Chapter 44
“There’s more,” he said.
He read aloud this time.
“‘Elias, if something happens to me, do not let that man take Broken Spur through debt or pressure. I would sooner sell honestly to a stranger than let Vane steal from my sons what he could not persuade me to surrender.’”
Calvin shut his eyes.
The pain that crossed his face had nothing to do with his leg.
Mercer lowered the page.
“I promised him.”
Silas gave a quiet laugh.
No one joined him.
“A dead man’s suspicion,” he said. “That is your triumph?”
Henrietta folded the first page carefully. “No. It is motive.”
“Speculation.”
“Motive.”
“From fourteen years ago.”
“And the rail marker still exists.”
Silas’s face finally hardened completely. The courtesy fell away. The polished banker disappeared, leaving something narrower and meaner beneath.
“You think a line in an old letter changes tomorrow?”
Henrietta looked at him.
“Yes.”
His mouth curled.
“You truly believe that.”
“Yes.”
He stared at her long enough that she could feel the threat without needing words.
Then he looked toward the table.
Toward the ledgers.
Henrietta followed his eyes.
The key account ledger lay near the edge beneath two loose statements.
She understood what he intended one heartbeat too late.
Silas moved.
He did not lunge wildly. He struck with the speed of a man who had already measured the distance.
His hand closed around the ledger.
Henrietta swung her cane across the table.
The wooden shaft struck his wrist.
Silas grunted, but he did not release the book.
Calvin shouted and threw off the blankets.
Mercer seized Silas’s shoulder.
Silas twisted free with surprising force.
The table tipped.
Papers lifted into the air like startled birds.
Henrietta grabbed the ledger’s leather cover with both hands.
For one second she and Silas stood locked across the corner of the table, pulling against each other.
His face was close to hers.
No politeness remained.
“You should have stayed in Chicago.”
Henrietta tightened her grip.
“You should have learned arithmetic.”
He jerked the ledger violently.
Pain shot through her fingers.
Her weakened knee buckled.
The cane slipped.
Silas ripped the book free.
Calvin got one foot to the floor.
His broken leg followed instinctively.
The sound he made stopped Henrietta’s heart.
He collapsed against the bedframe, clutching the splint.
Mercer released Silas and turned toward him.
That was all Silas needed.
He reached the door.
Henrietta lunged after him, caught only the back of his coat, and lost her grip when he wrenched away.