Chapter 4 - WHAT MARTHA KNEW
Martha held her granddaughter first.
She cried so hard Ruth eventually took the baby back because her hands were shaking.
Then she held the boy.
“My Lord.”
Abigail watched from bed.
Her emotions refused to settle into one shape.
Anger.
Love.
Disgust.
Need.
She wanted her mother to disappear.
She wanted to be six years old again with her head in Martha’s lap.
Both feelings lived together.
Martha returned the baby.
Then sat across the room.
“I knew about the letters.”
Abigail went still.
“All of them?”
“Not at first.”
“How many?”
“Enough.”
“Why?”
Martha looked at her hands.
“Your father said Elias would ruin you.”
“He thought I was already ruined.”
Martha flinched.
“Yes.”
“He took Elias’s money.”
“Yes.”
“And you let him?”
“I told myself Samuel was using it for the household.”
Abigail stared.
“Was he?”
“Some.”
The rest, Martha revealed, had gone toward Samuel’s debts.
The Pierce farm was failing.
Two bad harvests.
A sick horse.
Money owed to a merchant in Durango.
Samuel despised Elias partly because the young man was poor.
Yet Samuel quietly spent the wages Elias sent.
The hypocrisy made Abigail feel physically ill.
Then Martha revealed something worse.
Elias had returned once.
In October.
Abigail sat up.
“What?”
“He came to the farm?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t I see him?”
“Samuel sent you to Aunt Clara’s that day.”
Abigail remembered.
Her father suddenly insisted she stay with Clara because “people were talking.”
Elias arrived while she was gone.
“What happened?”
“He asked for you.”
“And?”
“Samuel told him you wanted nothing to do with him.”
Abigail covered her mouth.
Martha continued.
“Elias didn’t believe him.”
Hope and pain struck simultaneously.
“What did he do?”
“He said he’d come back.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
Martha hesitated.
“At least not that I know.”
Jacob interrupted.
“He got hurt.”
Everyone turned.
“How do you know?” Abigail asked.
Jacob had heard men at the livery discussing an avalanche near Engineer Pass.
A survey crew was caught.
Two men injured badly.
One named Elias Boone.
Abigail felt the room tilt.
Ruth steadied her.
“Easy.”
“Is he alive?”
Jacob nodded.
“They said yes.”
“Where?”
“Durango, maybe.”
Daniel spoke.
“I can find out.”
Abigail looked at him.
“You would?”
“Of course.”
She started crying again.
Daniel seemed uncomfortable whenever people cried because of kindness.
Ruth noticed.
“He’s better with horses.”
“Ma.”
“What?”
Later that day, Daniel rode with Deputy Hale toward the telegraph station.
By evening, they had an answer.
ELIAS BOONE — RECOVERING AT ST. JOSEPH INFIRMARY, DURANGO. EXPECTED TO LIVE.
Abigail read the telegram until the words blurred.
Alive.
He had not left.
He had written.
He had sent money.
He had returned.
And somewhere along the way, an avalanche finished what her father’s lies started.
Then another line arrived by telegraph.
BOONE HAS ASKED REPEATEDLY FOR INFORMATION REGARDING ABIGAIL PIERCE.
Abigail pressed the paper against her chest.
For months she had told herself she hated Elias.
It was easier than missing him.
Now hate had nowhere to go.
That night, Martha prepared to leave.
“Where will you go?” Abigail asked.
Martha looked toward the dark road.
“Not with Samuel.”
Abigail stared.
“You left him?”
“I should have done many things sooner.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Martha smiled sadly.
“I’ll stay with Clara.”
Before leaving, she stopped at Abigail’s bedside.
“I am sorry.”
Abigail said nothing.
Martha nodded.
“I know.”
Then:
“I don’t expect forgiveness because I finally became ashamed of what I did.”
That mattered.
No demand.
No insistence that mothers deserve another chance.
She simply left.
Abigail watched from the window.
Daniel came inside ten minutes later.
“Your father’s gone.”
“Where?”
“Home, I assume.”
“What happens now?”
Daniel leaned against the wall.
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“What do you want?”
Again.
That question.
Abigail looked toward her babies.
Then at the telegram.
“I want to see Elias.”
Daniel nodded.
“Then when you’re strong enough, we’ll take you.”
Abigail hesitated.
“And after?”
Daniel smiled slightly.
“One problem at a time.”
May you like
It was the first future anyone had offered her that did not come with instructions.
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