Beside him rode Deputy Crowell and another man Mabel recognized from the bank.
Elias stepped onto the porch.
Mabel beside him.
The attorney unfolded paper.
“Elias Graves.”
“Yes.”
“We’re here regarding default on secured administrative advances attached to the Prescott consolidation.”
Mabel felt cold.
“We disputed those charges.”
“Dispute does not suspend collection.”
“It does under territorial commercial law when fraud is alleged.”
The attorney smiled.
“You a lawyer, Mrs. Graves?”
“No.”
“I read.”
Elias almost smiled.
The attorney continued.
“We are authorized to inventory secured property.”
“No.”
Elias’s voice became low.
Deputy Crowell shifted nervously.
Everyone knew Elias’s reputation.
Mabel stepped forward.
“Deputy, did you read the order?”
Crowell looked surprised.
“What?”
“The order.”
“Did you read it?”
He glanced at the attorney.
“I was told—”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
The deputy took the paper.
Read.
His expression changed.
“What?”
The attorney snapped.
“Deputy.”
Crowell raised one hand.
“This authorizes notice.”
“Not seizure.”
Mabel looked at Elias.
There.
The plan.
Get Elias angry.
Enter property under confusion.
Create confrontation.
Then call violence proof of guilt.
The attorney’s face hardened.
“Mr. Graves owes money.”
Mabel answered.
“We’ll settle that in court.”
He looked at her.
“You think marriage to this animal makes you brave?”
Elias moved.
Only half a step.
Mabel caught his arm.
The attorney smiled.
He wanted it.
Mabel whispered:
“Not today.”
Elias stopped.
His chest rose.
Then slowly fell.
Mabel faced the attorney.
“You should leave.”
The man’s smile disappeared.
“You’ll regret embarrassing respectable people.”
Mabel looked around.
At Elias.
At Deputy Crowell.
At the document the attorney himself had misrepresented.
Then back.
“Respectability would be easier to recognize if it behaved better.”
Even Crowell nearly smiled.
They left.
That evening Elias sat in the barn sharpening an axe far longer than necessary.
Mabel found him.
“You’re murdering that blade.”
He stopped.
“He called me an animal.”
“I heard.”
“I nearly gave him what he wanted.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Because you stopped me.”
“No.”
Mabel came closer.
“Because you stopped yourself.”
Elias looked at her.
“You touched my arm.”
“I reminded you.”
“You chose.”
He sat.
His shoulders seemed heavier.
“I hate what people see.”
Mabel understood immediately.
She sat beside him.
“So do I.”
He looked toward her.
She continued:
“They look at you and see danger.”
“They look at me and see appetite.”
“Laziness.”
“Ridicule.”
“Sometimes pity.”
Elias’s expression darkened.
Mabel smiled sadly.
“We both let them tell us who we were for too long.”
He took her hand.