Chapter 43
Mercer looked at him.
“Something your father made me swear I would keep unless Vane came for Broken Spur.”
Calvin’s face emptied.
Silas took one step forward.
Mercer noticed.
“So you do remember.”
“Doctor,” Silas said, very softly, “be careful.”
Mercer’s brows rose. “At my age, threats need more variety.”
He turned the envelope over.
The seal had not been broken.
Calvin stared at his father’s handwriting across the front.
ELIAS MERCER — IF BROKEN SPUR IS EVER IN DANGER OF PASSING TO S. VANE.
Henrietta felt the hair rise along her arms.
Calvin whispered, “How long have you had that?”
“Fourteen years.”
“And you never told me?”
“Your father told me not to unless the condition came.”
“You knew Vane wanted the ranch?”
“I knew your father believed he did.”
Silas moved toward the door.
Henrietta stepped between him and it.
“Leaving?”
“I have heard enough.”
“You have hardly heard anything.”
His eyes dropped to her cane.
Then rose to her face.
“Move.”
“No.”
The word came easily.
Silas looked past her toward Calvin. “Control your wife.”
Something in Calvin’s expression changed.
Months ago, the phrase might have pleased the part of him that believed a wife belonged beneath a husband’s authority.
Now his voice was quiet.
“I couldn’t if I wanted to.”
Henrietta glanced at him.
Calvin held her gaze.
“And I don’t.”
For one dangerous instant, warmth moved through her chest.
Then Mercer broke the seal.
The sound was tiny.
It seemed louder than the wind.
He unfolded two pages covered in a hand more angular than Calvin’s.
Mercer began to read silently.
His face hardened.
“What?” Calvin demanded.
Mercer passed the first page to Henrietta.
She read.
The writing described a visit made years earlier by Silas Vane, then a younger loan officer newly arrived in the territory. It described an offer to purchase Broken Spur at a price Calvin’s father had considered insulting. It described Silas’s unusual interest in the southern acreage and a question regarding survey stakes placed by men connected to a proposed rail line.
Henrietta’s pulse quickened.
She read further.
Calvin’s father had refused.
Silas returned twice.
The final paragraph was underlined once.
Vane believes the railroad will come through the south pasture. He knows more than he says. He wants the land before anyone else learns what it may become worth.
Henrietta looked up.
Silas stood utterly motionless.
Mercer held the second page.