Chapter 3 - The Note Called Early
For forty-eight hours, Eleanor barely slept.
Neither did Silas.
The dining room became a battlefield of paper.
Invoices.
Contracts.
Bank statements.
Livestock records.
Harvest projections.
Silas paced.
Eleanor calculated.
Garrett brought coffee.
By dawn, Eleanor understood the problem.
Everett had chosen his moment carefully.
Silas was wealthy in land.
Not in cash.
Harvest income would arrive in several months.
Cattle could be sold immediately, but at a substantial loss.
“If we sell now,” Silas said, “we lose fifteen percent. Maybe twenty.”
“Then we don’t sell.”
He stared at her.
“We?”
“You’re paying me three dollars a week to worry about this.”
Despite everything, he smiled.
Eleanor returned to the papers.
There had to be another way.
Everett had studied Silas.
But Everett had not studied Eleanor.
She read contracts from beginning to end because poor people learned quickly that the dangerous words were usually the small ones.
Near midnight, she found something.
“Silas.”
He came around the table.
She pointed toward an agreement with Millbrook Flour Company.
“They guarantee an advance against contracted wheat.”
“They’ve never offered one.”
“Because you’ve never asked.”
“How much?”
“Thirty percent.”
Silas calculated.
“Not enough.”
“No.”
Eleanor pulled another sheet closer.
“But add the timber refund.”
She wrote.
“Delay the equipment purchase.”
Another figure.
“Use what we saved from household and feed expenses.”
Another.
“Collect the outstanding cattle payment from Dawson.”
She added the final numbers.
$3,821.
Silas stared.
Twenty-one dollars more than they needed.
“Can it work?”
“If Millbrook honors the contract.”
Silas reached for his coat.
He rode out before sunrise.
Everett arrived shortly after noon.
Eleanor saw his carriage.
He entered the house without knocking.
“Where’s Silas?”
“Business.”
Everett smiled.
“Trying to save his land?”
“Conducting his ranch.”
He walked into the kitchen.
“You’re clever.”
“So my mother occasionally claimed.”
“You found the bank filing.”
Eleanor looked at him.
“I expected you would,” Everett continued.
“Then why hide it?”
“I didn’t.”
“No.”
Eleanor folded her arms.
“You simply expected us to discover it too late.”
Everett smiled.
“I underestimated you.”
“That must be uncomfortable.”
His smile vanished.
Then he removed an envelope.
“I can solve your problem.”
“My problem?”
“You leave tonight.”
Eleanor stared.
“And in return?”
“Silas gets an extension.”
There it was.
“You created a financial crisis to remove me?”
“I created leverage.”
“Why?”
Everett stepped closer.
“Because he listens to you.”
Eleanor said nothing.
“He used to be predictable.”
“You mean alone.”
“I mean sensible.”
“No.”
She met his eyes.
“You mean isolated.”
Everett’s jaw tightened.
“You think you’re important?”
“No.”
Eleanor glanced at the envelope.
“But apparently you do.”
He opened it.
Money.
Two hundred dollars.
More cash than Eleanor had ever possessed.
“Take it.”
She looked at the bills.
“You could start somewhere else.”
Everett lowered his voice.
“You know how this ends.”
Eleanor remained silent.
“Men like Silas Montgomery don’t marry women like you.”
There it was.
Not economics.
Not business.
Cruelty.
Everett wanted her to feel ridiculous for hoping.
The worst part was that some frightened piece of Eleanor believed him.
She picked up the envelope.
Everett smiled.
Then she walked to the stove.
She opened the iron door.
And dropped the money into the flames.
Everett lunged.
“What the hell are you doing?”
The bills curled black.
“Declining.”
“You stupid woman!”
“Leave.”
“This isn’t your house.”
A voice came from behind him.
“No.”
Silas stood in the doorway.
Dust covered his coat.
“It’s mine.”
Everett turned.
Silas looked from him to the burning money.
“What happened?”
“Your employee has lost her mind.”
Eleanor folded her arms.
“Your cousin attempted to purchase my resignation.”
Silas looked at Everett.
“How much?”
“Two hundred dollars.”
Silas glanced at the stove.
“Should’ve asked for four.”
Eleanor stared.
Everett exploded.
“You think this is funny?”
“No.”
Silas stepped toward him.
“I think you came into my house, manipulated my bank note, insulted someone under my protection, and attempted to bribe her.”
Everett’s face tightened.
“Can you prove I manipulated anything?”
“No.”
Everett smiled.
“Then be careful.”
Silas stopped inches from him.
“I don’t need proof to tell you never to enter my home again.”
Everett looked toward Eleanor.
“You’ll lose the north acreage.”
Silas removed a receipt.
“Paid this morning.”
Everett’s expression changed.
“What?”
“Millbrook advanced against the wheat contract.”
Silas looked toward Eleanor.
“Apparently my employee reads my contracts better than I do.”
Eleanor smiled.
Everett did not.
He left.
That evening, Silas and Eleanor sat on the porch.
“You could have taken the money,” he said.
“Yes.”
“Two hundred dollars.”
“I can count.”
“It would’ve changed your life.”
Eleanor looked toward the fields.
“So has staying.”
Silence.
She realized what she had said.
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“I think it was.”
Eleanor looked at him.
Silas’s expression was gentle.
“Everett said something else.”
“How do you know?”
“Because two hundred dollars didn’t upset you.”
She said nothing.
“What did he say?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters if it hurt you.”
Eleanor laughed softly.
“That is a dangerous sentence, Silas Montgomery.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m getting used to you caring.”
Silas held her gaze.
“Maybe you should.”
Her heart jumped.
Neither moved.
Then Garrett came running from the barn.
“Silas!”
They stood.
“Fire!”
The western sky glowed orange.
The hay barn was burning.
Men ran carrying buckets.
Silas grabbed Eleanor’s shoulders.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Eleanor—”
“You need every pair of hands.”
For an hour, they fought the fire.
The barn was lost.
The stable survived.
At dawn, blackened timbers smoked against a gray sky.
Garrett approached carrying a glass bottle.
“Kerosene.”
Silas stared.
“This wasn’t an accident.”
Eleanor looked toward the road Everett had traveled.
Silas saw her expression.
“Don’t.”
“You’re thinking it too.”
“We don’t know.”
“No.”
Garrett suddenly looked toward the house.
“There’s another problem.”
“What?”
“The stable gate was deliberately opened.”
Silas frowned.
“Why?”
Garrett’s face darkened.
“Because while everyone was fighting the fire, somebody went into the house.”
Eleanor ran.
Her bedroom had been searched.
Drawers open.
Mattress lifted.
Clothing scattered.
Nothing valuable missing.
Then she saw the desk.
The ledgers were gone.
All the records exposing the inflated invoices, bank irregularities, and supplier overcharges.
Silas entered.
“What were they looking for?”
Eleanor stared at the empty drawer.
“Evidence.”
The financial attack had just become something more dangerous.
Someone had burned a barn to steal records.
May you like
And Eleanor suddenly understood that whoever was behind it no longer considered her an inconvenience.
They considered her a threat.
