Chapter Eight – The Letter Beneath the Floor
Ruth knelt beside the stove.
She removed a narrow wooden strip from the floor with practiced care.
Beneath it was a shallow space wrapped in cloth.
The younger woman watched in silence.
Ruth pulled out a sealed envelope.
The handwriting on the front was unmistakable.
It belonged to the younger woman’s mother.
Her name had been written across it.
Not Ruth’s.
Hers.
The younger woman did not immediately reach for it.
“When was this written?”
Ruth looked at the date.
“Seventeen years ago.”
The younger woman was a child then.
“Why didn’t she give it to me?”
“She asked me to keep it until you came here on your own.”
“And if I never came?”
Ruth’s answer took time.
“Then I would have died with it.”
The younger woman looked almost physically wounded by the idea.
“That was the agreement?”
“Yes.”
“With my mother?”
“Yes.”
Silas stood near the center of the cabin, saying nothing.
The younger woman finally took the envelope.
She broke the seal.
The letter was longer than she expected.
At first, she read silently.
Then her expression changed.
She stopped halfway down the first page.
“No.”
Ruth remained still.
The younger woman looked up.
“She says she left because of me.”
“Not because of you.”
“That is what this says.”
“Read the rest.”
She did.
Her mother had discovered she was pregnant shortly before leaving the valley.
At the same time, the dispute over the property had become serious enough that creditors were threatening to claim the land.
The younger woman’s mother had secretly transferred the cabin to Ruth because property held in Ruth’s name could not easily be connected to the debts associated with her own father.
She had not abandoned her inheritance.
She had protected it.
However, there was another paragraph.
One harder to understand.
The younger woman read it twice.
Then looked toward Ruth.
“My father knew about you.”
“Yes.”
“He came here.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Before you were born.”
“Why?”
Ruth swallowed.
“He wanted the deed.”
The younger woman stared.
“He knew the property might become valuable.”
Silas looked down.
The younger woman returned to the letter.
Her mother had left not only to protect Ruth and the cabin.
She had left because the man she loved had tried to turn the family dispute into profit.
She had chosen her daughter over him.
But instead of telling her child that truth, she had allowed the father’s absence to remain unexplained.
The younger woman’s hands trembled.
For twenty years, she had believed her mother left this house because she had been rejected.
The truth was almost the opposite.
She had walked away because staying might have cost everyone else too much.
