But Montgomery owned influence.
The territorial hearing was scheduled for April fourteenth.
One day before the payment deadline.
He intended to bury Josiah in procedure.
Martha intended something else.
On April thirteenth, the Broken Spur smokehouse burned.
Billy smelled smoke shortly after midnight.
By the time men reached it, flames had climbed the south wall.
Martha woke to shouting.
She reached the yard in a heavy nightdress and coat.
Fire reflected across the snow remnants.
Months of cured meat.
Records.
Equipment.
Gone if the roof caught.
Josiah ran toward the door.
Martha shouted:
“Stop!”
He turned.
“Ledger!”
“Not worth dying.”
“It has—”
“I copied it.”
He stared.
Of course she had.
She pointed.
“Bucket line!”
The ranch hands moved.
Martha organized.
Water from the spring.
Blankets.
Wet earth.
Pull the adjacent woodpile away.
Do not open smokehouse door fully and feed oxygen.
Gideon climbed the roof with a wet hide.
Flames ate through one corner.
For thirty minutes they fought.
Then an hour.
By dawn the fire was out.
Half the structure destroyed.
Most meat smoke-damaged but salvageable.
Records safe because Martha had moved copies into the main house three weeks earlier.
Josiah stood in the mud.
His face black with soot.
Montgomery had escalated again.
Nobody had proof.
Then Billy found the bottle.
Broken near the rear wall.
Kerosene.
Wrapped around its neck was cloth.
Arson.
The boy looked at Martha.
“We’re going to court tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
“Think he did this?”
“Yes.”
“Can we prove?”
“No.”
Billy kicked the dirt.
Martha looked at the burned building.
Then something caught her eye.
Tracks.
Two sets.
One horse.
One boot.
The attacker had approached from the irrigation lane.
The ground there remained wet enough to preserve impressions.
Gideon followed them.
Half mile.
Then lost them at the main road.
But along the way they found something.
A spur.
Silver.
Decorative M engraved along the heel band.
Josiah knew it.
He had seen Montgomery’s foreman wear it.
Still not absolute proof.
But enough to make a man nervous.
They went to court carrying everything.
The hearing took place inside the county building at Silver City.
Packed room.
Farmers.
Miners.
Merchants.
People who hated Montgomery.
People who owed him.
People who wanted entertainment.
Martha entered beside Josiah.
The whispering started immediately.
She heard fragments.
“That’s her.”
“The cook.”
“Woman from the blizzard.”
“Lord, she’s enormous.”
Some things did not change.
Martha took a reinforced bench position near the front that the clerk had arranged after Josiah wrote ahead.
She appreciated the preparation.
Did not thank anyone for treating basic practicality as a miracle.
Montgomery arrived in black wool.
Lawyer beside him.