She looked down. He was standing in the street hat in hand looking up at her with a particular expression she'd come to recognize as his version of concerned which was different from other men's version of concerned because it had no performance in it. I was just leaving, she said. Mrs. Caldwell told me to go.
He paused. She also told me Victoria came by. She did. I'm sorry for that. Amelia looked at him.
You didn't send her. No, but I should have anticipated it. He turned his hat in his hands once. Can I talk to you for a moment? I have rooms to turn down.
5 Minutes. She looked at him for a long moment. Then she stepped back from the window. A minute later, she came out the front door and sat down on the steps the way she boys did, and he sat beside her, and they were, as always, in full view of anyone who cared to look. "She came to tell you to end it," he said.
"Not a question." "She came to tell Mrs. Caldwell to end it," Amelia said. "Which amounts to the same thing? And is that what you want?" She looked at the street, a wagon passed. The driver glanced at them with undisguised curiosity.
That's not a fair question. It's the only question that matters. Nathaniel, she turned to face him. I want you to think carefully about what you're doing. Not for my sake, for yours.
You have a ranch that depends on the goodwill of every landowner and business in this county. You have a father who has opinions. You have relationships that have taken decades to build. And you are, she stopped, gathered herself. You are spending them on someone who cannot give you back a single thing that any of those people would consider valuable.
He looked at her steadily. That's not how I keep accounts. The rest of the world does. I'm not the rest of the world. You live in it.