Ours never got called in, but I learned what to look for." "And what do you see here?" He said. She looked at the paper. "I see a man who wants something that isn't the money," she said.
"The money's real, but it's not the point. The point is to make you vulnerable enough that you have to deal with him on his terms." "His terms being what?" Nate said. "I don't know yet," she said.
"But they'll involve either the land or demonstrating to the town that you'll bend when he pushes." She looked up. "Have you ever bent for Gerald Hargrove before?" "No," Nate said. "Then this is the first test of whether you will."
She folded the letter carefully. "Who's the bank here? Who do you deal with? Henry Aldridge at First Territorial, he said. Is he a fair man?
Fair enough, he said. I've had no trouble with him. Can you get an appointment this week? Clara, can you Yes, he said. Then make it, she said.
And I want to go with you. He looked at her. It's my business, he said. Not harshly, but directly. I know it is, she said equally directly.
And I know you didn't ask for my help. But I managed Robert's farm accounts for 7 years, and I'm telling you I can see something in these numbers that might matter. You can tell me no. A very long silence, she did not fill it. She had learned in the weeks since she arrived that Nate Holloway needed silence the way some people need argument to think in, to decide in, to find his own ground in before he moved.
All right, he said. All right, you'll make the appointment or all right, I can come, she said. Both, he said. She nodded. She started to hand the letter back to him and then stopped.
Nate, she said. He looked at her. This isn't your fault, she said. You were a man alone trying to keep everything from failing. You made a reasonable decision in a difficult moment.