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letter in Mama’s Bible, Ella had hidden it in the carved box—a box made by a man now wanting to settle in the secluded cove. She’d have to see Miles Kilbride, talk to him, and hide facts he didn’t even know existed.
    Tears dripped off her face as she bent over the letter. They made irregular splotches on the thin paper and accompanied marks left by tears before her birth.
    “Oh, Mama, he’s comin’ to live here. What do I do? How do I keep the secret? Why didn’t you tell me the whole story? Why did God let this happen?”
    The irony of it all swamped her thoughts. The passage of time had brought Miles into Beckler’s Cove, a long way from where he once lived. Above him on the mountain, without his knowledge, the woman hehad once loved lay silent in her grave. Whispering pines hid her resting place.
    Ella covered her lips to keep sobs from breaking loose.
    Years ago, Velma had been the one to point out a strange name written in the front of the Bible. The record of Ella’s birth, inked in Meara Huskey’s attractive handwriting, had recorded Ella Dessa
Kilbride
. The recorded date of her mama’s arranged wedding to Jacob Huskey suggested Ella had been born months too soon, or Meara had been in the family way when forced into a loveless marriage.
    With a shaking hand, Ella wiped her face and squared her shoulders.
    “Mama, you bore so much for me—torment at Jacob Huskey’s hands. He left the cove and me.” Her quiet words couldn’t reach the ears of those playing below the loft. “I can keep the secret. No one’ll ever talk bad of you. I know what you did to protect me.”
    As she folded the creased paper, her thoughts drifted to the empty log cabin, higher on the mountain. Mama had suffered beatings at Jacob’s brutal hands. And after one of those beatings, with blood dripping from a smashed lip, her mama revealed how she was forced to marry Jacob. Her father had struck a deal with Jacob, combining his daughter and a piece of the land into one bundle.
    “But Mama, you never tolt me Jacob weren’t my real pa.”
    She could hear her mama’s whispered words. “Ella Dessa, never marry a man who don’t love you. Promise me that.”
    Ella had no desire to judge her own mama, but she accepted the fact it was impossible for Jacob Huskey to be her father. Her mama had known him barely two weeks, before she married him against her own desires—forced into a loveless union by Ella’s grandfather. Mama had told her the story, but left out the telltale detail written within the Bible. The secret had been revealed in the front pages of a book Meara knew her detestable husband would never attempt to read. That single clue, accompanied by the love letter tucked into the Bible, had helped Ella figure out the truth.
    Years ago, Velma had seen the strange record in the Bible. Now Ella prayed the woman had forgotten its existence.
    Ella lifted the last item from the box. It was a tiny piece of fragile paper.
    The memory of Jacob opening her mama’s trunk a week or so after the burying still made her tremble with fury and resentment. She had secretly observed the hateful man steal a drawstring bag, but drop afolded piece of paper.
    She later found the piece of paper that fluttered away, unseen by Jacob. The note revealed there was gold in the bag. It belonged to a man named Miles Kilbride. Her mama’s handwritten note said if she died, the gold was to be given to
Ella Dessa
.
    “I’m glad I found out you ain’t my pa, Jacob Huskey,” she muttered. Carefully, she replaced the yellowed note and closed the box. She hugged the square cache to her chest and considered her choices. She imagined herself handing Miles the Bible and the box. She’d be able to watch his face and judge his initial shock and reaction.
    No! Mama’s reputation would be soiled.
    Miles Kilbride’s past love for her mama had to remain a secret. She’d be the only one who knew he was her
real
father.

Chapter 4

    “ G iddap!” Walter