The kind where you could see the calculation happening behind the eyes, which she recognized, because she did it herself. "What do you want from me?" he said. "I want you to vote the agreement the way it should be voted," she said. "On its merits. Not on Franklin Harrington's preferences.
Not on any social consideration about Nathaniel Carter's private life. On whether the agreement is good for the county and good for the ranchers it covers. And if I believe it is good for the county, then vote yes, she said. That's all. Henry Marsh looked at his daughter.
Edith was watching him with the transparent, uncomplicated hope of a young woman who had already decided and was waiting to see if her father would catch up. He looked back at Amelia. The error in the quarterly totals. He said, "You said there's a straightforward fix." "Yes, sir." "Can you write it out for Edith?" "Carly enough that she can apply it herself." "Of course," she said. "Then do that," he said.
He stood up. "And thank you for coming in." He paused at the door to the back room and looked at her once more. "Miss Whitaker, my daughter is an excellent judge of character. It's one of the things I trust most about her. He went through the door.
Edith let out a long breath. He'll vote yes, she said quietly. I think so too, Amelia said. They looked at each other. Thank you, Edith said.
For all of it. Your books are a pleasure, Amelia said. Genuinely. She walked back to Caldwells in the October light and she felt something she could not immediately name. Not triumph because it wasn't clean enough for that and not relief because relief implied the outcome had been uncertain and she had been reasonably confident by the halfway point of the post office visit.
Something more like the particular satisfaction of a thing done well of a tool used correctly of a problem solved by understanding it clearly and without illusion about what was actually happening. She was good at this. She had always been good at this. She had just never had anything worth doing it for. Nathaniel was waiting outside Caldwells when she got back.
He looked at her face and said, "Well, I think we have three," she said. He let out a breath. "You're remarkable, you know that." "I'm practical," she said. "You keep confusing the two." "They're not mutually exclusive," he said. "No," she agreed.