The greater danger lay in assuming one rescue would be enough.
Silas still controlled the mill.
Whitcomb still signed reports.
Fenwick still paid for silence.
Richard still owned the land and could call on men willing to enforce his orders.
Daniel thought of Catherine and wondered whether she would deliver the remaining letters or destroy them.
He had not heard from her since the doctor visited.
At dawn she appeared unexpectedly at the workshop door.
She wore a dark dress and carried a basket of sewing.
Silas was nearby, so she spoke in the ordinary language of household repairs.
“The lid of my workbox is loose,” she said.
“Could you fix it?”
Daniel accepted the box and carried it behind the bench.
Inside, beneath spools of thread, lay a sealed packet.
Catherine had copied the account book by hand.
She had also written a brief statement about the forged letters.
Her signature appeared at the bottom.
Daniel looked up.
Catherine stood rigidly in the doorway.
“I’ve made a copy for myself,” she said.
“If this one vanishes, another will remain.”
Daniel folded the statement carefully.
“Where will the second copy be kept?”
“Somewhere Richard will not look.”
“Don’t assume there’s such a place in your house.”
Catherine lowered her eyes.
“I no longer assume that.”
For the first time, Daniel believed she might understand the scale of her husband’s control.
That belief did not make her safe to trust completely.
He returned the repaired workbox and thanked her aloud as Silas approached.
Catherine walked away without looking back.
Inside his coat Daniel carried another piece of evidence that could survive if its author changed her mind.
Chapter 19: The Burning Room
The trouble came on a rainy Tuesday when a fire broke out in the records room beside the stable.
Daniel smelled smoke before the bell rang.
He had been repairing a wagon hub when a thin black ribbon rose past the upper windows.
The stable hands ran for buckets.
Silas shouted that the room held important property papers.
Richard appeared in the yard and ordered everyone to keep the flames from reaching the horses.
Daniel saw that the window had been broken inward.
He also saw a trail of lamp oil running beneath the door.
The fire had not started by accident.
He helped pull a water barrel close enough for the workers to form a line.
Isaiah directed the horses into the outer paddock.
Hannah carried the smaller children away from the smoke.
