"The Copper Pot isn't your personal house."
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then Bram leaned closer.
"Careful, Loretta."
Elias rose slowly.
He didn't threaten the foreman.
He simply stood beside the table, watching.
Bram glanced toward him.
Then returned his attention to Loretta.
"You've got until Monday to settle the account."
Her stomach tightened.
"What account?"
He laughed.
"The debt."
Loretta stared.
Bram continued.
"Mr. Pritchard says the cookhouse owes the company almost nine hundred dollars."
She felt cold.
"That's impossible."
The foreman smiled.
"Then you'd better learn to count."
He turned toward Elias.
"And you can get out before morning."
Then he left.
Loretta stood motionless.
Elias watched her.
For a long moment, neither spoke.
Finally, he asked, "What debt?"
She looked toward the floor.
Then she whispered, "One I don't believe I owe."
Elias sat down again.
"Tell me."
Loretta hesitated.
She had already cried in front of him.
Already revealed how much the ribbon meant.
She didn't want him to think she was asking for money as well.
But there was something in his expression that made silence seem unnecessary.
So she told him about the vouchers.
The delayed payments.
The supplies charged at prices far above what the traders advertised.
And the widow who had once owned the Copper Pot.
Elias listened without interrupting.
When she finished, he asked whether she had the account books.
Loretta nodded.
"I've kept every page."
"Good."
She looked at him.
He continued.
"Then Monday isn't the end of the story."
Loretta sighed.
"You don't understand. Bram controls half the men here. Mr. Pritchard controls the supplies. If they say I owe money, people believe them."
Elias considered that.
Then he looked toward the empty tables.
"People believed them tonight because everyone was shouting."
Loretta frowned.
He continued.
"Tomorrow, we can start asking questions when the room's quiet."
She looked uncertain.
"What questions?"
"Who ordered the food, who received it, who paid, and where the money went."
Loretta stared at him.
Then she asked, "You know accounts?"
Elias smiled faintly.
"No more than a man needs to know when someone is trying to take his horse."
Loretta laughed softly.
He continued.
"But I know people who do."
For the first time since Bram threatened her with the debt, she felt a small possibility opening.
It was frightening.
And hopeful.
And entirely unfamiliar.
Elias slept in the storeroom that night.