Chapter 38
“Do you?”
“I believe commercial law tends to survive sentiment.” Silas placed his gloves neatly on the table. “Mr. Brooks signed the acceleration clause. He signed the collateral provisions. He signed the interest schedule. He signed every page in the presence of witnesses.”
Calvin’s hands curled into fists.
Silas’s voice remained mild. “You may quibble over dates, entries, clerical corrections. But the agreement itself remains valid.”
“Clerical corrections?” Henrietta asked.
“I employ human beings, Mrs. Brooks. Human beings occasionally make marks over other marks.”
“And duplicate fees?”
“Mistakes occur.”
“And payments?”
“Mistakes occur.”
“And foreclosure notices dated before payment?”
Silas looked at her almost kindly. “Preparation is not execution.”
Mercer pushed away from the window. “You prepared to take this land before you knew whether Brooks could cure the note.”
Silas acknowledged him with a faint nod. “Doctor.”
“Don’t ‘Doctor’ me like we’re sharing punch at a church social.”
“I had forgotten how frontier medicine improves manners.”
Mercer’s face remained still. “And I had forgotten how a polished coat makes some men believe the stink beneath it disappears.”
Silas’s mouth flattened.
Calvin shifted in the bed, trying again to lower himself upright. “You want to talk about signatures, Vane? Fine. Bring the original loan book. Bring every receipt. Bring every bank register with my payments in it, and we’ll put them beside Henrietta’s figures.”
“Henrietta’s figures,” Silas repeated.
The contempt was slight, almost delicate.
That made it worse.
He looked at the papers spread beneath her hands, then at Henrietta herself. His gaze moved over her body in the same assessing way it had the day he stood in the yard laughing with his companions. He did not repeat the insult from that afternoon. He did not need to. The memory of it entered the room anyway.
“You place unusual confidence in your wife’s calculations,” he said.
Calvin’s voice changed.
“Careful.”
Silas smiled. “There it is.”
Calvin’s eyes narrowed. “There what is?”
“The chivalry purchased with someone else’s money.”
Henrietta felt the words before she understood where he intended to put them.
Silas picked up one loose bank statement, glanced at it, then set it back down as though the page bored him. “We can stop pretending this is an ordinary dispute between debtor and lender. Broken Spur survived because Calvin Brooks married five thousand dollars.”
Calvin went rigid.
Mercer said, “Vane.”
But Silas had chosen his ground.
He meant to fight there.