PART 3 — THE MAN WHO KNEW WHY FIVE BRIDES RAN

Silas Crowe removed his hat as he entered the cabin.

He was a narrow man with a pointed beard, pale eyes, and a smile that never quite reached them.

“Callum,” he said. “You’ve changed very little.”

Callum stepped between him and Ruth.

“You have some nerve coming here.”

Silas glanced at the open desk.

“I see you’ve found Gideon’s little collection.”

“What do you know about it?”

“Enough to know that you should leave it alone.”

Ruth closed the account book.

“That’s an interesting way to greet people who have just discovered their names in a secret ledger.”

Silas looked at her.

“And you must be Miss Fairchild.”

“Mrs. Brek, if you’re planning to be polite.”

Callum turned toward her.

Ruth kept her eyes on Silas.

The visitor’s smile disappeared.

“So the wedding has happened?”

“Not yet,” Callum replied.

“Then perhaps there’s still time to reconsider.”

Callum’s hands тιԍнтened.

“You’ve spent years making sure no woman stayed here. Why?”

Silas sighed as though the question bored him.

“Your brother had a business arrangement. He believed marriage would complicate it.”

“What arrangement?”

“The northern valley.”

Callum looked toward the account book.

“My father left me this property.”

“Your father left you the house and the southern pasture. The northern ridge was placed in trust.”

“That’s a lie.”

Silas reached inside his coat and removed a folded document.

“Then perhaps you should read this.”

He placed it on the desk.

Callum opened it.

The paper appeared to be a legal transfer, dated six years earlier. It claimed that Callum had agreed to surrender his rights to the northern ridge in exchange for money.

At the bottom was a signature.

His signature.

Except Callum immediately shook his head.

“I never signed this.”

Silas shrugged.

“Your brother believed otherwise.”

“Gideon is ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. Who gave you permission to speak for him?”

“I was his business partner.”

“And now?”

Silas’s expression hardened.

“Now I’m the man trying to keep you from making a mistake.”

Ruth stepped closer to the document.

“May I see it?”

Callum handed it to her.

She examined the signature.

Then she looked at the date.

“Something is wrong.”

Silas raised an eyebrow.

“And what would that be?”

Ruth pointed to the date.

“This document says it was signed on April 12, 1881. But the witness statement is dated April 15.”

Silas said nothing.

“Why would a witness sign three days after the document was supposedly completed?”

“Clerical error.”

“Perhaps. But there’s something else.”

Ruth turned the page toward the window.

“The ink used for the signature is darker than the ink used for the date. And the paper around the signature has a different color.”

Silas reached for it.

“Give me that.”

Ruth stepped back.

“No.”

Callum moved beside her.

“You will not touch another paper in this cabin.”

For the first time, Silas looked uncertain.

Then he laughed.

“You always were an emotional fool, Callum. Gideon understood that. He knew you could be controlled by guilt, by pride, and now apparently by a woman who thinks she can read a ledger.”

Ruth folded her arms.

“I can read enough to know when someone is trying to hide something.”

Silas turned toward Callum.

“Listen carefully. If you continue digging, you may lose the entire ranch.”

Callum’s expression did not change.

“Then I’ll find out what I truly own.”

Silas put on his hat.

“Very well. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

He left the cabin and rode down the mountain.

For several minutes, neither Callum nor Ruth spoke.

Finally, Callum turned to her.

“You should go back to the house.”

Ruth stared at him.

“Why?”

“This is becoming dangerous.”

“Because a man brought a suspicious document?”

“Because I don’t know what else he might do.”

Ruth’s expression softened, but her voice remained firm.

“Callum, I understand wanting to protect someone. But you cannot protect me by sending me away every time life becomes complicated.”

“I don’t want you hurt.”

“And I don’t want you deciding my life for me.”

He looked at her.

The words seemed to strike him harder than Silas’s threats.

Ruth took his hand.

“We are going to examine the evidence. We are going to speak to the judge. And we are going to do it together.”

Callum looked down at their joined hands.

“All right.”

They gathered the documents and returned to the ranch.

That evening, Ruth examined the account book while Callum prepared supper.

The entries were more detailed than she had first realized.

There were payments to a stagecoach driver, a H๏τel keeper, and a woman who ran a boardinghouse in Missoula.

Then Ruth found a name she recognized.

Mrs. Eleanor Moore.

“Callum?”

He came over.

“Who is Eleanor Moore?”

He studied the entry.

“I don’t know.”

“Could she be related to Adelaide?”

“Possibly.”

Ruth turned the page.

A note had been written in the margin.

The first five arrangements succeeded. The sixth must be prevented at all costs.

Below it was another sentence.

The woman from Iowa must never reach the ranch.

Ruth felt a chill.

“They knew about my journey.”

Callum sat beside her.

“I don’t understand. You never met Gideon.”

“No, but someone knew my name, my address, and when I would arrive.”

She turned another page.

There was a final entry.

If she arrives, show her the pH๏τograph.

Ruth looked at Callum.

“What pH๏τograph?”

He shook his head.

Then he remembered the picture he had seen in the hidden compartment.

The one showing Gideon beside the unfamiliar man.

He took it from his coat.

Ruth studied the man’s face.

“Wait.”

She reached for the pH๏τograph.

“I’ve seen him before.”

“Where?”

“In the stagecoach station in Helena. He was standing near the ticket counter when I bought my ticket to Montana.”

Callum frowned.

“Are you certain?”

“I remember because he asked whether I was traveling alone.”

Callum stood.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t think it mattered.”

She turned the pH๏τograph over.

A name was written beneath the image.

Elias Crowe.

Silas’s brother.

And below the name was an address in Helena.

Ruth sat back.

“Silas wasn’t working alone.”

Callum stared at the picture.

“Gideon must have had help.”

The next morning, Callum rode to town with the documents. Ruth stayed at the ranch with the intention of organizing the remaining papers.

But just before noon, a wagon arrived.

A woman climbed down.

She wore a dark traveling cloak and carried a small wooden box.

“Are you Mrs. Brek?” she asked.

Ruth stepped onto the porch.

“I am Ruth Fairchild.”

The woman studied her face.

“My name is Adelaide Moore.”

Ruth felt her breath catch.

The fifth bride.

The woman whose letter had been hidden in Callum’s pouch.

Adelaide approached slowly.

“I heard you had come to live with Callum. I thought I should warn you before it was too late.”

Ruth invited her inside.

Adelaide placed the wooden box on the table.

“I didn’t leave because I feared his appearance,” she said. “I left because I discovered what Gideon had done.”

She opened the box.

Inside were five letters, each bearing the name of one of Callum’s former brides.

Ruth recognized the handwriting immediately.

It matched the letters in the old pouch.

Adelaide removed another paper.

“This is the letter I received the night before I was supposed to marry him.”

Ruth read it.

It contained a threat.

Not against Adelaide.

Against Callum.

If you stay, he will be arrested for a crime he did not commit. Leave, and the matter will disappear.

Ruth looked up.

“Why didn’t you tell him?”

“I tried. But Gideon came to my boardinghouse before I could return. He told me that Callum would be ruined if I spoke.”

Adelaide opened the wooden box again.

“There is something else. I kept a copy of the original land agreement. Gideon wanted the northern ridge because he believed there was silver beneath it.”

Ruth’s eyes widened.

“Silver?”

“An old survey found traces of it. But the land was never legally transferred. Callum’s father left it to Callum, and Gideon couldn’t obtain it without his brother’s signature.”

Ruth looked at the account book.

Suddenly, the five brides, the false letters, and the secret payments made sense.

Gideon hadn’t been trying to keep Callum alone simply because he disliked marriage.

He had been trying to keep Callum isolated, uninformed, and easier to deceive.

Adelaide placed the final document on the table.

“This proves Gideon knew the transfer was false.”

Ruth examined it.

At the bottom was the signature of a notary.

And beside it, a handwritten statement:

The northern ridge remains the property of Callum Brek. No transfer has been authorized.

Ruth looked at Adelaide.

“Why bring this to me now?”

The older woman hesitated.

“Because I received a letter yesterday.”

“From whom?”

“Silas Crowe.”

She reached into her coat and handed Ruth a folded note.

Ruth opened it.

Only one sentence had been written:

Tell the new bride that Callum’s brother did not die when everyone believed he did.

Ruth read it twice.

Then she looked toward the window.

“Gideon is alive?”

Adelaide shook her head.

“I don’t know.”

Before Ruth could ask another question, a horse came galloping up the trail.

Callum had returned.

He dismounted before the wagon had fully stopped.

His face was pale.

“Ruth!”

She hurried to the porch.

“What happened?”

Callum held out a telegram.

“The judge received a message from Helena. Silas Crowe has been arrested.”

Ruth stared at him.

“Then perhaps this is over.”

Callum shook his head.

“No. Before they took him into custody, he sent one final message.”

He handed her the telegram.

Ruth read the words.

Tell Callum his brother is coming home.

The cabin seemed to grow very quiet.

Callum looked toward the distant mountains.

For six years, he had believed Gideon was ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

Now someone was claiming otherwise.

And if Gideon was alive, the man who had destroyed five chances at marriage might soon be standing at Callum’s door.

Ruth reached for Callum’s hand.

“Whatever happens,” she said, “you won’t face it alone.”

He looked at her.

For the first time, he did not seem afraid of the future.

But somewhere beyond the northern ridge, a rider was already making his way toward the ranch.

And he was carrying a wedding ring that Callum recognized.

It had belonged to his mother.

The question was no longer why five brides had run away. It was what Gideon Brek intended to take from the sixth.