Page 42 of A Dangerous Heart
Isaac pulled a branch aside for her, not looking back to see if she was through.
“You were right,” she went on stubbornly.
He didn’t have to look at her to listen.
“I should have told you the whole truth from the beginning.” She panted through the words. Her chest hurt, not only from the pace.
“I was desperate. To escape.” New tears welled in her eyes. She blinked them away and kept looking for Ben.
Isaac’s longer strides put him several feet ahead of her. She drew in a breath, picked up her pace.
“I’m sorry that I put your family in danger.” When he still didn’t acknowledge her, desperation made her shout, “I had no choice. I had to get us out this time.”
Now he swung around, eyes searching her face. “You’ve tried to get out before?”
Here is your moment of truth, Clare Barlow. You can play it two ways. Tell the truth, and Isaac will know that you were a charlatan. Or…keep it from him and hope he never finds out.
Blood will out.
No, she would out herself. Just reveal the whole ugly truth about the woman she used to be.
“After my oldest brother died, my father needed someone to scout ahead. Get the lay of the land, meet people, and sniff out any vulnerabilities. When the bank might be left unlocked. Who had the keys or knew the safe combination.”
Clare watched Isaac’s jaw harden and his eyes go cold.
“I told myself I wasn’t hurting anyone. Only gathering information.”
But she’d known it was wrong. She cleared her throat, the guilt and shame rising to choke her again. She swallowed it back, determined to get it all out.
“Sometimes Pa and Vic would come home with wads of cash, and for a while, things would be good. They’d spend it all on fine saddles or whatever they could think of—anything but providing for the family.” She shook her head, the words coming faster now. “And they’d be gone for months at a time, leaving us to fend for ourselves.”
She paused, remembering the days when there had been no food to go around, the silence hanging heavy as Anne grew more ill with the children to care for and no one there to help. “Anne was growing weaker by the day. I could get us food and supplies while in town.”
She sucked in a breath. Her heart beat faster with the memory of her pa and his demands. “And you don’t say no to Pa Barlow.” She didn’t realize she was touching the scar at her wrist until she caught him watching her. She dropped her hands to her sides.
Surely he couldn’t think any less of her than he already did, but she couldn’t bear any more of his censure, so she ducked her eyes, turning to pick her way up the gully, leaving him to follow this time.
“I was seventeen when I met a young man in this tiny town in southern Missouri. A banker’s son. I’d never known anyone so kindhearted.”
Theo had been a complete surprise to her after Pa, Billy, and Victor. At times his gentleness hadn’t felt real. She’d imagined herself in love with him before she’d known what love really meant.
“I thought I could outsmart Pa and Victor. Hatched a grand plan to run away with Theo.”
When she glanced over her shoulder, Isaac paused his searching for Ben to meet her gaze. She saw the resignation in his expression. He’d guessed.
“Pa caught us and laughed in my face. He knocked me to the ground and quoted one of his favorite phrases—one he’d been repeating to me ever since I was Ben’s age: ‘Blood will out.’ He told Theo that I was pulling a con. And Theo, the man who’d declared his undying love for me?” She released a derisive laugh and shook her head. “He believed Pa—that I was still in cahoots with them. I saw the doubt and distaste in his eyes.”
She lifted her scarred arm. “My father left me with a little reminder of what happens when you cross him.”
Isaac’s lips flattened, then he motioned her on, taking the lead again. Surely Ben couldn’t have climbed this far. His tone deepened when he asked, “What happened to the banker’s son?”
“Pa and Victor beat him to within an inch of his life.”
She’d ignored the warning signs—the little voice inside that had told her she was putting them all in danger. She’d kept telling herself it would be fine. But then Isaac had said it outloud, and now she couldn’t stop thinking about it. He was right. She was a Barlow, and trouble always found her.
Isaac was stepping over a fallen tree trunk when he froze, eyes focused on the ground. In the moist dirt near the log, a small divot was pressed into the dark soil. A boy’s boot heel.
“Ben!” Isaac shouted.
