Directly about 200 across all sites. Indirectly suppliers, transporters, mill workers. Probably another 300 depend on our contracts for their livelihood. He pointed to different marks on the map. We have five major operations besides this valley.
Each one managed by a foreman who reports to me monthly. And your uncle wants control of all this? Not control, a share. He thinks that because he's family, he deserves a percentage of everything. Never mind that he contributed nothing to building it.
That my father specifically excluded him from the will for good reasons. What reasons? Ethan was quiet for a moment. His finger tracing one of the logging roads on the map. Marcus has a gambling problem.
Always has. My father bailed him out twice. Once when Marcus was young and foolish. Once when he should have known better. The second time my father told him there wouldn't be a third.
Marcus took that as rejection rather than reality. So this meeting, it's revenge. It's opportunity disguised as revenge. If Marcus can make me look incompetent in front of the investors, he might be able to force a reorganization, get himself appointed as a partner or administrator. Once he has access to the finances, Ethan shook his head.
He'd bleed the operation dry within 2 years, then blame me when everything collapsed. Lydia moved closer to the table, examining the contracts stacked there. Even without understanding all the legal language, she could see these represented substantial amounts of money. Who are the investors you're worried about? Three main ones.
Ethan pulled out a separate sheet with names and notes. Harrison Wells owns a railroad expansion company. He needs our timber for railroad ties and bridge construction. Conservative, cautious, values stability above all else. If he pulls his contracts, we lose 40% of our revenue.
Next, Margaret Chen. Yes, a woman investor, rare, but not unheard of in the territories. Her family owns mining operations that need timber for shoring up tunnels and building infrastructure. She's shrewd, doesn't suffer fools, and will make her own judgment regardless of what anyone else thinks. She sounds formidable.
She is, which is why her opinion matters most. If she sides with Marcus, others will follow. If she sides with me, Marcus loses credibility. Ethan tapped the third name. Finally, there's Richard Blackwood.
He represents a consortium of eastern investors looking to expand into Western resources. New money, ambitious, willing to take risks, but also quick to abandon anything that looks unstable. Lydia absorbed all this, her mind already working through the dynamics. So Wells values stability, Chen values competence, and Blackwood values potential. Marcus will try to make you look unstable, incompetent, and limited in potential.
Ethan looked at her with surprise. That's exactly right. How did you I spent 5 years watching my father negotiate with buyers who wanted to pay half what our harvest was worth. You learn to read what people value and what threatens them. She studied the names again.
What's your uncle's strategy likely to be? He'll question my age and experience, point out that I've only been running the operation for 3 years, suggest that my father's success came from his relationships and reputation, which don't transfer to me. Imply that I'm making reckless decisions or alienating key partners. Are you making reckless decisions? No.
Alienating partners? He smiled grimly. I've made changes my father never would have. Better wages for workers, safer equipment, more conservative logging practices that preserve the forest for future harvests. Some of the old guard don't like it.
They think I'm putting principles before profit. Are you? I'm putting sustainability before short-term profit. There's a difference. Clear-cut logging destroys the land and eliminates future revenue.
My approach takes longer, but ensures we'll still have timber to harvest 20 years from now. He looked at her directly. My father built this operation, but he also exploited it. I'm trying to build something that lasts. Lydia felt something shift in her understanding of Ethan.
He wasn't just a wealthy man playing at reform. He genuinely believed in what he was doing, even if it made his life harder. Your uncle will use that against you, she said. He'll call it weakness, naivity, poor business sense. I know, which is why I need evidence that my approach works.
Numbers, contracts, testimonials from satisfied partners. He gestured to stacks of ledgers. I've spent the last 3 days compiling everything. But Marcus is good at making facts seem like excuses. He'll twist every number, question every decision, make me defend choices that shouldn't need defending.
Then don't defend them. Present them as the obvious, correct choices they are. Make him explain why anyone would do it differently. Lydia pulled out a chair and sat, reaching for the nearest ledger. Show me the numbers.
If I'm going to help you, I need to understand what we're actually dealing with. They spent the next 6 hours going through everything. Ethan walked her through profit margins, operating costs, contract terms, and the complex relationships between different parts of the business. Lydia's head spun with information, but she forced herself to focus, to understand not just the details, but the patterns beneath them. By afternoon, Martha brought them lunch, which they ate while continuing to work.
By evening, Lydia could explain the timber operation as well as many of Ethan's own foremen. " You're a fast study, " Ethan said as they finally closed the last ledger. " I'm motivated. This affects my life now, too. " Lydia rubbed her tired eyes.
One more question. Why did you really need a wife for this meeting? The stability argument makes sense, but there's something else, isn't there? Ethan hesitated, then nodded slowly. Marcus has been suggesting I'm unsuitable for marriage, that I'm too isolated, too strange, that no decent woman would want me.
It's a small thing compared to his business arguments, but it reinforces the narrative that I'm somehow deficient. So bringing a wife proves him wrong. More than that, it shows I can form partnerships, that I'm capable of thinking beyond just myself in the business. He met her eyes. You being there says I'm building a future, not just managing a legacy.
And if your investors don't like me, then I've misjudged badly, but I don't think I have. The journey to Denver took 4 days by horseback and stage coach. They left the hidden valley in the gray light of pre-dawn. Samuel and two other men accompanying them as far as the nearest town where they could catch the stage. Lydia wore her best dress, the dark blue wool that had seen her through the wedding.
Martha had cleaned and pressed it and had added a proper traveling coat and hat that appeared mysteriously from the lodge's storage. Lydia suspected these had belonged to Ethan's mother, but he said nothing about it, and she didn't ask. The stage was crowded and uncomfortable, stuffed with passengers and their belongings. Lydia found herself wedged between Ethan and a large woman traveling with three children who couldn't sit still. The road was rough, the pace punishing, and by the second day, every bone in Lydia's body ached.