Ashford property?”
Gideon had said he was riding with his father.
The accident had happened near her family’s land.
Merrick spoke very quietly.
“Father fired the shot.”
Silas struggled against Gideon’s grip.
“Shut your mouth.”
Merrick flinched.
Then something remarkable happened.
He did not obey.
“For once,” Merrick said, “you shut yours.”
Rosalie stared at her brother.
Merrick took a breath.
“I found Father’s old journal when I was trying to find the deed to the house.”
Silas cursed.
Merrick continued.
“He was hunting illegally along the ridge.
Gideon and his father came through the trees.
Father fired at a deer.”
Rosalie looked down at the brass casing.
“The bullet hit Gideon?”
“No.
It hit a rock.”
The room seemed to narrow.
“A fragment ricocheted.”
Merrick nodded.
“Into Gideon’s ear.”
Rosalie slowly turned toward her father.
Silas stopped struggling.
For twenty-nine years, Coldwater had repeated the story.
A horse accident.
