She placed the ledgers on the table.
“Your Honor, if the bank’s accounting is fraudulent, there is no reliable default balance.”
Bell smiled.
The judge frowned.
Margaret introduced freight records.
Duplicate invoices.
Nonexistent deliveries.
Harper Brokerage records.
The Bell telegram to Nathaniel Vale.
Clara Mott’s marriage-bureau affidavit.
Amos Pike’s confession.
By the time she finished, Bell was no longer smiling.
Then Bell himself testified.
That was a mistake.
His attorney should have stopped him.
Pride did not permit it.
Bell explained that irregularities were clerical.
Harper Brokerage legitimate.
Amos unreliable.
The telegram merely a joke.
Margaret asked:
“A joke?”
“Yes.”
“You invited Mrs. Hart’s former husband to observe her arrival?”
Bell glanced toward Emma.
“She wasn’t Mrs. Hart then.”
“Answer.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Bell smiled.
“Because everyone knew what Hart had ordered.”
The courtroom went quiet.
Elias’s hand tightened beneath the table.
Emma covered it with hers.
Margaret looked toward Bell.
“Ordered?”
“Poor choice of word.”
“You knew Mrs. Hart’s physical description?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Bell hesitated.
“Town talk.”
“Before she arrived?”
Silence.
Margaret produced the marriage-bureau telegram.
“Did your associate Amos Pike obtain it?”
“I don’t know.”
Margaret produced Bell’s payment ledger.
A withdrawal of two hundred dollars to A.P. two days before Emma arrived.
Bell’s face changed.
Margaret turned toward the judge.
“Your Honor, the bank’s president interfered with private correspondence because he knew the prospective bride was an experienced bookkeeper who might examine the Hart accounts.”
Bell laughed.
“That is absurd.”
Emma stood.
Everyone turned.
Margaret looked at her.
Emma said:
“I would like to testify.”
Bell’s attorney objected.
The judge allowed it.
Emma took the witness chair.
She hated the attention.
Then remembered Mercy Bend’s street.
Attention had already been used against her.
She could use it now.
Margaret asked her to describe her bookkeeping experience.
Emma did.
Nathaniel Vale’s household and estate accounts.
Seven years.
Vendor reconciliation.
Land rents.
Tax records.
Farm contracts.
Then the Hart books.
Bell’s attorney rose for cross-examination.
He was young.
Too eager.
“Mrs. Hart, you have been at the Hart Ranch approximately six weeks?”
“Yes.”
“And before that, you had never met Mr. Hart?”
“Correct.”
“You came to Kansas intending to marry him?”
“I came intending to decide.”
Laughter.
The judge struck the gavel.
The attorney continued.
“You had no property in Kansas.”
“No.”
“No income?”
“Some savings.”
“You were dependent upon Mr. Hart for housing.”
“Temporarily.”
“So you had a strong personal reason to prevent foreclosure.”
Emma smiled.
“I also had a strong personal reason to find accurate numbers.”
“Because if Hart lost the ranch, you lost your home.”
“No.”
The lawyer paused.
Emma continued.