"Mrs. Lawson."
"Mr. Cutter."
"Mr. Mercer sent me to remind you of the terms agreed upon yesterday. Thirty days, full settlement of outstanding debt, or the property reverts."
"I received those terms yesterday in person," she said. "I haven't forgotten them overnight."
Cutter shifted in the saddle. He was not a cruel man, she had always thought; he was a working man who worked for whoever paid the most, and right now, that was Mercer. But something in his face suggested he didn't love this particular errand.
"He also wanted me to mention," Cutter said, and his voice dropped slightly—not enough to be obvious, just enough, "that any outside parties getting involved in this matter would be considered an interference with a legal agreement, and dealt with accordingly."
She looked at him for a long moment. "Is that a threat, Mr. Cutter?"
"It's a message, ma'am. I'm just delivering it."
"You've delivered it. Is there anything else?"
He looked at the fence post she was setting, the sweat already showing through the back of her shirt despite the cool morning air. And something moved across his face that might have been discomfort. "No, ma'am," he said. "That's all."
He turned his horse and rode back the way he'd come.
She drove the fence post home with three hard strokes of the mallet and stood there a moment with the vibration still running up her arms, breathing through her nose.