She lost everything, Gerald said. Her standing, her prospects, the man she loved. Clara looked at him. The man she loved. Curtis Dempsey was a good man.
His death broke her. Mr. Alcott, Clara said. What exactly are you asking me? He looked at her with that practiced pleasantness.
I'm asking you to be careful. You seem like an intelligent woman, a woman who came here on the strength of a few letters from a man who has shown himself to be a man who what? Who uses women, he said quietly. Who brings them out here into a situation where they have nothing and know one and then stop. Clara said it flatly.
I'm going to ask you one question and I want you to answer it honestly. He spread his hands. An invitation. Did Margaret and a man named Curtis worked together to defraud William Carter of his property? Something happened behind his eyes very fast, quickly controlled.
But she was a woman who had spent 3 years watching the faces of children who were trying not to show what they knew, and she saw it. That's a very serious accusation, he said. It's a question, she said. You haven't answered it. He shifted on the bench.
The practiced pleasantness resettled itself, but it sat differently now, like a garment that no longer quite fit. My sister was wronged by that man, he said. You didn't answer my question. I don't think you appreciate the full complexity. Mr.
Alcott. She stood. I don't know what you're here for. Maybe you believe what you're telling me, maybe you don't. But I'll tell you this, I have no standing with William Carter that could benefit your sister.
I'm a school teacher from Boston. I have nothing you want. He looked up at her. You have his ear. She said nothing.
A man changes, Gerald said. When there's a woman he's trying to impress, he becomes more manageable. The word hit her like something cold. Good day, Mr. Alcott, she said.
She walked away. She walked three blocks before her hands started shaking. Then she went straight to Roy. She found him at the livery, which was where he went in the afternoons when he was in town. On the reliable basis that horses were easier company than people, she told him everything Gerald Alcott's name, his story, his question, the word manageable said in that tone.
Roy listened without interrupting. When she finished, he was quiet for a moment. "How long has she been back? " Clara asked. "Margaret. " Royy's jaw tightened. "Best I can tell, about 3 weeks.
She's not in Cedar Falls. She's staying in Millerton about 20 m east. Gerald's been her messenger. He's going to go to William. " "He already has," Roy said. Clara went still this morning.
Roy said, "While you were teaching, Gerald Alcott rode out to the ranch. " "What happened? " Roy looked at her steadily. William sent him off the property, told Hayes to make sure he didn't come back. Something eased in her chest, then tightened again. "But it won't stop there," she said. "No," Roy said.
With people like that, it never does. She stood in the livery doorway and thought. Roy, she said when William trusted Margaret, what specifically did she try to take? He was quiet for a moment. Then he said, there are three parcels of land on the northeast section of Carter Ranch.
Old homestead claims filed back in 6869. The documentation is he paused. It's complicated. The way the original filings were registered, there's an argument to be made. A dishonest argument, but a legal-looking one, that the claims weren't properly transferred when William's father consolidated the property.
Clara looked at him. Someone could file a competing claim. Someone who had the right documentation forged. Royy's voice was very even. Margaret got close enough to the ranch records.
We don't know exactly what she copied or what she passed on. We've been through the papers ourselves. There are gaps. Does William know this? Some of it, not all.
He looked at her. He doesn't like to think about that period. She turned that over. Who would know enough about territorial land law to evaluate this? She asked.
There's a land agent in Billings, man named Croft. He handles federal filings for this region. Could someone contact him, get the current status of those filings? Roy looked at her for a long moment. You have a head for this kind of thing, he said.
I was a teacher, she said. I spent 3 years figuring out what children didn't understand before they knew they didn't understand it. It's the same skill. He almost smiled. I'll send a wire to Croft tomorrow.
Send it today, she said. She told William that evening she had spent the afternoon turning over a dozen versions of how to do it, how much to say, in what order, how to frame the part about Gerald Elcott coming to find her specifically. She discarded all of them. The only version that worked was the plain one. She walked up to the ranch for the first time.
It was a long walk, longer than she'd expected, and she arrived at the main gate in the early evening with dusty shoes and a firm sense of purpose. A hand at the gate looked startled to see her. She gave him her name and told him to tell Mr. Carter she was there and waited. William came out himself.
He stopped when he saw her face. "What happened? " he said. Gerald Alcott came to see me today, she said. "I need to tell you what he said. Something went through his expression, a shadow, quick and controlled.
Come inside," he said. The ranch house was large and spare furnished with the functional austerity of a man who lived alone and didn't see much reason to change it. He brought her into a room that served as an office shelves of ledgers, a wide desk, maps pinned to the wall, and poured two glasses of water and set one in front of her without comment. She told him everything. He listened the way he always listened completely without interrupting.
But his face changed as she spoke. Not dramatically, not in the way she might have anticipated. It went very still. The kind of stillness that isn't calm. When she finished, he said nothing for a moment.
He called you manageable, he said. He said, "You become manageable when there's a woman you're trying to impress. " Something moved in his jaw. He's not entirely wrong about the first part. William said, "I do. " He stopped. I am easier to reach than I was these past few weeks.
Clara looked at him. That isn't a weakness in this situation. It isn't a weakness, she said again firmly. Being open to people is not a vulnerability. Being deceived by people with bad intentions is a different thing entirely.