Silas Dawson appeared at the door of the barn with his face unfitted.<\/p>\n
First he saw Caleb.<\/p>\n
Then Clara.<\/p>\n
And finally the blankets spread out over the straw.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet out of my property,\u201d he ordered.<\/p>\n
Caleb didn’t move.<\/p>\n
Your daughter needs a doctor.<\/p>\n
My daughter is none of your business.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be from Dr. Reeves as soon as he arrives.<\/p>\n
Silas’ face changed.<\/p>\n
Who was it for him?<\/p>\n
Clara closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
Silas immediately understood.<\/p>\n
\u201cNoah!<\/p>\n
He turned to the house, but Caleb blocked the exit.<\/p>\n
Let him go.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet away, Whitaker.<\/p>\n
“No.<\/p>\n
Silas clenched his fists.<\/p>\n
You came to buy a horse.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I found something much more important.<\/p>\n
Clara screamed again.<\/p>\n
This time Silas didn’t even look at her.<\/p>\n
That’s what ended up convincing Caleb.<\/p>\n
He was not a terrified father because his daughter was suffering.<\/p>\n
He was a terrified man because someone could discover something.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat papers are you waiting for?\u201d asked Caleb.<\/p>\n
Silas was still.<\/p>\n
Clara opened her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t tell her anything,\u201d his father warned.<\/p>\n
Those words did the exact opposite.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy husband left land,\u201d Clara whispered.<\/p>\n
Silas turned to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cShut up!<\/p>\n
Caleb stepped forward.<\/p>\n
Let her talk.<\/p>\n
Clara breathed hard.<\/p>\n
Thomas died ten months ago. His will said that if I had a child of his, the land would pass to the baby.<\/p>\n
Caleb began to understand.<\/p>\n
What if there was no son?<\/p>\n
Clara looked at her father.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of the property could be purchased by Silas through a settlement he had negotiated with Thomas before his death.<\/p>\n
Silas hit a column with his fist.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about!<\/p>\n
But Clara did know.<\/p>\n
For months he had kept his father’s accounts.<\/p>\n
I had seen letters.<\/p>\n
Contracts.<\/p>\n
Telegrams.<\/p>\n
And three weeks earlier I had found something worse.<\/p>\n
A request prepared to declare that the pregnancy had ended months ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to register the land before my baby was born,\u201d Clara said. If no one knew I was still pregnant, I could say that Thomas died without an heir.<\/p>\n
Caleb felt a chill.<\/p>\n
That’s why the people thought Clara was in Nebraska.<\/p>\n
That’s why they fired the midwife.<\/p>\n
That’s why no one could leave the ranch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Silas Dawson appeared at the door of the barn with his face unfitted. First he saw Caleb. Then Clara. And…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flavorlab.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flavorlab.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flavorlab.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flavorlab.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flavorlab.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1664"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flavorlab.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1666,"href":"https:\/\/flavorlab.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1664\/revisions\/1666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flavorlab.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flavorlab.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flavorlab.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flavorlab.delicedcook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}