“Who?”
“The circuit judge. A federal marshal. Two newspaper editors. The territorial governor. And the final pie went to Father Daniel at the church.”
Outside, Rusk shouted, “Last chance!”
Caleb leaned closer.
“By sunrise, every road out of Red Creek will be blocked. By noon, federal officers will arrive.”
Clara’s anger sharpened.
“You could have told me.”
“I could not risk your reaction.”
“My reaction?”
“Rusk has spent twenty years believing you know nothing. I needed him to see surprise on your face.”
Clara slapped him.
The sound cracked through the darkness.
Caleb accepted it without flinching.
“You deserved to know,” he said. “But the plan depended on you not knowing.”
Another bullet struck the stone.
Dust sprayed across them.
Caleb took Clara’s hand and pulled her toward a trapdoor.
“There is a tunnel beneath the mill.”
They dropped into darkness as the front doors burst open.
The camera of the imagined scene plunged with them, following their descent through rotting beams and earth, then rushed forward as they crawled through the narrow tunnel beneath the mill.
Above, boots thundered.
Rusk shouted orders.
Caleb pushed open a hatch at the tunnel’s end.
Moonlight spilled across the riverbank.
They emerged behind a wall of reeds.
A horse waited nearby.
Caleb helped Clara mount, then swung up behind her.
They rode hard toward town.
Wind tore at Clara’s hair.
“Why are we going back?” she shouted.
“Because Rusk will burn the church first.”
The realization hit her.
The final pie.
They reached Red Creek as flames appeared beyond the rooftops.
The church bell began ringing wildly.
Clara and Caleb galloped into the square.
Father Daniel stood outside the church, struggling with a man who held a kerosene can.
Caleb leaped from the saddle and tackled the man.
Clara ran inside.
Smoke drifted through the nave.
The pie sat on the altar.
She rushed toward it.
A hand grabbed her from behind.
Sheriff Rusk dragged her backward and pressed a revolver beneath her jaw.
“You always were your father’s daughter,” he whispered.
Clara froze.
Caleb entered the church and stopped.
Rusk tightened his hold.
“Drop the gun.”
Caleb obeyed.