By March, Oak Haven had chosen sides.
Some people believed Elias Boone was exactly what rumor said he was—a violent mountain man capable of burning his own stable to create sympathy.
Others had begun questioning why so many disasters followed Harlan Pike's attempt to acquire the ridge.
Cora quickly discovered that truth alone did not decide what people believed.
Reputation did.
Harlan Pike possessed money.
He owned the sawmill.
He employed nearly twenty men.
Elias possessed scars, a rifle and years of stories about his temper.
It wasn't difficult to predict who most respectable citizens preferred.
Then Pike made his next move.
A deputy arrived one afternoon carrying a summons.
Elias was accused of assault.
Cora stared at the paper.
"Who?"
"Silas Trent."
Elias's eyes narrowed.
"I haven't touched him."
The deputy shrugged.
"Trent claims you attacked him two nights ago outside Pike's mill."
"I was here."
Cora looked up.
"With me."
The deputy's expression suggested a wife's testimony would not matter.
"The hearing's Friday."
After he left, Elias slammed his palm onto the table.
The cups rattled.
Cora froze.
Elias immediately stepped away.
"Sorry."
"I'm all right."
"No."
He paced.
"This is exactly what Pike wanted."
"Then don't give him anything else."
"He can lie and I can't do a damned thing."
"You can prove where you were."
"How?"
Cora thought.
Two nights earlier.
What had they done?
Elias had remained at the cabin repairing harness buckles.
Cora had baked bread.
Nobody else was there.
Then she remembered.
"The peddler."
Elias stopped.
"What?"
"Mr. Creel."
A traveling peddler had reached the cabin shortly before sunset and stayed nearly an hour because one wagon wheel was damaged.
"He saw you here."
Elias stared.
"When did he leave?"
"After dark."
"Could find him?"
"If he's following his usual route, he'll be in Silver Junction tomorrow."
Thirty miles away.
Elias grabbed his coat.
Cora shook her head.
"No."
"Cora—"
"Your horse needs rest."
"So do I, apparently."
"We leave at dawn."
"We?"
"Yes, we."
"You can't ride thirty miles through mountain snow."
Cora put both hands on her hips.
"Would you like to finish that sentence?"
Elias considered.
"No."
"Good."
They left before sunrise.
The trip was brutal.
Cora's thighs burned after the first several hours.
Cold worked through every seam of her coat.
But she refused to complain.
By late afternoon, Silver Junction appeared along the river.
They found Creel's wagon outside a boardinghouse.
The elderly peddler remembered them immediately.
"Course Boone was there."
Cora nearly sagged with relief.
"You'd testify?"
Creel frowned.
"Against Pike?"
"Against a lie."
The distinction mattered.
The old man studied Elias.
"You really didn't hit Trent?"
"No."
Creel looked at Cora.
"You believe him?"
"Yes."
"Then I'll come."
Friday morning, the hearing room was packed.
Pike sat near the front.
Silas Trent wore a bruised cheek.
Cora stared at it.
Someone had hit him.
Just not Elias.
Trent testified first.
He described Elias waiting outside the sawmill.
He claimed Elias threatened him and struck him twice.
Then Pike testified.
He hadn't witnessed the assault, but he spoke at length about Elias's violent history.
"Everyone in Oak Haven knows his temper."
Several people nodded.
Cora felt Elias tense beside her.
She slipped her hand beneath the table.
He took it.
Magistrate Vance looked toward Elias.
"Your response?"
"I wasn't there."
"Can anyone verify that?"
Cora stood.
"Yes."
Pike smiled faintly.
Then the door opened.
Mr. Creel entered.
Pike's smile vanished.
The peddler testified that Elias had been on the ridge during the alleged assault.
He described the cabin.
The broken stable.
Even the meal Cora served him.
"Best venison stew I've had in fifteen years."
Vance frowned.
"You are certain of the date?"
Creel pulled out his sales book.
"I write every stop."
Cora nearly smiled.
Another person who believed paper didn't forget.
The assault charge collapsed.
But Cora was not finished.
"Magistrate, may I ask Mr. Trent a question?"
Vance hesitated.
"This isn't a formal trial."
"Then I'm formally curious."
A few people laughed.
Vance sighed.
"Proceed."
Cora faced Trent.
"Who struck you?"
"Elias Boone."
"He didn't."
Trent looked toward Pike.
Cora noticed.
So did everyone else.
She continued.
"When did Mr. Boone supposedly attack you?"
"About nine."
"And what were you doing at the mill?"
"Working."
"At nine at night?"
"We had an order."
"What order?"
Trent's face tightened.
Pike stood.
"This is absurd."
Cora looked at him.
"Is it?"
Pike's voice hardened.
"My employee is not required to account for his work schedule to you."
"No."
Cora smiled faintly.
"But perhaps he should account for the kerosene."
Silence fell.
Pike stopped moving.
Cora knew she had him.
Not legally.
Not yet.
But people were listening now.
"The mercantile sold two barrels of kerosene to your mill," she continued.
"That proves nothing."
"Of course."
Cora nodded.
"And the fact that our stable burned days later proves nothing."
Murmurs spread.
"And the wagon tracks leading away prove nothing."
More murmurs.
"And Mr. Trent collecting those barrels proves nothing."
Trent went pale.
Pike turned on him.
That single glance told Cora more than any confession could have.
Magistrate Vance struck the table.
"Enough."
Cora sat.
But Oak Haven had heard.
Rumor began changing direction.
That afternoon, a woman Cora had never met approached outside the mercantile.
"Mrs. Boone?"
"Yes?"
"I'm Martha Hale."
She looked nervous.
"My husband works at Pike's mill."
Cora waited.
Martha lowered her voice.
"He came home drunk the night your stable burned."
Cora's heart quickened.
"What did he say?"
"That Trent and Davis had gone up the mountain."
"Did he say why?"
Martha looked around.
"He said Pike promised them fifty dollars."
Cora swallowed.
"Would your husband testify?"
Fear crossed Martha's face.
"No."
"Could I speak with him?"
"He'll deny everything."
Cora understood.
Pike controlled livelihoods.
Truth was expensive when a man's children depended on the liar for wages.
"Thank you for telling me."
Martha started to leave.
Then stopped.
"Mrs. Boone?"
"Yes?"
"I don't think your husband is what people say."
Cora smiled slightly.
"Neither do I."
When Elias heard, he wanted to confront Pike.
Cora refused.
"You walk into that mill angry and everything we've built disappears."
"So we do nothing?"
"No."
"What then?"
"We wait."
Elias hated waiting.
Cora could practically watch the irritation crawling beneath his skin.
But he trusted her.
Two nights later, patience paid.
Someone knocked after midnight.
Elias grabbed the rifle.
Cora lit a lamp.
"Who?"
A voice answered.
"Davis."
Elias and Cora looked at each other.
The stationmaster stood outside, shivering.
His left eye was swollen.
"Let me in."
Elias didn't move.
"Why?"
"Because Pike knows I followed you."
"You told him."
"I didn't tell him everything."
Cora opened the door before Elias could stop her.
Davis entered.
He looked nothing like the smug man who had mocked her at the depot.
He looked frightened.
"What happened?"
"Pike."
Elias's face hardened.
"He hit you?"
Davis nodded.
"Why?"
"I told him I was done."
Cora sat him down.
"Done with what?"
Davis looked between them.
"Burning things."
The cabin went silent.
Elias stepped forward.
Davis flinched.
Elias stopped.
Cora saw it.
A tiny moment.
A man everyone feared choosing not to become frightening.
Davis noticed too.
"I was there," he whispered.
"At the stable?" Cora asked.
"Yes."
Elias's hands curled.
Cora touched one.
He opened it again.
"Who started the fire?"
"Trent."
"Under whose orders?"
Davis swallowed.
"Pike."
The words seemed to change the air.
Cora pulled the ledger toward her.
"Tell me everything."
Davis talked.
Pike had paid them to cut fences.
Move traps.
Poison animals.
Fire shots near Elias without actually killing him.
"He wanted you mad," Davis said.
Elias laughed without humor.
"I figured."
"He said eventually you'd attack somebody."
Cora's stomach tightened.
"And when he didn't?"
Davis looked at the floor.
"He said we'd make something happen."
"The assault charge."
Davis nodded.
"What else?"
Silence.
"Davis."
His eyes lifted.
"Pike's planning something bigger."
Elias leaned closer.
"What?"
"He wants to burn your cabin."
Cora went cold.
"When?"
"I don't know."
Davis rubbed his face.
"Soon."
Elias looked at Cora.
She saw fear there.
Not for his property.
For her.
Davis continued.
"And there's something else."
"What?"
"Pike doesn't only want the timber route."
Cora frowned.
"What else is there?"
Davis looked toward Elias.
"Silver."
Elias stared.
"What?"
"There's an old assay report. Pike found it last year."
Cora's pulse accelerated.
"Silver beneath the ridge?"
Davis nodded.
"Enough to make timber look worthless."
Now everything made sense.
The forged survey.
The pressure.
The attempts to provoke Elias.
The desperation.
Harlan Pike wasn't fighting for trees.
He was fighting for a fortune.
Elias looked around the cabin.
His father's land.
His mother's grave lay somewhere farther up the ridge.
His entire life was rooted here.
And someone had nearly killed them for what lay beneath it.
Davis rose.
"I'm leaving town."
Cora shook her head.
"No."
His eyes widened.
"You need to testify."
"Pike will kill me."
"He may."
Davis stared at her.
Cora hated saying it.
"But if you disappear, he wins."
The stationmaster looked toward Elias.
"You'd protect me?"
Elias's answer was immediate.
"Yes."
Davis almost laughed.
"After what I said to her?"
Elias glanced toward Cora.
"That's her decision."
Cora considered the man who had publicly humiliated her on her first day in Wyoming.
Then she remembered what fear looked like.
She had spent too much of her life allowing cruel people to decide what she deserved.
She would not become one of them.
"You testify," she said, "and you get a second chance."
Davis nodded slowly.
Elias looked at his wife.
In his expression she saw something she had never expected from any man.
Not ownership.
Not gratitude.
Respect.
That night, after Davis slept near the hearth, Elias and Cora stood outside beneath the stars.
"You amaze me," he said.
Cora smiled.
"Because I'm willing to forgive Davis?"
"No."
He stepped closer.
"Because everybody spent your whole life telling you that you were a burden."
His fingers brushed her cheek.
"And somehow you're the one carrying all of us."
Cora's eyes filled.
"Elias."
"I love you."
She stopped breathing.
He looked almost alarmed by his own words.
Perhaps he hadn't meant to say them yet.
Perhaps he had never said them to anyone.
Cora touched the scars on his neck.
"I love you too."
The mountain man closed his eyes.
Then he kissed her.
Neither of them knew a rider hidden in the trees had already watched Davis enter the cabin.
And before dawn, Harlan Pike would know his most important witness had changed sides.