward the end.”
Her blood went cold.
“What does that mean?”
“Grief.”
“Age.”
“Financial pressure.”
“My father was fifty-eight.”
“Yes.”
“And under considerable strain.”
Bell sighed theatrically.
“He became obsessed with imagining conspiracies.”
Abigail stared.
“What did you say to him the morning before he died?”
Bell’s expression did not change.
“I don’t remember visiting.”
“You did.”
“You were in this room.”
“I remember because he made me take deliveries through the front.”
Bell looked at the ledger.
Then toward the door.
“You should be careful, Abigail.”
“Is that advice?”
“Yes.”
“Or a threat?”
Bell smiled.
“You are married now.”
“You have a new life.”
“Take it.”
Caleb’s jaw clenched.
Abigail looked directly into Bell’s eyes.
“No.”
His smile vanished.
She continued.
“You sent me away because you were afraid I’d find this.”
“That is absurd.”
“You arranged the marriage.”
“You knew Caleb lived twenty miles from Cedar Hollow.”
“You knew I’d leave the bakery immediately.”
Bell laughed softly.
“I did you a kindness.”
Abigail stepped closer.
“My father wrote ‘do not trust Bell’ before he died.”
That landed.
Bell’s face emptied.
Caleb saw it too.
The banker looked toward the floor cavity.
Then the ledger.
Then Abigail.
“You found his letters.”
“Yes.”
Bell’s expression changed into something Abigail had never seen.
Not friendly.
Not fatherly.
Not patient.
Cold.
“Then you should learn from what happened to men who become too interested in other people’s business.”
Caleb drew the hammer back on his revolver.
The sound clicked through the room.
Bell looked toward him.
Caleb spoke.
“You’re done.”
Bell smiled.
“Am I?”
Then he walked out.
Abigail listened until his footsteps disappeared.
Only then did her knees weaken.
Caleb holstered the gun and caught her elbow.
“Sit.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re shaking.”
“So are you.”
He looked at his hand.
She was right.
Caleb set the ledger down.
For several seconds they simply breathed.
Then Abigail noticed the cashbox.
“Open it.”
Caleb did.