Others were replies forged in her own handwriting.

A third group consisted of letters signed by names Catherine did not recognize.

These described payments Richard demanded in exchange for keeping certain people from being sold farther away.

One letter referred to a girl named Lydia who had testified about a drowning at the western house.

Another described a woman accused of stealing funds from a church collection.

The accusation had been withdrawn after her brother paid Richard a large sum.

Catherine saw that the colonel used fear to generate both silence and money.

The pattern was unmistakable, though she resisted giving it a name.

She had always thought Richard ruthless in business.

She had explained away his anger as the strain of managing a large estate.

Now she was forced to consider that his prosperity depended partly on crimes committed against people who could scarcely defend themselves.

She rang for Hannah, then stopped herself and pulled the cord twice more.

The maid who arrived was young, barely sixteen, and visibly frightened by the unusual urgency.

Catherine nearly dismissed her.

Instead she asked for ink, fresh paper, and the household correspondence ledger.

The girl fetched them and left.

Catherine compared signatures by the window.

Her own letter to Margaret from 1850 curved the letter C with a long downward stroke.

The forged replies reproduced that stroke, but the ink frequently blotted beneath it.

She recognized the mark of the heavy pen Richard preferred.

The handwriting seemed hers because someone had copied the visible shapes without understanding their natural rhythm.

She remembered making jokes about her husband’s poor handwriting.

He had laughed and asked her to write his business letters for him.

Years later, he had used the same lessons against her.

The discovery wounded her pride, but the wound was small beside what the letters revealed.

She remembered a young mother at the eastern gate begging to see her son.

Richard had called her unstable and had ordered the guards to send her away.

Catherine had watched from a carriage without intervening.

She remembered an older man whose hands shook as he signed a paper he could not read.

Richard assured her that the man was grateful for an arrangement.

She remembered Margaret objecting to the sale of a girl who had been sick for weeks.

Catherine had told her sister not to interfere in matters she did not understand.

The memories arrived one after another.

She could no longer blame every silence on a forged letter.