“Sure. He lives about a mile down the road.”
“Could you take me there and introduce me?” she asked.
“Nicole, what’s this all about?”
“I want to buy the farmland next to the mill. I thought I’d put in a crop of barley this spring.”
“Barley? But Clay can give you—” He stopped at Nicole’s look.
“I am no longer related to Clayton Armstrong, nor do I have anything to do with him. I will make my own way in the world.”
She started walking down the road, but Wes grabbed her arm. “I can’t believe it’s really over between you and Clay.”
“I think it’s been over for a long time, but I was too blind to see it,” she said quietly.
“Nicole,” Wes began, staring down at her. The sunlight on her face made her eyes sparkle. He studied her mouth, the upper lip so fascinating. “Why don’t you marry me? You’ve never even seen my house. It’s enormous. You could have all the people you take care of live there, and we wouldn’t even see them. Travis and I have more money than we know what to do with, and you wouldn’t have to work.”
She stared at him a moment, then smiled. “Wesley, you are very sweet. You don’t want to marry me.” She turned away from him.
“Yes, I do! You’d make a perfect wife. You could run the whole plantation, and everyone likes you.”
“Stop!” she laughed. “You’re making me feel very old.” She stood on tiptoe and kissed the corner of his mouth. “I thank you for your offer, but I have no desire to leave one marriage and go directly into another one.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “And if you dare look relieved, I will never speak to you again.”
He lifted her hand and kissed it, rubbing her fingers between his. “I may cry, but I certainly won’t look relieved.”
She laughed and pulled her hand away. “I need friends more than a lover right now. If you really want to help me, maybe you could get Mr. Rogers to give me a good price on the land.”
Wesley watched her for a moment. His marriage proposal had been a spur-of-the-moment thing, but now he thought how pleasant it would be to be married to someone like Nicole. She would have surprised him if she’d accepted him, but he wished she had.
He grinned at her. “Old man Rogers is going to be so pleased to sell that land, he’s going to practically give it to you.”
“No violence,” Nicole laughed.
“Maybe a broken toe or two, but that’s all.”
“Well…if it’s just toes.”
They laughed together and went down the road toward Mr. Rogers’s house.
They did get a good price for the land. Nicole had very little cash from the clothes Gerard had sold, but Mr. Rogers allowed her to pay off the land slowly over the years. She also agreed to grind the grain from his farm for free for three years.
“He didn’t exactly give us the land,” Wes said when they left. “His grain ground free for three years!”
Nicole’s eyes sparkled. “But wait until he gets his bill for the fourth year!”
After they left Mr. Rogers’s house, they went to the printer’s office, where Nicole had handbills printed advertising her mill’s rates for grinding.
“Nicole!” Wes said as he heard her tell the printer the new rates. “How do you expect to make any money? That’s a third less than Horace charges.”
She smiled. “Competition and quantity. Would you bring your grain to me or to Horace?”
The printer laughed. “I think she’s got you there, Wes. I’m going to tell my brother-in-law about this, and you can be sure he’ll come to you.”
Wesley looked at Nicole with new respect. “I had no idea there was a brain behind that pretty face.”
She was serious. “I don’t think there has been. Or, at least, it’s been clouded with childish ideas of love and romance.”
Wesley frowned as she left the printer’s. He had the feeling she was hurt more than she’d admit. Damn Clay! he thought. He had no right to use Nicole the way he did.