"Neither do people," she said. "But people can talk."
Court preparation for Jonah's ordinary debts became its own education.
Pike walked Nora through what a territorial debt hearing looked like: who spoke first, what counts as proof of payment, how a widow's or daughter's testimony weighed against a collector's schedule. Ada practiced reading numbers aloud so she would not freeze if asked about the store credit. Bess sewed a plain folder to hold the Bible page without bending it. These were not glamorous acts. They were the opposite of a crate auction: slow, shared, dignified.
Crowe, from his cell, sent word through Yates that he would contest nothing about the forgery if the territory reduced other charges. Wynn refused to bargain away the seal fraud. Crowe's face, when Yates reported that, looked briefly like a man who had expected the world to remain negotiable and found a wall. Nora did not visit him again. She had heard his explanation. She did not owe him an audience for his grief about a silent son and a dead wife. Those griefs were real. They were not currency.
On the morning Wynn left for Bridger with the file, the five of them stood again near the bank—Nora, Ada, Bess, Pike, Drake—and watched the official's horse take the north road. Dust rose and thinned. The town returned to hammering, sweeping, arguing about weather. Life's disrespect for climax was almost funny.
"Three weeks to the debt hearing," Pike said. "I will be there with the ledger. Crowe will be there under guard if Wynn has his way. You three decide whether the cabin is a hill to die on or a place to leave clean."
Ada spoke first. "I will not die on a hill for boards. I will fight for not being written into anyone else's schedule."
Bess nodded. "Same. If the cabin sells to pay a true tax, then it sells. If anyone tries to attach us again, I will make such a noise Ruth Haver will hear it through the wire without a key."
Nora looked at the east road toward home. "I will keep the cabin through the hearing. After that I listen to the numbers. I will not marry a ghost or a rescuer to save a roof."
Drake's mouth twitched. "Good policy."