Chapter 21: The Courthouse Steps

Annie's POV

Five weeks after the wedding, the Kell herd rolled off my pasture on eleven stock trucks.

I stood at the gate with Boone and counted them out.

Two thousand head, as promised, on the thirtieth day.

The last truck went by, and the Kell rider on the tailgate took off his hat.

He did not look at me.

"That's the lease," Boone said.

"That's the lease."

"And Monday is the steps."

"I'm going."

"I figured."

The Sheridan County courthouse had a wide stone staircase, and by nine the next morning half the valley was on it.

I had never seen a foreclosure sale.

It was a short thing, I found out, a sheriff's deputy with a clipboard and a man in a suit with a folder.

People came the way they come to a parade.

My father stood beside me with his hat in both hands.

Brooke stood on my other side, in a loose green dress, with her hand on a stomach that was starting to show.

Boone was a step behind us, quiet, with his arms folded.

"Doesn't anyone feel bad?" Brooke whispered.

"Some," I said. "Not many."

The deputy read it out in a clear flat voice.

The Kell Cattle & Feed elevator, with the loading dock.

The feed mill.

The Kell family lodge and house, with two hundred acres of river bottom.

The Kell cattle, sold earlier at the Billings auction to pay the first of the loan.

"Item one," the deputy said. "The elevator and mill. Do I hear an offer?"

For a moment no one spoke.

Then a man in a black coat raised his hand on the third step.

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