Chapter 4 - Uncle Silas
Silas Reed dismounted slowly.
At sixty-two, he remained broad-shouldered and immaculate even after a winter ride. His gray beard was clipped close. His black wool coat looked better suited to a banker than a rancher.
He saw the Apache riders.
Then Naelli.
Then her father.
Finally Jonah.
“Quite a morning.”
Jonah did not smile.
Silas approached the porch.
“You going to invite me in?”
“No.”
Silas studied him.
“That woman is wanted in Hartwell.”
“For what?”
“Murder.”
Naelli’s expression did not change.
Jonah asked, “Whose?”
“Caleb Finch.”
Naelli’s father spoke.
“Finch carried papers for Elias Reed.”
Silas’s eyes moved to him.
There.
A flicker.
Recognition.
Jonah saw it.
Silas recovered quickly.
“I don’t know what story you’ve been told.”
“Do you know him?”
Silas looked at Naelli’s father.
“We’ve crossed paths.”
“Did you know my father survived Salt River?”
Silas stared at Jonah.
No denial came.
That silence destroyed something.
Jonah stepped down from the porch.
“Did you?”
Silas sighed.
“Not the way he claims.”
“What way?”
“Elias was badly injured. He disappeared. Months later, I learned he might be alive.”
“Might?”
“He sent a letter.”
Jonah’s voice dropped.
“To whom?”
“Your mother.”
“Did she receive it?”
Silas looked away.
Jonah grabbed his coat.
The five men behind Silas shifted.
Apache riders did the same.
Naelli called, “Jonah.”
He released Silas.
“Answer.”
Silas adjusted his collar.
“I intercepted it.”
Jonah felt heat rush through his body.
“Why?”
“Because your father had become dangerous.”
“To you?”
“To everyone.”
Silas stepped closer.
“Elias accused men of fraud. Land offices. Surveyors. investors. He wanted to expose deals that had already become the foundation of this valley.”
“Were they fraudulent?”
Silas hesitated.
“That is complicated.”
“It’s yes or no.”
“It was frontier law.”
“That means yes.”
Silas’s patience thinned.
“You think deeds came clean out here? Every ranch, mine and town rests on somebody’s disputed line.”
“And Elias?”
“He wanted purity after helping build the system himself.”
Naelli’s father said, “He wanted you to stop selling what was not yours.”
Silas’s eyes hardened.
Jonah heard it.
Selling.
Present tense.
“What are you selling?”
Silas ignored him.
Jonah grabbed his arm.
Silas looked down at Jonah’s hand.
“Take it off.”
“What are you selling?”
Silas lowered his voice.
“The Hartwell Consolidated Mining Company offered one hundred eighty thousand dollars for water access through north Cedar Pass.”
Jonah stared.
That was more money than most families saw in generations.
“Do you own the water rights?”
“Yes.”
Naelli’s father said, “No.”
Silas turned.
“You have no standing in territorial title.”
The older man remained composed.
“This is not only territorial title.”
“What does that mean?”
Naelli answered.
“The springs cross land guaranteed to our families under an agreement older than Hartwell.”
Silas laughed.
“Your agreement was with Elias. He had no authority.”
Naelli’s father said, “His father signed too.”
Silas stopped laughing.
Jonah looked between them.
“My grandfather?”
The older leader nodded.
“Jacob Reed.”
Jonah’s grandfather had founded the ranch.
At least that was the family story.
“What agreement?”
“A shared-use covenant,” Naelli’s father said. “Water, grazing passage and winter access.”
Silas shook his head.
“Never recorded.”
“Because your surveyor destroyed the filing.”
Jonah looked at Silas.
“Did he?”
Silas’s jaw tightened.
“You are listening to people who want your land.”
Naelli stepped down from the porch despite pain.
“I was nearly killed carrying evidence that your sale is fraudulent.”
Silas pointed at her.
“You were found beside Finch’s body.”
Jonah turned.
“You said she was wanted for murder.”
“She was.”
Naelli looked at her father.
“Finch is dead?”
He nodded once.
Her face changed.
Grief.
She had not known.
Silas continued.
“Hartwell marshal found him yesterday. Knife wound.”
Naelli whispered, “I never reached him.”
“I know.”
Everyone looked at Jonah.
Silas said, “You know nothing.”
Jonah ignored him.
He looked at Naelli.
She stared at the snow.
“Then someone met Finch before me.”
Her father said, “And killed him for the deed.”
Silas raised both hands.
“Exactly. Yet you assume I did it.”
Jonah looked at his uncle.
“You knew the deed existed.”
Silas’s silence betrayed him again.
Jonah stepped closer.
“Who told you?”
Silas sighed.
“Elias.”
Jonah froze.
“My father spoke to you?”
“Six months ago.”
The world shifted again.
“Where?”
“By letter.”
“Show me.”
“I burned it.”
Jonah laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
“It accused me of everything under the sun.”
“What did he want?”
Silas looked toward the Apache riders.
“He wanted me to abandon the Hartwell sale.”
“And if you refused?”
“He threatened to return.”
Jonah’s voice became quiet.
“So you knew he was alive all these years.”
Silas looked at him.
“Yes.”
Naelli’s father watched Jonah carefully.
Jonah asked the question that mattered.
“Did my mother?”
Silas did not answer.
Jonah stepped forward.
“Did she know?”
Silas finally said, “Eventually.”
Jonah stopped.
That hurt more.
“When?”
“Before she died.”
“How long before?”
Silas looked away.
“Six years.”
Jonah felt something tear open.
Miriam had known.
His mother.
The person whose grief defined his childhood.
She had known Elias lived and still told Jonah he was dead.
“Why?”
Silas answered softly.
“Because she had already built a life around that death.”
Jonah stared at him.
Then Silas added:
“And because when Elias finally asked her to leave Cedar Pass and come to him, she refused.”
Naelli whispered, “Jonah.”
He barely heard her.
The dead father was alive.
The loyal uncle was a liar.
Now his mother had become one too.
Silas mounted.
“I came to warn you. Hartwell’s marshal will arrive tomorrow for Naelli.”
Naelli’s father’s riders shifted.
Silas continued.
“If you resist, this becomes bloodshed.”
Jonah looked at him.
“And what do you call what happened to Finch?”
Silas’s expression hardened.
“I didn’t kill Finch.”
“Maybe.”
Jonah turned toward the cabin.
Silas called after him.
“Jonah.”
He stopped.
“Your father is not the man they’re describing.”
Jonah looked back.
“For once, we agree.”
Silas frowned.
Jonah said, “I’m going to ask him myself.”
Silas’s face lost color.
That was all Jonah needed.
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His uncle was not afraid of the deed.
He was afraid of Jonah meeting Elias.
