Page 51 of A Treacherous Treasure

“I am lost. It seems I wandered off my trail.”

“What trail would that be? And you didn’t say your name.”

“My name is Adam Ledbetter. I was walking . . . that is, I’m one of Mrs. Heywood’s tenant farmers.”

“Tenant farmer, eh? How’s your crop looking so far?”

“Excellent. The weather has been good so far.”

He pointed the barrel of his gun just below the man’s heart. “It’s barely March and most crops hadn’t even been planted yet. Now, you need to tell me who you really are and what you’re doing here if you don’t want a hole blown through your belly.”

“Since when can a man be murdered for trespassing?”

“Since a few weeks ago when the owner of this place was murdered when he caught a trespasser.”

The man’s eyes were shifting from side to side. Suddenly, he turned and started running for a nearby stand of trees.

“Stop!” Thomas fired a warning shot well above the man’s head.

The man ducked his head but kept running.

Thomas ran after him, but it was soon clear that while holding onto his firearm, Thomas couldn’t outrun him. He just had to hope the man would trip and fall or otherwise make a mistake.

The man soon reached a denser forest that ran parallel to a stream and plunged into it, still running headlong.

Thomas followed him, but the man was getting farther away.

Running through the dense trees was much harder, so Thomas decided to run along the outside edge of the trees, hoping the man would come out at some point. But after finally getting to the end of the line of trees and looking all around at fallow fields, he saw no sign of the man.

He went into the trees, walking the whole way, but he still saw no one. The man must have taken off across a field while Thomas was running along the tree line.

Walking across all the fields and through trees, back the entire way he’d already run, he wondered if he should have shot the man in the leg. But it seemed wrong to shoot a man who obviously didn’t have a gun. Besides that, the man hadn’t done anything except walk around on Rebecca Heywood’s property without permission. And yet, Thomas was certain the man was scouting for the treasure. The man knew it was there somewhere, and he was trying to see where they might dig next. But what had made him look there, where the treasure map had showed them to look?

He gripped his rifle tighter. Something had to be done. But what?

He hated this helpless feeling, like he knew he needed to keep Rebecca Heywood safe but he wasn’t sure how. It was worse than being in a war, when he was determined to protect himself and his men from the enemy. At least then he had a plan and he could shoot at anyone who threatened. And at least the French were openly hostile, none of this sneaking around and scheming behind their backs, pretending to be friend when they were actually foe.

Finally, he came to the house. His boots were muddy, but after rubbing them on a fallen tree and then on the grass, they shouldn’t make too much of a mess, so he knocked on the door.

Then he realized how early it was. Ladies and gentlemen were not awake at this hour of the morning. But a servant answered.

“Forgive me. I know Mrs. Heywood won’t be up at this hour, but—”

“Is that Mr. Westbrook?” Rebecca’s voice called from behind the servant. She hurried to the door. “Let him in.”

Rebecca Heywood was fully dressed, and she led him into the sitting room. “I couldn’t sleep and I got up to attend to the ledgers. Then I looked out the window and saw a man. A few minutes later, I heard a gunshot.”

She waved her hand, asking him to sit.

“I’ll only be a moment,” he said, and remained standing. “Yes, I saw the same man. I couldn’t sleep either and I went for a walk and ended up here. I followed the man and asked him who he was. He said he was a tenant of yours, an Adam Ledbetter.”

“I don’t have a tenant by that name.”

“I suspected as much. When he turned and ran, I shot in the air. He kept running and I ran after him. Forgive me, but I lost him.”

“No need to apologize. I am grateful to you for trying to find out who he was.” She sighed, a troubled look on her face. “I’m sorry you’ve had to involve yourself in this.”

“One good thing is that the man didn’t have a gun.”