The old pages smelled of dust and lamp smoke.
Her own handwriting ran down the columns.
September 17th.
Martin Bell, room 6.
Breakfast.
Supper.
Laundry.
Paid through September 19th.
She remembered the man now, a traveling harness salesman with a cough who'd complained about the mattress and asked for hot water every night.
Emily touched the entry.
Nathan stood beside her.
"Enough?"
"Not yet."
George returned with the broker's notices.
Emily spread them beside the register.
Then she found it.
A date.
A parcel description.
North Creek.
Charles Reed.
Her pulse slowed instead of quickened.
Pieces were finally sitting where they belonged.
From upstairs came Walsh's voice.
"The hearing is resuming."
Nathan reached for the papers.
Emily kept her hand on them.
"I'll carry them."
His eyes met hers.
"You sure?"
She closed the register.
"For years, I carried that book because nobody thought the woman writing names and dates behind a boarding house desk was worth noticing."
Emily lifted it against her chest.
"Charles made the same mistake."
They climbed the stairs.
The crowd shifted to let them pass.
At the doorway, Walsh looked at the register and frowned.
Charles stopped smiling.
Emily returned to her chair.
Judge Briggs adjusted his spectacles.
"Mrs. Reed, I understand you've found something relevant."
"I believe so."
Walsh stood.
"Before we wander into boarding house bookkeeping, Your Honor, I would like Mrs. Reed to answer one final question concerning the nature of this marriage."
Nathan went still.
Walsh turned toward Emily.
Behind him, the open door revealed men packed down the staircase.
Beyond them stood the Copper Star, the same saloon where laughter had rolled across the room when Emily Parker first walked toward a giant cowboy before midnight.
Walsh folded his hands.
"Mrs. Reed. Isn't the truth simply this? Nathan Reed needed a wife desperately enough to marry a woman other men had repeatedly passed over. And you needed security desperately enough to accept."
No one laughed this time.
Emily looked at Nathan.
His face had gone hard, his fist closed beside her.
She placed her hand over it.
Then Emily Parker turned back toward the room that had once laughed at her and opened the boarding house register.
The leather spine gave a dry crack beneath her hand.
Judge Briggs leaned forward.
Edward Walsh remained standing, one hand resting against the table as though he still expected Emily to answer the insult he dressed up as a question.
She didn't.
Instead, she turned several yellowed pages.
"September 17th," Emily said.
Walsh frowned.
"Mrs. Reed, I asked you."
"I heard you."
Her finger stopped beside a line written in faded black ink.
"But if this hearing concerns whether my marriage is honest, then perhaps we ought to ask whether Mr. Charles Reed's papers are honest first."
That changed the room.
Charles shifted.
Only an inch.
Emily noticed.
So did Nathan.
She lifted the affidavit Charles had submitted in support of his guardianship claim.
"This says Martin Bell witnessed Mr. Reed sign a family declaration on September 18th."
Walsh frowned.
"That is correct."
"And Mr. Bell swore the signing took place at Charles Reed's property outside Laramie."
Again, correct.
Emily turned the register toward Judge Briggs.
"Martin Bell slept in room six of the Willow House on September 17th."
She moved her finger down one line.
"And September 18th."
And September 19th.
Walsh gave a thin smile.
"A boarding house entry does not prove a man remained in town every hour of every day."
"No."
Emily's voice stayed calm, but the receipt attached to it might help.
She reached into the register's rear pocket.
Years of keeping books had taught her never to throw away a signed receipt when money was involved.
"Mr. Bell paid me personally on the evening of September 18th. Eighty-five cents for lodging, meals, laundry, and hot water."
She handed the slip to Briggs.
"His signature is there."
The judge studied it.
Walsh's smile vanished.
Emily continued.
"Mr. Bell had a bad cough. He asked for hot water shortly after supper. I remember because I carried it upstairs myself."
Charles leaned toward his attorney.
Walsh whispered something back.
Nathan said nothing.
His hand rested open on the table now.
Emily turned another document around.
"The affidavit Charles filed bears Martin Bell's signature, too."
Briggs placed both papers side by side, his brow lowered.
"They're not alike."
"No, sir."
Walsh stood straighter.
"Handwriting varies."
"It does," Emily said. "Dates don't."
A murmur traveled down the staircase.
Judge Briggs looked sharply toward the doorway.
The sound stopped.
Emily reached for George Miller's folded land notice.
"This was posted through a Red Willow land broker."
Charles finally spoke.
"What does that have to do with Lucy?"
Emily looked at him.
"That's what I'd like you to explain."
She unfolded the notice carefully.
"Three weeks before you filed for guardianship, you asked about transferring rights connected to the North Creek parcel."
Charles laughed once.
It sounded forced in the quiet room.
"Business inquiry."
"About property you don't own."
"Property belonging to my family."
"To Lucy."
His mouth tightened.
Emily slid the paper toward Briggs.
"The parcel came through her father, Nathan's brother."
Lucy sat beside Helen near the wall, both hands around the little wooden horse.
Emily saw Charles glance at her only once.
It was enough.
She stepped closer to the table.
"You told this court you wanted Lucy because a child needed a proper home."
"I do."
"You told Lucy that Nathan would lose Double Pine because of her."
Charles's face changed.
"That's a lie."
Lucy shrank against Helen.