Chapter 14 - Martha Sets the Table
Silas expected fear.
Martha gave him a chair.
“Sit.”
He blinked.
“I beg your pardon?”
“You came all this way. Sit.”
Ethan looked at Martha like she had lost her mind.
That was useful.
It meant Silas probably thought so too.
Martha began setting the dining table.
Plates.
Glasses.
Bread.
Roasted meat.
Potatoes.
Carrots.
Onions.
The kitchen looked almost exactly as it had the morning after she arrived.
Silas watched.
“What are you doing?”
“Preparing supper.”
“You understand I can ruin you?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“I’m hungry.”
Ethan caught on.
Slowly.
He sat opposite Silas.
“Stay.”
Silas frowned.
“I have no interest in—”
“You came to negotiate,” Ethan said. “Negotiate.”
Martha placed food between them.
Her journal rested near her hand.
Voss remained upstairs with a ranch hand.
Ruth was awake.
Elias and Caleb waited nearby.
Everyone had instructions.
Martha’s idea was simple.
Make Silas talk.
Not confess everything.
Just enough.
“We’ll consider your offer,” Martha said.
Silas laughed.
“You have no authority.”
“No. But Ethan listens to me.”
Silas noticed Ethan did not deny it.
“Interesting.”
Martha sat.
“What happens to Ruth?”
“She recovers.”
“How?”
“Medical care.”
“From Voss?”
Silas’s expression hardened.
“Voss is finished.”
“Because he betrayed you?”
Silas said nothing.
Martha took a bite.
“Then who treats her?”
“A physician from Denver.”
“And the land?”
“Transferred legally.”
“Using the false trust?”
Silas smiled.
“You say false. I say filed.”
“Thomas changed it.”
“Can you prove that?”
Martha tapped the journal.
Silas’s eyes immediately moved toward it.
There.
Exactly what she wanted.
“You think Samuel Boone kept everything in that little book?”
Silas asked.
Martha smiled.
“You seem worried he did.”
“He was a coward.”
“No.”
“He abandoned Blackridge.”
“He exposed it.”
“His report changed nothing.”
“It closed the north shaft.”
“For a generation.”
Silas leaned forward.
“My father built a company employing hundreds of families. Boone and Callaway nearly destroyed it over a handful of sick workers.”
Martha’s stomach turned.
“People.”
“Businesses involve difficult choices.”
“So does prison.”
Silas laughed.
“You truly think a sheriff will believe you over me?”
“Not your sheriff.”
His smile weakened.
“Voss sent for a territorial investigator.”
Now Silas understood they knew.
Ethan saw it.
“Problem?”
“No.”
Silas rose.
“I believe negotiations are finished.”
Martha remained seated.
“What did you promise Mrs. Pierce?”
He stopped.
“Who?”
“Edith.”
Silas made a dismissive gesture.
“Her son had a job.”
“Until you used it to frighten her.”
“Employment has conditions.”
“And Caleb?”
Silas glanced toward the hallway.
“Caleb accepted money willingly.”
Caleb stepped out.
“Yes.”
Silas’s expression barely changed.
“You should’ve left town.”
“I should’ve never taken your money.”
“That regret won’t save you.”
“No.”
Caleb looked toward Ethan.
“But maybe truth will save someone else.”
Voss appeared at the top of the staircase.
Silas’s face finally cracked.
“You.”
Voss descended slowly.
“I wrote everything down.”
Silas laughed.
“You think your word matters? You drugged an old woman.”
“At your direction.”
“Prove it.”
Martha pulled the letter from the ledger.
Silas’s eyes narrowed.
“You kept that,” he said to Voss.
“Yes.”
“You fool.”
“Probably.”
Silas looked toward the door.
Ethan stood.
“Sit down.”
“You can’t imprison me.”
“No.”
Ethan stepped aside.
“You’re free to leave.”
Silas hesitated.
Too easy.
That was when horses approached outside.
Not ranch horses.
Government riders.
The territorial investigator had arrived early.
He had refused to wait two days.
Two deputies accompanied him.
Silas stared at Martha.
“You knew.”
“No.”
She truly hadn’t.
Ruth had been right.
Desperate men made mistakes.
Silas had made several in one conversation.
The investigator entered.
Introduced himself as Marshal Henry Beckett.
“We have questions for Mr. Crowe and Dr. Voss.”
Silas remained composed.
“I’ll speak to my attorney.”
“You may.”
Beckett looked at the table.
“Interesting supper.”
Martha smiled.
“Would you like a plate?”
The marshal did.
Investigations were apparently hungry work.
For hours, statements were collected.
Edith confessed.
Caleb confessed.
Elias gave Thomas’s letter.
Voss surrendered his written account.
Ethan produced the report.
Martha surrendered the bottle.
Finally Ruth came downstairs supported by Ethan.
Silas saw her.
Alive.
Standing.
And for the first time he looked truly afraid.
Ruth faced him.
“You should have left my family alone.”
Silas said nothing.
The marshal escorted him out before midnight.
Not yet convicted.
Not yet finished.
But no longer untouchable.
The house became quiet.
Martha cleared plates.
Ethan caught her hand.
“Leave them.”
“They’ll be harder tomorrow.”
“Martha.”
She stopped.
He looked at her.
“You saved my mother.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“I do.”
“No.”
“You crossed mountains because she wrote one letter.”
“She asked.”
“You stood between her and a doctor everyone trusted.”
“I’m stubborn.”
“You refused Silas Crowe’s money.”
“He insulted my cooking.”
Ethan laughed.
Then became serious.
“What am I supposed to do with you?”
Martha’s heartbeat increased.
“Give me a guest room?”
He stepped closer.
“What if I want you to stay longer than a guest?”
She looked at him.
Before she could answer, Ruth called from the staircase.
“Martha?”
Martha smiled.
“Your mother needs me.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“Again.”
She walked away laughing.
But later, lying awake, Martha touched the place where Ethan had held her hand.
And she knew the danger had changed.
Silas Crowe no longer frightened her most.
May you like
Leaving Callaway Ranch did.
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