Chapter 15 - Elias's Secret.
Clara did not take the letter.
For several seconds, she simply looked at Elias as though he had become another locked door in Blackthorn House.
"You knew my father was alive."
"I suspected."
"Do not hide behind that word."
Elias tightened his grip on the crutch.
"My father wrote that Daniel Vale had returned under another name."
"And you never told me."
"I did not know Jonah was Daniel until six weeks ago."
"That is six weeks longer than I knew."
"Yes."
Clara laughed without humor.
"You all say yes as though admitting a cruelty makes it smaller."
Elias flinched.
She saw the pain in his face and did not know whether it came from her words or his leg.
At that moment, she did not care.
"Why?"
"Daniel made me promise."
"Of course he did."
"Clara, listen."
"I have spent my life listening to men explain why I was better protected by ignorance."
She pointed toward the burned house.
"Look where that protection brought us."
Elias lowered his eyes.
"You are right."
The simple answer took some of the fight from her.
He held out the letter again.
"Read it anyway."
Clara took it.
The envelope was addressed in Gideon Mercer's hand.
Inside was a short letter written during the final week of his life.
Gideon confessed that Daniel Vale had returned to Blackthorn as Jonah Reed after Marian's death.
He wrote that Daniel was searching for the original western account ledgers.
Then came the line Elias had feared to show her.
IF CLARA VALE EVER COMES TO THIS HOUSE, DO NOT REVEAL DANIEL UNTIL HE CHOOSES TO REVEAL HIMSELF.
Clara folded the letter.
"Your father was still controlling us from the grave."
"Yes."
"And you obeyed him."
"At first."
"What changed?"
Elias looked toward Daniel in the cottage doorway.
"I learned why Daniel stayed hidden."
Daniel stepped outside.
"Do not defend me."
Elias ignored him.
"Miles had been sending anonymous threats to Jonah for years."
Clara turned to her father.
"Threats against me?"
Daniel nodded.
"Against you and your mother before she died."
"Show me."
Daniel went inside and returned with a packet wrapped in oilcloth.
The notes were short.
STAY DEAD.
SPEAK AND YOUR DAUGHTER PAYS.
LEAVE BLACKTHORN AND I FOLLOW HER.
Clara read them without speaking.
One was dated only three months earlier.
That was one month after she arrived at Blackthorn.
"Miles knew I was here."
Daniel nodded.
"Before I did."
"How?"
"I believe Silas told him."
Silas, still guarded nearby, heard his name.
"I did not."
Everyone turned.
He walked toward them with the deputy.
"I knew Clara's name after the county clerk mentioned her archive visits."
"Pike knew before the accident."
Elias stared at him.
Silas shook his head.
"Then someone else at Blackthorn was reporting to him."
Ruth was safe now.
The servants had been questioned.
Weller had been watched.
Clara thought of the people who moved freely between the house and town.
"The mail."
Daniel looked at her.
"What?"
"Miles intercepted Peter's package."
She looked toward Elias.
"He knew about my archive visits."
"The county clerk sends records by post."
Elias nodded slowly.
"Someone at the postal station."
Sheriff Cole, who had just returned from the road, heard them.
"The Ashbury postmaster is Pike's cousin by marriage."
Daniel's expression darkened.
"Then Miles has been reading more than letters."
Cole held up another telegram.
"He is also moving money."
The bank in Ashbury reported that Doctor Pike had withdrawn nearly all funds from his accounts before the fire.
A clerk saw him purchase a ticket under the name Miles Harlan for a train leaving Richmond the next evening.
Destination: New York.
From there, ships left daily for Europe.
"He is running."
Clara said it with certainty.
Elias shook his head.
"Not without the document he wants."
"The supposed recognition paper."
"Yes."
Daniel looked toward the ruins of Blackthorn.
"Marian may have hidden it."
Clara frowned.
"Where?"
Daniel stared at the surviving stone chimney of the west wing.
"She told me once that Gideon never noticed what was directly above his head."
Ruth, standing behind them, suddenly gasped.
"The landscape painting."
Clara remembered the framed painting that had hung for years in Elias's bedroom.
A peaceful valley.
A narrow river.
A small white church.
It had always hung directly above the carved headboard.
The fire had never reached that room.
They returned to the house under the sheriff's supervision.
Elias's old bedroom smelled of smoke but remained intact.
Clara removed the landscape painting from the wall.
The backing felt unusually thick.
Daniel cut the paper seal.
Inside was a second document.
Elias read the first paragraph.
Then he looked at Miles's birth record.
"This is not recognition of Miles."
Clara leaned closer.
"What is it?"
Elias's face changed completely.
"It is a deed transferring Blackthorn House and forty thousand acres out of the Mercer family."
Silas stepped forward.
"To whom?"
Elias read the final line.
"To Daniel Vale, or if he is deceased, to his lawful heir."
Everyone turned toward Clara.
May you like
The house behind her was still smoking.
And according to Gideon Mercer's hidden deed, it belonged to her.
