Chapter 8 - The Stranger Named Jacob
The young man said his name was Jacob Vale.
He was twenty-two years old.
He had been raised in Denver as Edwin’s younger cousin.
He had never heard the name James Hail.
Thomas stared at him as though the world had narrowed to one face.
Jacob had Annie’s mouth.
He had Thomas’s eyes.
And when he became angry, one corner of his jaw tightened exactly as Thomas’s did.
Edwin demanded the letters.
Clara threw the satchel onto the bridge.
It contained blank paper.
Pete and the others emerged from the trees.
Sheriff Doyle appeared on the opposite side with two armed men.
For one hopeful second, Clara thought he had changed sides.
Then Doyle aimed at Reverend Cole.
Edwin cut Thomas loose but kept a pistol trained on Jacob.
“The boy is proof of nothing without the ledger,” Edwin said.
“He has a mother’s face,” Thomas replied.
“That does not survive in court.”
Jacob turned toward Thomas.
“My mother was named Ruth.”
“No,” Thomas said.
“Your mother was Annie.”
Jacob’s expression hardened.
“You do not get to appear in the middle of my life and rewrite it.”
Thomas flinched as if struck.
Edwin used the distraction to seize Clara.
He dragged her toward the wagon.
Jacob moved before anyone else.
He struck Edwin’s wrist and sent the pistol into the river.
Doyle fired.
The bullet hit Jacob in the shoulder.
Chaos broke across the bridge.
Thomas tackled Doyle.
Pete’s men disarmed the deputies.
Clara pressed her apron against Jacob’s wound while Edwin escaped on horseback.
Jacob remained conscious long enough to whisper something.
“There is a blue house in Denver.”
“What house?” Clara asked.
“The woman who raised me kept a locked room.”
His eyes closed.
“She said it belonged to my dead mother.”
At the doctor’s office, Thomas waited beside Jacob’s bed until morning.
Jacob woke once and saw him there.
“You are not my father,” he said.
Thomas swallowed.
“I know I have not earned that word.”
Jacob looked away.
Outside, Clara discovered the final letter in Annie’s bundle had been opened during the confusion.
A section she had believed blank revealed writing when warmed near the stove.
It named the doctor who attended Annie’s labor.
Dr. Abram Pike.
May you like
The same man who was currently treating Jacob.
