Page 89 of The Rancher's Wedding

Richard placed the letter carefully in his jacket pocket and moved on to his daughter.

“Estelle, Estelle,” he said. “Now you get to make trouble for another man, don’t you?”

Michael saw the love in her eyes when she looked at her father. She nodded and said, “I don’t believe he thinks I’m too much trouble. Do you, Michael?”

“Not in the least,” he said, and meant it. She could be stubborn, perhaps, and free spirited, but it all only made him love her more.

“I’ll miss you, Father,” she said, then gave him a hug.

“Please write to me,” Richard said. “And no more fights.”

“No more fights,” she said.

He took his bags and stepped onto the train, giving the conductor his ticket.

“Safe travels,” Michael said, waving.

Then Richard went on board and, in a few moments, the train left the station, heading off to the east, becoming smaller and quieter along the horizon until it completely disappeared.

***

It was three weeks later that the town held Ethan’s trial.

The jury returned from their chambers, after an hour or so of deliberation, and sat down in their seats. All in an orderly manner, stoic and unreadable. The foreman held the verdict in his hands and Michael watched captivated by the proceedings. Estelle grabbed his hand with a firm grip, shaking as she awaited the results.

The spectator area was filled to the brim, with perhaps a dozen or so people standing in the back. Grafton wasn’t used to this kind of excitement and everybody there watched with eager anticipation. Would Ethan be found guilty by the jury of his peers? Or would they show mercy upon him?

They’d all been there for several days, taking in the incontrovertible evidence, but there was always the chance that things looked differently from the juror’s box. It wasn’t about whether or not Ethan had committed fraud or theft, it’s about whether the jurors had it in their hearts to forgive him.

Michael, for all his patiences and desire to see the good in people, couldn’t forgive Ethan for his sins. It was a case of the crime being greater than the sum of its parts.

Michael, perhaps, could forgive the fraud and deceit. But what he couldn’t forgive was that Ethan nearly took Estelle away. And while that’s not technically a crime, it certainly wasn’t something that Michael could just overlook.

“Has the jury reached a verdict?” the judge asked.

“We have,” said the foreman, holding the envelope in his hands.

The judge put on his glasses and reached out his hands. “Let me see it.”

The foreman handed off the envelope and the judge opened it, looking it over.

“I trust this is unanimous,” the judge said.

“Yes, your honor,” said the foreman, who sat back down in his seat.

“The jury has found the defendant, Mr. Ethan Fitzgerald, guilty of three counts of fraud and four counts of theft,” the judge said.

Michael and Estelle both let out a collective breath. Though the prosecutor had made short work of Ethan and Sheriff Ron’s testimony should have put a nail in whatever case Ethan might have had, there was always doubt. Now that the jury reached their guilty verdict, the two lovers could rest easy at night.

“Now, in the way of punishment,” the judge said, “I find imprisonment inappropriate, largely because I don’t want such a foul-moraled boorish man to remain in our wonderful town any longer than necessary.” The judge thought for a second, then continued. “In lieu of jail time, I hereby send him back to Philadelphia where a Pennsylvania judge can do with him as he’d like.”

The gavel came down and two guards escorted Ethan out of the courtroom, to be put on the next train to Philadelphia.

“All’s well that ends well,” Estelle said. Michael took her arm in his and they walked out to their horses, which they mounted and rode back towards the ranch.

“What do you think they’ll do with him in Pennsylvania?” Michael asked.

“Likely send him to Eastern State Penitentiary,” she said. “But I don’t much care so long as he doesn’t ever come back here.”

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