A Broke Widow Tried to Sell Her Last Horse for $2—The Rancher’s Response Changed Her Life Forever
Chapter 6
They searched Finch’s office at the village inn.
They found nothing.
But Nathaniel discovered a small mark on the floor beneath the desk.
A wooden panel had been moved recently.
Inside was a packet of letters.
Margaret recognized Thomas’s handwriting immediately.
She opened the first.
Her husband had written:
Nathaniel, if anything happens to me, tell Margaret that I was not careless with the land. Someone has been changing the records. I have seen Finch meeting with Harrow.
Margaret’s knees weakened.
Nathaniel caught her elbow.
She pulled away automatically.
Then stopped.
“I am sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize.”
She looked at the next letter.
There were three.
The last one had never been sent.
Thomas wrote that he had discovered the original survey was being kept at an abandoned mill.
Then the writing stopped.
Margaret pressed the paper against her chest.
“He knew.”
“Yes.”
“He knew someone was stealing from us.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
Nathaniel’s voice was quiet.
“Perhaps he thought he could fix it first.”
She closed her eyes.
“That sounds like him.”
Nathaniel looked away.
“Thomas always believed a man should solve his own troubles.”
Margaret smiled sadly.
“He believed that right up until he died.”
That night, Nathaniel offered her a room at the ranch.
She refused.
He did not argue.
Instead, he sent two men to escort her home.
Near midnight, someone fired a pistol through her window.
The shot struck the wall above the hearth.
Margaret screamed.
Anna woke.
Daniel began crying.
Nathaniel arrived before dawn.
He examined the hole.
Then he looked at Margaret.
“They know you found the letters.”
She stared at him.
“What do I do?”
Nathaniel’s answer was immediate.
“You come to the ranch.”
This time she did not refuse.
