“You owe me.”
“I owe you nothing.”
“You promised my son’s debt would disappear.”
“There it was.”
Blackmail.
Jacob had sabotaged the ranch.
Not for greed.
For his son.
Still betrayal.
Then Arthur said something worse.
“The fire means someone else understands the land is worth more than cattle.”
Jacob:
“What does that mean?”
“You don't need to know.”
Arthur left first.
Ethan waited until the horse vanished.
Then stepped inside.
Jacob turned.
His face collapsed.
“Ethan.”
Ethan’s hand remained near his gun.
Magdalena entered behind him.
Jacob looked at her.
Understanding.
“You followed.”
“Yes.”
Ethan’s voice was barely controlled.
“Why?”
Jacob sat.
“My boy.”
“What about him?”
“Gambling.”
“Debt.”
“Vale bought it.”
“How much?”
“Eight hundred.”
Ethan stared.
“You could have asked me.”
“I knew the ranch was failing.”
“You burned feed.”
“I did not burn the barn.”
“You poisoned my cattle.”
“Only enough to make some sick.”
“One died.”
Jacob’s eyes lowered.
“I know.”
Ethan looked like he had been struck.
The man he trusted most after his father.
Magdalena stepped closer.
“What did Arthur want?”
“To force sale.”
“Why?”
“Mining, I assumed.”
“Did he ever mention water?”
“No.”
“North Hill?”
“Only said keep the old line blocked.”
Magdalena’s eyes narrowed.
“Who blocked it originally?”
Jacob looked up.
“Vale's father.”
Ethan froze.
“You knew?”
“Not until Arthur told me where the plate was.”
Magdalena thought.
“Why protect a water channel if he only wanted cattle land?”
No answer.
Then the fire.
Somebody separate.
Someone who cared about the land for another reason.
They turned Jacob over to the sheriff the next morning.
Ethan could not watch.
Magdalena did.
Jacob confessed to the poisoning, ditch sabotage, fence damage, and falsifying several supply counts.
Not the fire.
Arthur was arrested for conspiracy.
But his attorneys had him released pending hearing.
The barn arson remained unsolved.
The ranch seemed safer.
It was not.
Magdalena returned to the irrigation maps.
Why did Vale’s father block North Hill decades earlier?
Castle Ridge had existed as cattle land.
Water made cattle land valuable.
But not valuable enough for a thirty-year conspiracy.
She examined soil near the spring.
Fine white deposits.
Not salt exactly.
Ethan knew nothing.
They sent samples to a geologist in Fort Worth.
Two weeks.
Meanwhile, winter preparations continued.
The romance between them did too.
Quietly.
Ethan never used the crisis to move faster.
Magdalena appreciated that.
Sometimes hated it.
One evening she found him repairing harness in the workshop.
Shirt sleeves rolled.
Hair fallen across his forehead.
She watched from the doorway.
He looked up.
“You’re staring.”
“Apparently contagious.”