Chapter 4: The Money They Hid

Calvin recovered quickly. He folded his hands and put on the wounded expression Pinehaven trusted.

"Mother, she's ill. Don't argue with her." He turned to the neighbors gathering outside the gate. "Elena is upset because she failed the entrance exam. I understand. But the farm barely feeds us, and I can't afford to send her through another year of school. I did my duty by keeping her in class this long."

Several villagers nodded. Raising another man's child for four years sounded generous when Calvin told the story.

Agnes saw the sympathy shifting her way and began to cry.

"We fed her, clothed her, and gave her a roof. Yesterday I disciplined her for refusing honest work, and today she shames us before the village. What did I do to deserve such a granddaughter?"

The murmurs around the gate turned against Elena.

She lowered her eyes and let silence settle. In her first life, scenes like this had crushed her. Agnes supplied tears, Calvin supplied virtue, and Elena's quietness became proof of guilt.

This time, she knew where the weak beam stood.

"Uncle, I misunderstood you," she said, her voice trembling. "I thought Daniel paid for my schooling. He told me he sent fifteen dollars every month from his military wages. Grace and Rose each added two more. They said nineteen dollars would keep me fed and in school."

The yard went still.

Elena counted softly. "Four years. More than nine hundred dollars."

Calvin's smile froze.

The villagers knew what that amount meant. It could buy grain, fabric, medicine, even most of a small house. They also knew Elena fetched water before dawn, worked every harvest, and wore clothes left from before her parents died.

Someone looked toward the Wards' new brick rooms. Someone else glanced at Calvin's bicycle.

"That can't be right," Calvin said. "I never saw such money."

Elena lifted her head. "Then I owe you an apology. Someone else must have stolen it. Daniel used the post office each month, so there will be withdrawal records. I'll ask Mayor Reed and the postmaster to investigate."

Agnes stopped crying.

"No need to trouble the authorities," Calvin said too quickly.

"But a thief has taken nearly a thousand dollars from a soldier's family." Elena widened her eyes. "Surely you want that person caught."

The neighbors' sympathy had vanished. Suspicion took its place.

Elena turned toward the road.

Behind her, Agnes drew a sharp breath.

The old woman had two choices: confess before the village or let the records confess for her.

Elena took one more step.