The letter from Gerald Foss arrived 4 days after Orson rode away from Red Spur, and it contained information that reorganized everything Miriam had allowed herself to feel cautiously optimistic about. Orson's San Francisco lawyer, a man named Harlon Briggs, who apparently specialized in exactly this kind of case, had filed a counterargument to the abandonment documentation that was more sophisticated than Miriam had expected. The argument didn't dispute that Orson had left. It disputed the characterization of why he'd left and what he'd intended when he did. Briggs had constructed a narrative in which Orson Hensley was not an abandoning husband, but a desperate man who had gone to California to secure his family's financial future, who had fully intended to send for them once he was established, and whose plans had been disrupted by circumstances beyond his control.
The note the four sentences on the kitchen table which Miriam had kept and given to Foss was being characterized as a communication written in a moment of extreme distress that did not reflect Orson's true intentions. Miriam read the letter twice at the kitchen table while Bramwell stood by the window reading his own copy. He's rewriting it, she said. Yes, Bramwell said. He took the savings, he took the horse.
He took the food. She set the letter down. He left us with enough cornmeal for 2 weeks and four potatoes and no way to get to town. Foss knows all of that. Foss knows it.
The question is whether the judge will. She was quiet for a moment, working through it. What kind of judge do we have? Bramwell turned from the window. His name is Aldrich.
He's been on the bench in this county for 11 years. Foss says he's fair. He's also practical. He doesn't like cases that drag. Then we need to make the fact so clear that it doesn't drag, she said.
She pulled a piece of paper toward her and picked up a pen. What are you doing? Bramwell said. Writing down every person who saw us when we arrived here, she said. Denny saw us.
August Ferris. Mrs. Callaway at the general store knew what our situation was. She's the one who told you about me. If any of them will testify to what they observed, that's better than my word alone against a lawyer's reframing. Bramwell watched her right for a moment.
Foss should be doing that. He said, "Foss is a lawyer in Helena who has never met any of these people. " She said, "I know who will talk and who won't and how to ask them. I'll give the list to Foss and he can do the formal work. " She didn't look up from the paper.