Her father supposedly owed eight hundred dollars.
But another paper beneath it showed a payment of three hundred made only six days earlier.
The balance should have been five hundred.
The foreclosure notice still listed eight.
Mabel stared.
Elias entered carrying firewood.
Saw her expression.
“What?”
She handed him the papers.
He read.
Then again.
“You showed this to the banker?”
“I never saw it.”
“Who handled your father’s estate?”
“The bank.”
“Which bank?”
She gave him a look.
Elias’s jaw tightened.
The same banker who arranged their marriage.
Mabel whispered:
“He told me Father’s debt was seventeen hundred.”
“What records did he give you?”
“None.”
Elias set down the papers.
“Then we get them.”
Fear moved through her.
“If the debt was wrong…”
“Then we find out.”
Mabel stared toward the window.
She had married Elias because the banker said the debt would otherwise consume everything.
Her father’s rented room.
Remaining equipment.
Possessions.
Worse, the banker warned creditors could pursue her through the estate for household liabilities she had co-signed during her father’s illness.
Elias had paid those debts in exchange for the marriage arrangement.
Or so everyone believed.
Mabel looked at him.
“How much did you pay?”
Elias hesitated.
“How much?”
“Seventeen hundred.”
Her face went cold.
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“The agreement.”
“No.”
She stood.
“Why would you pay seventeen hundred dollars for a wife you didn’t know?”
Elias’s expression hardened.
“I didn’t buy you.”
“That is exactly what it looks like.”
“No.”
“You gave a banker gold.”
“My father’s debts disappeared.”
“Then I married you.”
Elias stepped back.
The movement mattered.
He was giving her space even during anger.
“I paid because Mercer said creditors would throw you onto the street by Friday.”
Mabel’s eyes filled.
“So pity.”
“No.”
“What else?”
Elias went silent.
Her voice sharpened.
“What else?”
He looked toward the floor.
Then said:
“I saw you before.”
Mabel froze.
“When?”
“Months ago.”
“Where?”
“Red Ridge.”
He rubbed his scar.
“I was buying nails outside the hardware store.”
“You were arguing with a stableman.”
Mabel remembered.
A young stable boy had been accused of stealing oats.
Mabel had stepped between the boy and his employer because she saw another rancher mistakenly load the sack.
“You remember that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“You were the only person in the street who stopped.”
She swallowed.
Elias continued.
“Then I saw you again helping Mrs. Cobb lift her cart wheel.”
“Again at church carrying food to a widow everybody else avoided because her husband died drunk.”
Mabel stared.
“You watched me?”
“Not like that.”
His scar pulled as he frowned.
“I noticed.”
She looked down.
Elias said:
“When Mercer told me you needed a husband, I already knew you weren’t helpless.”
“Then why agree?”
“Because he said without marriage there was no legal way for me to clear the household note before creditors seized everything.”
Mabel’s eyes narrowed.
“That sounds suspicious now.”
“Yes.”
They looked at the inaccurate debt paper.
For the first time, their marriage began to feel like part of someone else’s plan.
They rode to Red Ridge three days later.
The townspeople noticed immediately.
Of course.
Mabel wore a plain dark blue dress.