Chapter 37
“I did not break your nose.”
“No. You went after my home.”
Silas finally looked at him. “Your home secured a lawful debt.”
“Lawful debt. Unlawful arithmetic.”
There was the smallest pause.
Henrietta noticed it.
So did Silas.
His gaze slid to her.
She walked to the table and placed one hand flat on the open statement. “March eleventh became March seventeenth.”
Silas’s expression remained smooth. “Did it?”
“The ink says so.”
“Ink is rarely so articulate.”
“The payment cleared on March thirteenth.”
“You have proof?”
Henrietta smiled without warmth. “Does it concern you that I might?”
A vein pulsed once near Silas’s temple.
He crossed the room, stopping opposite her at the table. Up close, he smelled faintly of cold wool and bay rum. He looked at the ledgers without touching them.
“Mrs. Brooks, you are an educated woman. I will assume that means you understand the danger of accusing a banker of fraud without evidence.”
“I understand the danger very well.”
“Do you?”
“Yes. It is substantially greater for the banker when the accusation is true.”
Calvin’s rough laugh came from the bed.
Silas did not turn.
Henrietta drew the altered statement toward her. “November twelfth. One hundred dollars disappears. December third. Fifty disappears, then becomes a fee. January fifth. A penalty is assessed twice. March eleventh. A due date changes by six days after a payment clears. May second. Interest is charged on principal already paid.”
Silas’s eyes stayed on hers.
She continued.
“Then there is this.”
She reached beneath the stack and removed the older foreclosure notice.
For the first time, Silas’s composure cracked visibly.
It lasted less than a second.
But Henrietta saw his pupils tighten.
Calvin saw it too.
“You remember that paper,” he said.
Silas turned his head slowly. “I issue many notices.”
“This one rode inside my coat while I nearly froze to death.”
“Then I am surprised it survived.”
Henrietta folded her hands over it. “You prepared foreclosure before you accepted the five thousand dollars.”
Silas gave a quiet sigh. “And now we arrive at the center of this melodrama.”
Henrietta’s shoulders stiffened.
He had recovered. More than recovered. Something almost pleased had entered his face.
Silas looked toward Calvin. “You should have told her.”
Calvin’s expression changed. “Told her what?”
“That money does not wash away a signed contract.”
Henrietta said, “Nobody claimed it did.”
“No? Then perhaps you believe marital sentiment supersedes commercial law.”