Rebecca and Miriam respected the condition.
They made detailed copies while Hannah watched the road and prepared food for the journey back.
As they left, Hale came to the gate and handed Miriam one additional page.
It bore a note written in cramped letters: “Two girls, one boy, bound east by order of E.
Sutter.” The date was four days earlier.
Miriam asked whether the children had spoken.
Hale shook his head.
“I heard one girl singing very quietly,” he said.
“The driver told her to stop.” Rebecca folded the page with care.
They now had evidence of recent movement, not merely an old transaction.
On the ride home, neither woman spoke much.
The bridge had carried wagons for years, and every board beneath its wheels now seemed to hold the memory of people who had passed without knowing whether anyone would remember them.
Chapter 29: The Widow at Red Hollow
The farmhouse at Red Hollow belonged to a widow named Celia Morton, whose husband had died leaving debts to river merchants.
Lydia had suspected for years that the house served as a holding point, but she had never entered it without being recognized.
Miriam knew Celia through church gatherings and believed she was more frightened than cruel.
Alden cautioned that fear did not erase responsibility.
The group decided to send Rebecca with a letter offering legal advice to the widow if she would disclose what had occurred there.
They did not threaten her children or suggest that desperation justified imprisoning others.
Celia received Rebecca in a narrow room smelling of wood smoke and boiled turnips.
She read the letter twice and asked who had supplied Lydia’s name.
Rebecca explained that Lydia was alive and possessed records of the transfers.
Celia turned pale.
“Richard told me she drowned,” she whispered.
Rebecca answered, “He told her sister she died of fever.” Celia pressed a hand to her forehead.
Her husband had agreed to shelter travelers for Fane in exchange for reduced debt.
At first Celia believed the arrivals were workers waiting for transport.
Then one evening a boy asked her to send a letter to his grandmother, and a guard struck him for speaking.
Celia said she had hidden a page from the boy’s letter, terrified that the guards would discover it.
She fetched the page from a box beneath a loose hearthstone.
It contained a name, address, and a plea that his family be told he was alive.
Rebecca copied the details and asked whether the boy had left with the other travelers.
