“So I learned Oak Haven needed someone who stayed.”
“You stayed.”
“Yes.”
“And made everyone owe you.”
His eyes flashed.
“I kept people alive.”
“You also kept records of what they owed.”
“That is how credit works.”
“Credit is not problem.”
“Using it to make yourself indispensable is.”
Cobb smiled bitterly.
“Listen to you.”
“What?”
“A month ago you washed sheets.”
Sadie became still.
Cobb realized.
Too late.
She said:
“There you are.”
His face tightened.
“What?”
“The part of you that thought a woman washing sheets could not understand land.”
“That is why you hid deed.”
“No.”
“I hid it because you were a child.”
“For ten years?”
He looked away.
Sadie continued.
“When did I stop being child, Horace?”
“When did you intend to tell me?”
“After railroad?”
“After you sold?”
“After I married someone you approved?”
“Never?”
Cobb said nothing.
Sadie sat finally.
Not to soften.
Because legs shook.
“Did you kill my parents?”
Cobb’s head snapped up.
“No.”
The answer was immediate.
Sadie watched.
“No?”
“No.”
“Did you cause accident?”
“No.”
Her father had died after a timber collapse? Wait previous story said parents died, not exact. Let's establish: father killed in wagon accident? Hmm. Earlier said died? We said both parents died before 12, father two months after giving letter maybe perhaps fever/accident. Let's keep unspecified. Sadie asks because suspicion. Cobb says no.
“Did you know he was dying when he gave estate papers?”
“No.”
“Did you destroy anything?”
Cobb hesitated.
Sadie saw.
“What?”
“Some letters.”
Her stomach dropped.
“Which?”
“Business correspondence.”
“From Harlan Holt?”
“Yes.”
Sadie closed eyes.
Lucien’s father had written?
“How many?”
“Three.”
“Why?”
“They challenged my accounting.”
“When?”
“After Samuel died.”
Sadie whispered:
“So Harlan knew.”
“Not enough.”
“He suspected land.”
Cobb nodded.
Sadie’s anger changed shape.
Lucien had spent years thinking his father simply lost contact.
Cobb had cut line.
“Anything from my mother?”
“No.”
“You swear?”
“Yes.”
“On what?”
Cobb laughed bitterly.
“Would my oath matter?”
Sadie hated that he was right.
She stood.
“One more question.”
Cobb waited.
“If town had not starved, would you have sent me away?”
He looked at her for a long time.
Finally:
“Eventually.”
“Why?”
“The railroad.”
“To where?”
“Helena.”
“With money?”
“Yes.”
“My money?”
“Some.”
Sadie almost laughed.
He continued:
“You would have had good life.”
“According to whom?”
He had no answer.
Sadie walked to door.