And this land, he nodded at the 60 acres. Requires what I expect you do not have, which is capital, he said. And endurance. Eleanor looked at him for a long moment. Let me tell you something, she said, and her voice was absolutely even, the way still water is even before a stone hits it.
When I arrived here 6 weeks ago, there was no kitchen garden. There was no repaired barn. The chicken coupe was a pile of boards. The porch would have taken your weight through to the ground. The southfield hadn't been turned in a decade.
She gestured, not with the sweeping grandeur of someone performing for an audience, but the practical gesture of a woman pointing at work she's done. I have done all of that in 6 weeks alone with the capital I had and the endurance I've built my entire life. She looked at him directly. I will not be selling Mr. Harrington, but I thank you for riding out.
One of the men behind him coughed into his fist. Harrington looked at her for another moment. He was not a man who was often turned down. She could see that. He was working out whether to press the point.
He decided not to. He touched his hat finally and turned his horse. "Offer stands," he said as he rode. "So does my answer," Eleanor said to his back. She stood on the porch until the three of them had gone back down the road.
Then she went inside and sat down at her kitchen table and put her face in her hands for approximately 30 seconds, not crying, just feeling the shape of the last 10 minutes. And then she stood up and went back to work. That evening, Benjamin Carter arrived with a load of lumber in his wagon. For the barn brace, he said before she could ask. Elellanar looked at the lumber, then at him.
I didn't ask for this, she said. No, he agreed. I can't accept a gift like this. It's not a gift, he said. I've been meaning to clear out some of that stack from my own supply for a while.
It's getting in the way. You'd be doing me a favor taking it. It was, she recognized, a very carefully constructed offer. It preserved every relevant dignity. She could accept it without obligation, and he could give it without anything being made of it.
She looked at the lumber for another moment. "All right," she said. "Thank you. Harrington came by." He said, "It was not a question." "He did." And and I said, "No." Benjamin looked at her in that straight-on way he had. He'll come back, he said.
I know, she said. He's welcome to keep asking. Something that was almost a smile moved across Benjamin Carter's face. He was not, she had noticed, a man given to smiling easily, which meant that when it happened, it registered. You need a hand unloading this?