“Where is the ledger?” she asked.
Pike shook his head.
“Gideon never told me.”
“Samuel gave him evidence.”
“Then Vane hasn’t found it.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Gideon is still alive.”
That chilled her.
For hours, Mabel searched.
Desk drawers.
Floorboards.
Barn walls.
Mattresses.
Nothing.
At sunset, Lottie approached.
“Mama?”
“Not now.”
“Mr. Gideon gave me something.”
Mabel froze.
“When?”
“The night Mr. Vane showed you Papa’s debt.”
Lottie pulled a brass key from inside her dress.
“He said if anybody ever came for the ranch, I should give this to you.”
Mabel stared.
“What does it open?”
“I don’t know.”
They searched again.
June finally noticed a tiny keyhole beneath the woodbox beside the stove.
The key turned.
A false panel opened.
Inside rested a leather ledger.
And beneath it, a sealed envelope.
Mabel opened the envelope first.
Samuel’s handwriting greeted her.
My dearest Mabel,
Her vision blurred.
She forced herself to continue.
If you are reading this, then the worst thing I feared has happened.
Samuel explained everything.
Vane’s theft.
The forged debts.
The ranchers who had lost their land.
The money Samuel had hidden to preserve evidence.
And Gideon.
I trust Gideon Cross with my life. If I lose mine, trust him with yours. Not because he is perfect. God knows he is stubborn enough to argue with thunder. Trust him because when every other man chose profit, Gideon chose what was right.
Mabel cried silently.
Then she reached the final paragraph.
And everything she thought she understood changed again.
There is one more thing you must know.
The Cross Ranch is not Gideon’s.
Mabel stopped breathing.
She read the line twice.
Then the next.
Half belongs to him. Half belongs to you and our girls.
“What?” Mabel whispered.
Pike leaned closer.
Samuel had invested money with Gideon years earlier.
Not their household savings.
Money earned privately from cattle contracts Mabel never knew existed.
Samuel had feared Vane’s growing power and placed his share of the ranch in Mabel’s name.
The deed had been filed through Pike’s law office.
The original document remained sealed because Samuel believed Vane would destroy it if discovered.
Pike opened his case.
From beneath a false leather lining, he removed a folded deed bearing a territorial seal.
Mabel Harlo.
Owner of an undivided one-half interest in Cross-Harlo Ranch.
She sank into a chair.
All those nights sleeping in barns.
All those hungry meals.
The town laughing at her poverty.
She had owned half a cattle ranch the entire time.
But Pike had not finished.
“Mrs. Harlo, your husband’s share has produced income for five years.”
Mabel slowly looked up.
“What?”
“Mr. Cross deposited your portion into a trust Samuel established.”
“How much?”
Pike told her.
Mabel thought she had misunderstood.
“Say that again.”
“Nine thousand, four hundred and seventy-six dollars.”
June gasped.
Lottie sat down.
Nine thousand dollars.
Mabel had arrived in Sorrow Creek with twelve cents.
And Gideon had never touched a dollar that belonged to her.
