Chapter 16 - Twenty Men at One Table
Twenty years after Abigail arrived, she organized a dinner.
The original twenty ranch hands were invited.
Eighteen came.
Two had died peacefully in the intervening years.
Samuel was now president of the cooperative.
Wyatt owned a ranch.
Others had become fathers, merchants, sheriffs, teachers, and businessmen.
They sat around one enormous table.
Abigail served potatoes fried in pork fat.
Everyone laughed.
"You trying to kill us?" Wyatt asked.
"No. Apparently I'm still trying to save you."
Caleb raised his glass.
"To the woman who walked into a house full of dying fools."
"Speak for yourself," Wyatt said.
"You were the biggest fool."
"Fair."
Caleb continued.
"She fed us when there wasn't food. Worked when there wasn't hope. Built roads where people said roads couldn't go."
Abigail's eyes filled.
"I didn't do it alone."
"No," Caleb said. "But somebody had to start."
He pointed toward the old skillet hanging above the fireplace.
"She started with that."
Glasses rose.
Abigail looked around the table.
Twenty years earlier these men had been skeletal figures waiting for death.
Now grandchildren played beneath their chairs.
That was wealth.
Not buildings.
Not cattle.
Not bank accounts.
Lives continuing.
After dinner Samuel remained behind.
He had brought documents.
Abigail looked suspicious.
"What now?"
"We calculated the total value of the Whispering Pines holdings."
"I don't want to know."
"You should."
He slid the number across.
Abigail stared.
Then stared again.
Caleb whistled.
Their combined enterprises were worth more than either had imagined.
Abigail folded the paper.
Samuel looked confused.
"That's all?"
"What do you want me to do?"
"Celebrate?"
Abigail pointed toward the kitchen.
"There's pie."
Samuel laughed.
But the fortune presented a problem.
Abigail and Caleb had no children.
Who would inherit everything?
May you like
The answer would determine whether the empire survived them.
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