Lena became unpopular with delivery drivers.
“How many sacks?”
she would ask.
“Invoice says ten.”
“Count again.”
Once she found two sacks missing.
The driver claimed a loading error.
The next delivery included both.
Reid watched.
“You enjoyed that.”
“No.”
“You smiled.”
“Coincidence.”
By spring Lena had records proving Prescott Mercantile had overcharged the Reid ranch seventy-eight dollars since her arrival alone.
She said nothing publicly.
Not yet.
Because she discovered something else.
Other ranchers complained too.
Martha Hale mentioned a missing crate of lamp oil.
Jonas Hale said Prescott deducted unexplained “quality fees” from wool.
A widow named Eleanor Webb believed her store account never became smaller no matter how much she paid.
Lena started asking questions.
Quietly.
She kept copies.
Meanwhile, life at the ranch changed.
The boys stopped betting on her leaving.
They began betting on which one she would punish first.
Peter usually won.
He dismantled things compulsively.
Door latches.
Harness buckles.
Once Reid’s pocket watch.
Lena found him at the kitchen table surrounded by gears.
“Can you put that back together?”
Peter stared.
“Yes.”
“Are you lying?”
“Yes.”
She sat beside him.
They worked two hours.
The watch never ran properly again.
Reid carried it anyway.
Matthew loved numbers.
Lena discovered him copying columns from her ledger.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking.”
“My work?”
“Yes.”
“Find anything?”
He pointed.
“You added six instead of eight here.”
She looked.
He was right.
After that Matthew became her unofficial clerk.
Jacob followed Reid everywhere.
Ben loved animals.