Chapter Two #2
“You know, I completely understand your reason for wanting to sell, Jed.” Edgar eased himself into his plush office chair, adjusting his spectacles before reaching for the topmost set of papers.
“When I met my Anna, I was determined to start our lives off on the right foot. Folks thought I was foolish to completely step away from the trading business. Everyone insisted I could keep working and have a domestic life on the side.” He paused, a wry smile crossing his wrinkled face.
“I’m glad I chose to focus entirely on my and Anna’s new life, though.
And I think you’ll feel the same about Kathleen, too. ”
“That…means a lot to me, Edgar,” Jed admitted.
Edgar beamed as he continued sifting through the paperwork. “Although, I admit I’ll be a bit sad to see your little duo turn into a solo venture. You and Thomas made such a good team. Gedney Ranch won’t run quite the same without you.”
Jed burned his tongue on the first sip of tea. He quickly cleared his throat, setting the cup back onto the desk. “He’ll–he’ll be just fine on his own. Always had the mind fer this sort of work.”
“Ah, but you always had the spirit, Jed,” Edgar insisted.
Jed hid his face with the teacup once more.
“But don’t you think you’ll be escaping me that easily!
I’ll be sure to keep your new familial cabin stocked with plenty of tea.
” Edgar’s teasing tone softened to a curious murmur, his attention now fully fixed on the papers before him.
He paused, narrowed his gaze, then pulled a few papers back from the previously searched pile and placed them alongside the yet-untouched documents.
Something cold curled in Jed’s gut. “Everything alright, Edgar?”
Edgar didn’t reply immediately, still completely fixated on the papers.
“I…hmm. Yes, I just…I didn’t forget anything, did I?
” He moved the papers aside, pulling from the bottommost file before flipping the folder open.
Pursing his lips, he then adjusted his spectacles and leaned in close, as if certain he was misreading something.
“Talk to me, Edgar.”
Edgar continued to mumble under his breath.
“Edgar?”
The older gentleman blew out a breath as he straightened up in his chair. “I…I’m not certain what’s happening here. I could have sworn– Jed, you’ve come into my office to sign paperwork before, yes?”
The cold lump in his stomach hardened to ice. “I–I dunno. Thomas usually handled all the paperwork fer me.” He closed his eyes, trying to recall the last decade of his life. “He’d sometimes come home with papers. Things I had to sign.”
“But you didn’t come in yourself?”
Jed couldn’t remember.
“But he wouldn’t have… Th-that just doesn’t seem like something Thomas would do.
” Edgar ran a hand over another stack of papers, frantically flipping through them with a sense of urgency.
“I can’t find your name on any of these documents, Jed.
Not on any of the land parcels, not on the bill of sale–”
“Wh-whaddaya mean?” The tea was frozen in Jed’s stomach now. His body felt weak, as if he could fall off the chair at any moment. “What does that mean, Edgar?”
Edgar looked up, his expression horrified. “I… It means, in the eyes of the law…Gedney Ranch has always been owned solely by Thomas. I– There’s no shares I can give to you, Jed. They don’t exist.”
***
Jed wasn’t sure how long he’d been standing outside the land office.
At some point he must have finished his conversation with Edgar, but the exact words exchanged were nothing but a blur.
He recalled nodding along numbly as Edgar flipped through the paperwork, and Jed knew that he’d offered some weak form of thanks before standing and stepping out of the office.
Did Edgar call out for him? Was he still back at his desk, trying to find some reasonable explanation for all this?
Something that didn’t paint Thomas as an untrustworthy lowlife?
The thought struck Jed hard. Lowlife…it really was as simple as that. All this time, perhaps since the day they’d met, Thomas had seen him as nothing more than a means to an end. If the sheriff had ever caught wind of his illegal dealings, how many good men would Thomas have thrown to the wolves?
Would he have thrown Jed without a second thought?
A muzzle bumped against his arm, and Jed was brought back to the busy streets of Cheyenne. His stallion stared at him, curious eyes seemingly speaking directly to his soul. Jed gave the horse a weak pat, doing his best to ground himself in the present.
He had to tell Kathleen. He couldn’t–wouldn’t–trap her in a life of uncertainty. She had other suitors, men with the means to give her the future she deserved. And he didn’t have the right to ask her to leave town with him, to uproot herself from a community Jed no longer felt a connection to.
A faint grumbling caught his attention, and Jed glanced toward a nearby bench.
Older folks took up a majority of the seating, with one in particular taking great effort to rise to his feet.
He then deposited his newspaper into a nearby bin, and something in Jed pulled him toward it.
Ignoring the odd looks from strangers, he pulled the newspaper free and skimmed through a few work advertisements.
Then, he settled on a smaller section dedicated entirely to mail-order spouses.
It held the usual array of lonely frontiersmen looking for strong-willed women, but Jed’s attention specifically stuck on one small ad looking for a husband.
The author had left scant details, noting only that she owned a small cattle business in Bighorn, and that her interest lay exclusively in finding someone willing to split the work with her.
Jed reread the ad uncertainly; he had never seen himself as the type to marry purely for prospect’s sake.
Then again…he’d never thought he’d lose every ounce of prospect he had.