Silas Hanover turned the locket over in his waistcoat pocket. This had been his habit the last fifty-three days of travel in the stagecoach. He dared not open the locket during the day for fear that he would be so overcome with emotion that he may faint for the heartache of his distance. Such was the effect that the visage of Constance Winthrop had on Silas’s constitution. He only dared to open up the locket when he was safely tucked into his bedroll at night. He would stare into her eyes by light from the campfire. By this time, the coach guards would be drunk, asleep, or engrossed in a game of Faro. Often, they were in some state between all three. Silas was content to turn the locket over in his pocket, and dream of the woman whose heart he planned to win with this journey into the frontier.
If the guards caught him staring at her photograph with his lovelorn face, they would torment him with their guttural jibes or worse. Silas wouldn’t put it past them to snatch the locket and play keep away for their amusement like schoolyard bullies. Gaurd was a poor term to describe the four men who traveled with Silas. They more closely resembled a band of renegades. As likely to rob the bank’s shipment as they were to see it’s delivery safely through to San Antonio. They were loyal only to the highest bidder. For the sake of his safety, Silas hoped Winthrop & Donnely had paid them more than he was being paid.
Silas’s loyalties could not be bought nor sold the same as these men. He was only motivated by the affections of his beloved Constance and by his father telling him he was a “good lad now.” Silas was the son of a noble family thick in heritage and thin in pocket. The names Winthrop and Hanover once held equal prestige in England. Upon landing in Virginia four generations ago, the legacy Winthrop had only grown, while Hanover had been considerably less enterprising.
Still, Silas was able to acquire a senior clerk position at the bank by appealing to the status his name once held. He saw his career aspirations at Winthrop & Donnely as a means not only to restore some status to his family heritage but to win the heart of fair Constance. The only thing that could overshadow Silas’s loyalty to Mr. Winthrop was the devotion to his daughter.