Mac nodded. “Bart Sr. offered it to me when I retired. How could I refuse? I’d saved his son during Desert Storm when we were forward deployed past Saddam’s lines. Nothing Bart Jr. wouldn’t have done if our positions had been reversed. But his dad was—still is—one of the big ten owners in Montana. Legally made this place mine as long as me or mine are working it. Can’t sell it except to him, and only for any added value. Fair a deal as I’ve ever been offered.”
Almost a tenth of Montana private lands were owned by ten major holders. She’d always wondered how the Hendersons had afforded such a big spread. Neither theirs nor the Larson land was anywhere near the top ten category, but they were two of the bigger ranches around for a long ways. Her family had done it by moving onto the land ba
