Involved: Day 13

Word Count: 78,060

Summary of Events:

Samuel and Mr. Annesley went to Kelly's office to see if they could get Kelly's company up and running and discovered that they couldn't make any sense of Kelly's things without Kelly there to explain them. Charlotte and her family received a letter from Violet telling about the plight of the miners in Georgetown which prompted Charlotte's father to inform his congregation, who donated over $1,100 to help. In an effort to run Kelly's company without Kelly, Samuel and Mr. Annesley went to visit Kelly and ask him how he organised things so they could get the company running while Kelly remained in jail . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Kelly looked thinner than he had before, his hair was unkempt, and he’d grown enough of a beard for his cheeks and jaw to be concealed by brown hair. He sat on his bed and looked at them with empty eyes that struck Samuel as being reminiscent of Verbena.

“Good evening Kelly,” Mr. Annesley said cordially. “Chicken, biscuits, and cheese.”

He placed the pail containing the food inside the cell and removed the pail that had contained Kelly’s breakfast. A glance inside with Mr. Annesley showed it still did.

Kelly stared at them silently and said nothing.

“We need your help Kelly,” Mr. Annesley said. “We can’t get you out yet, but we are trying. Until then, we need to know some things about how you operate your business, as your men are starting to run our of money.”

Still Kelly stared silently and sullenly. He looked as if he were barely alive and sorely hopeless.

“Your men don’t want to leave you,” Mr. Annesley said. “They feel grief themselves at Isabelle’s passing, and they understand that it has to be a terrible blow for you, but they do need to have food in their stomachs, and they would like to work, so we need you to help us get them working so that they can eat and aren’t forced to leave you out of desperation.”

Kelly lowered his gaze and still said nothing.

Mr. Annesley sighed. “We don’t know how you organised things, we can’t run your business without your help.”

Still Kelly said nothing. Samuel felt frustration rising in him.

“Say something,” Samuel swore.

“We want to help you,” Mr. Annesley said, still soft in his tone. “We want you and the girls to have money, as well as your men. We don’t want to see anyone hungry, but we need you to help us if we’re going to achieve that.”

Kelly gave a subtle shake to his head.

“What do you think Isabelle would say if she saw this?” Samuel demanded.

Immediately Kelly’s head snapped up and he looked at Samuel with an anger-edged gaze.

“Isabelle would be ashamed of you,” Samuel said lowly. “She loved you, she made a lot of sacrifices to see you succeed, and here you’re going to throw it all away?”

“I am not throwing it away!” Kelly bellowed, his voice raw. “I wouldn’t be here if I were throwing it away!”

“Then where would you be?” Samuel demanded.

“I’d be in the Silver Slopes mining office signing that offer!” Kelly shouted. “Throwing my company away to that snake for pennies on the dollar so that he can enslave good, honest, hardworking men to line his own pockets with silver, turn himself into a statue of solid silver.”

“He wanted you to sell?” Mr. Annesley asked, sounding shocked.

“I would never throw my company away,” Kelly said hoarsely, his gaze fixed on Samuel. “Never.”