Catherine entered leaning on her cane, supported by Mrs.
Fenwick.
“If you harm Elijah, everyone will know you are afraid of what Lydia can say,” she declared.
Richard stared at her.
“You have no idea what you are doing.” Catherine stepped forward despite the pain.
“I have spent years not knowing, because you made ignorance the price of peace.”
She laid a copy of the nursery register on the desk.
Richard snatched it and realized it was not the original.
“Where is the book?” he demanded.
Catherine answered, “Somewhere you cannot destroy it by hurting this man.” Richard pointed the pistol toward the window and fired into the empty air outside.
The report shook the glass and sent Mrs.
Fenwick stumbling backward.
Elijah instinctively moved between the women and the weapon.
Richard lowered it, breathing hard.
“You think you can threaten me in my own house?” Catherine said quietly, “No.
I think you have been threatening everyone else in it.”
Richard ordered Elijah confined in the tool shed until he decided what to do.
Catherine protested, but Elijah gave her a brief look that told her the moment called for strategy rather than another confrontation.
Crowe took him outside and locked the door.
Elijah sat on a crate beside his tools, listening to the hammering of his heart.
The shed had two windows, both barred from outside.
He knew every board in its wall, because he had built it.
For the first time in his life, a skill used to make the colonel’s property sound might become the thing that carried Elijah beyond its boundaries.
Chapter 23: The Carpenter’s Own Wall
Elijah examined the shed walls while Crowe stood guard outside.
He had built the small structure eight years earlier from boards cut on the estate.
Every nail and joint was familiar.
The rear wall rested on a shallow sill above bare earth, and one corner had settled after a heavy winter rain.
Elijah had planned to repair it but Richard had refused to authorize new timber.
Now the gap beneath that wall offered a possible escape.
He could not lift the boards without making noise, yet he could remove two pegs from the interior brace and create enough space to slide a person through.
He began working after the guard’s evening meal.
Each time Crowe crossed the yard, Elijah froze and listened.
When the footsteps faded, he pressed a chisel into the worn peg and twisted carefully.
The wood shifted less than an inch.
He worked for nearly an hour, taking care not to split the exterior boards.
