“How much is thet debt?” Aunt Jinny demanded.

“Forty dollars!” one of the two bailiffs said, loudly, as if by shouting he could frighten her into dropping dollar bills.

Anna felt herself growing faint. Forty dollars! That was more money than anything other than a bank could have! Josh had gotten five dollars for his little angel statue, and they’d hoped that would be enough—but forty? That was impossible.

The two bailiffs began shouting that she had to pay up or go to jail, and one of them actually took out a pair of hand-shackles and began rattling them at her. Then Aunt Jinny smacked the shackles out of his hand with the handle of her broom, shocking them into silence.

“Sheriff,” she said into the stunned silence. “I’d admire if y’all would take these no-accounts out of my house. Y’all c’n stand on the porch, but my niece an’ I need some time t’thank.”

One of the bailiffs opened his mouth to bellow again, but the sheriff grabbed them both by the collars and shoved them out the door. “Take all th’ time y’all need, Miz Jinny,” he said, and shut the door behind them.

“I ain’t got thet kinder money, chile—” Aunt Jinny began, her own face pale. “Mebbe if me an’ Matt an’ Josh—Mister Clay might could give us a loan, or Mister Cavenel on Josh’s work—”

But Anna’s eyes had lit on the malachite box that Jolene had given to her. “The box!” she gasped, and stumbled a little in her haste to get to the shelf where it lay.

It seemed a little heavier than it had been when she’d put it there. And when she opened it—

There were two worn-looking, slightly dirty, twenty-dollar gold pieces.

“Tell ’em t’ come back in, Aunt Jinny,” she said, holding out her hand to show her aunt what had been in there.

Aunt Jinny’s eyes widened. “Gimme a minute to thank,” she said. Jinny closed her eyes and stood there for about a minute, maybe a little longer. Then she went to the cupboard and brought out the oak-gall ink, a new quill pen, some of the pretty paper the lace collar from her wedding dress had been wrapped in, and a candle. “All right. Let ’em in.”

The bailiffs came in pushing and hollering about how Anna was reckoning to cheat the Company, but this time it was the sheriff that had had enough.

“Shut yore fool haids!” he roared. When silence resumed, he turned politely to the two women and said, “Now. Did thet there time t’thank he’p y’all?”

Aunt Jinny nodded stiffly. “Reckon it did, Sheriff. Anna May, give th’ sheriff th’ Company’s money.”

Anna handed over the two coins, each a bit bigger than a quarter and much heavier. The sheriff looked them over carefully, bit them both, and nodded. “Reckon this’s the correct amount, Miz Holcroft.” He started to hand the coins to one of the bailiffs, when Aunt Jinny stopped him.