Chapter 14
The sheriff stared at him.
“You sold a woman in a public yard to punish her?”
“She wasn’t supposed to be sold!” Voss snapped.
The admission echoed through the barn.
Mason felt Clara’s fingers close around his sleeve.
But the greatest shock had not yet come.
Sheriff Harlan ordered Voss and Rusk to remain where they were while he examined the papers.
Voss demanded that Clara return with him.
She refused.
The sheriff finally acknowledged that he could not force her to leave with a man she accused of coercion and unlawful confinement.
He ordered both men to accompany him back to town for questioning and warned Mason that the investigation was far from finished.
When they left, Clara collapsed against the barn wall.
Mason knelt beside her.
“It’s over for tonight.”
She shook her head.
“No. There’s something else.”
He looked at her.
“What?”
She swallowed.
“You asked me once whether I knew Evelyn.”
Mason became very still.
Clara’s eyes filled with tears.
“I lied.”
He said nothing.
“I knew her before she died.”
Mason felt the barn tilt beneath him.
“How?”
Clara reached into her dress pocket again.
This time, she withdrew a small envelope, worn almost soft.
Across the front was Mason’s name.
He recognized the handwriting immediately.
Evelyn’s.
His hands began trembling.
“Where did you get that?”
“She gave it to me.”
Mason stared at her.
Clara wiped her cheeks.
“Four years ago, my father brought me into town when I was sick. Evelyn helped care for me. She wouldn’t accept payment.”
Mason remembered those days.
Evelyn had often spent afternoons assisting sick neighbors. She rarely mentioned names, believing people’s private troubles belonged to them.
Clara continued.
“She visited again when my mother died. She brought food and helped us through the winter. Before she left, she gave me that letter.”
“Why?”
“She said if I ever found myself with nowhere safe to go, I should find Mason Callaghan.”
Mason looked at the envelope.
“She told you that?”
Clara nodded.
“She said you were stubborn and sometimes difficult, but that you’d never turn away someone who truly needed help.”
A sob escaped Mason before he could stop it.
Clara reached toward him.
“I knew your name at the auction. I recognized you from the description she’d given me. I’d been hoping to reach your ranch after I escaped Gideon.”
Mason stared at her.
“So when you said you wanted me to come…”