4141.214 · August 2, 1821 AD
Trust Becomes Suspicion
William Jeffries built his empire on knowing whom to trust and when to doubt. For four years, Jeremiah Blaylock has been the reliable foreman—competent, discreet, loyal. But today, with Blackwood's letter fresh in memory and a shipment mysteriously vanished, every relationship becomes suspect. The man who helped build Jeffries Manor now sits before William like a stranger. Is Jeremiah's nervousness guilt or merely fear? Some questions have no safe answers.
Half past ten. Jeremiah Blaylock enters the study he helped construct, every panel and floorboard placed by his own capable hands. He expects another routine discussion about estate business. Instead, he finds William transformed—cold, calculating, dangerous.
A shipment has vanished. Not just any shipment, but cargo whose true contents never appear in official manifests. Three days overdue. Port Arthur associates are displeased. And someone in William's organisation has been tampering with records, creating discrepancies, leaving trails that could destroy everything.
William watches Jeremiah's every reaction—the bead of sweat tracing down his temple, the nervous fingers worrying at his hat brim, the flicker of recognition when the missing shipment is mentioned. The skills learned reading men's faces in prison yards serve William well now. But what is he reading? Guilty knowledge? Or merely the fear any sensible man feels when powerful employers ask dangerous questions?
Jeremiah offers explanations: storms, delays, perhaps someone working against them. A traitor with access to manifests and schedules. But is he deflecting blame? Or revealing truth?
Silence stretches between them like held breath. Trust, once given, proves fragile. And in a world built on secrets, doubt becomes contagious.
Some confrontations change everything. This is one of them.
