She pulled out a page signed by Margaret and dated after the supposed funeral.
The handwriting matched the letters in Catherine’s trunk.
Margaret described being held at a property called Briar House, where she was pressured to surrender her father’s inheritance to Richard.
She refused and asked that copies be sent to Catherine.
Eliza had tried.
Her messenger disappeared on the western road.
“Briar House,” Daniel repeated.
“Where is it?”
“Beyond the old quarry.”
She drew a map on the back of a worn shipping receipt.
Daniel studied it until he could reproduce the turns from memory.
“Why haven’t you taken this to a judge?” he asked.
Eliza’s face closed.
“I did.”
“What happened?”
“The judge showed the papers to Fenwick.”
Daniel looked down at the box.
Eliza continued.
“My nephew lost his job the next week.”
“Did they threaten you?”
“They didn’t have to.”
She locked the box and pushed it away from the stove.
“I will give you copies, but you must understand something.”
Daniel waited.
“Records do not rescue people by themselves.”
“I know.”
“You need witnesses, a route, and a place where they will be protected.”
Daniel thought of Isaiah, Hannah, Samuel, and the three prisoners beneath the mill.
He thought of Catherine holding the forged letters in trembling hands.
“I have names,” he said.
“I’m trying to find the rest.”
Chapter 16: The Woman the World Buried
Briar House stood beyond the quarry on land so neglected that its walls had begun to lean into the surrounding trees.
Its ownership passed through a succession of companies bearing the names of relatives who rarely visited.
Richard used the property precisely because no neighbor could easily tell who was expected to live there.
Daniel reached it after dark with Isaiah and a young free Black wagon driver named Jonah Price.
Jonah had come through Eliza’s network and had agreed to guide them along roads he knew well.
He did not promise they would escape if discovered.
He had seen enough people arrested for less.
They left the wagon behind a line of cedars and approached the house on foot.
One lamp burned in an upstairs room.
Another glowed beside a stable window.
The main door was locked.
Daniel used the iron wedge Isaiah had given him to lift a swollen latch on the kitchen entrance.
Inside, the air smelled of mildew and stale medicine.
A staircase climbed toward the single lit room.
They heard a woman coughing.
