The Endless Forest
Page 172

Ethan cleared his throat, and all faces turned toward him.
“It’s pretty clear to me that Jemima has been planning something for a good long while. The first step was making sure Martha didn’t marry in Manhattan. A husband’s claim nullifies a mother’s, and she would have been cut off right then.”
“Seems like Daniel and Martha handled that on their own. She is married now, after all,” Nathaniel said.
“And so am I,” Callie said. “But I think I understand now what is supposed to happen. If my father has a legitimate male heir in Nicholas, then the orchard and everything in it belongs to Nicholas and not to me. In that case it doesn’t matter if I’m married or not. But there is a solution. I’ll sell the orchard to Levi.”
Levi himself drew in a sharp breath, but Callie went right on. “We can draw up a sales contract right now. Everything goes to Levi for—how much would he have to pay for the courts to uphold the sale?”
“I don’t know that they would uphold it,” Ethan said. “Most likely they wouldn’t. But I am sure that any legal challenge they mount would take many years to come to trial.”
Nathaniel said, “Levi, could you pay a hundred dollars?”
Levi shook his head. “I got thirty, saved up over the last years. But Lorena has got some put aside too. Don’t you?”
In the silence that followed Callie said, “Does this mean you’re getting married?”
“We were hoping to,” Levi said.
“Well, then,” Callie said. A pulse was beating in her throat. “If you get married tomorrow and we settle the sales contract right after—” She broke off.
“What?” Ethan said. “Finish your thought.”
“Then I’d be free of it all, the cider press and the new house and the Bleeding Heart. And Jemima, once and for all.”
Lorena said, “What about Nicholas?”
Callie pushed away from the table so suddenly that her chair almost toppled. She looked at each of them in turn.
“Nicholas isn’t going anywhere,” she said. “I’ll see to it.”
Martha said, “I have never had so much fun playing a game. My ribs are aching from laughing so much.”
She yawned widely and put her head back against the wall of the new stable, watching Daniel as he went about the evening chores. Hopper was tugging at her skirts, and she tugged back companionably.
Daniel ran a hand over Little Jo’s back and the mare nudged him affectionately. Beside her Abel rocked his head and knickered.
“Two days and the horses are already under your spell,” Martha said. “Maybe horses talk to each other about men, the way men talk about horses. Maybe they heard from Florida that you speak horse and are generous with oats.”
Daniel grinned at her. “And what do they say about you, do you think?”
“That’s easy. They know I’m just another woman who sits a saddle well enough but is too dense to understand them when they talk to me.”
Daniel was still laughing to himself when they left the stable, walking toward the house. Tonight the stars were bright enough to throw a shadow, so that they didn’t even need a lantern. Hopper leaped ahead of them, and Martha yawned again.
Daniel opened the door for her and she went into the darkened house. Then he spoke a firm word and the pup slunk over to his blanket and settled down with a put-upon sigh.
Daniel said, “Does all this yawning mean that you’re so tired you want to go directly to sleep?”
She bit back a smile. “What else did you have in mind?”
“Chapter twelve of the French Lady,” Daniel said, his hand sliding down her back to cup the curve of her hip. “If you can stop yawning long enough to listen.”
A half hour later Martha interrupted Daniel and said, “I hate that she calls it that, the little death.”
Daniel slipped a marker between the pages and put the book aside. Then he took her wrist and pulled her up closer for a brief kiss.
“Wait,” Martha said. “It doesn’t bother you to compare that—that event—to death?”
He smoothed the hair away from her face. “You have heard how dramatic the French can be on this subject, but yes, I suppose it is a strange way to describe it. Do you have a better suggestion?”
Martha fell back against the pillows. “I have no idea. I don’t think it’s possible to name something like that. Could you describe what it feels like to sneeze?”
“What an odd conversation,” Daniel said.
“Don’t you see? Everyone knows what it’s like to sneeze, so there’s no need to worry about explaining it.”
“You don’t like climax? The word, I mean?”
She made a face at him. “It’s a very cold word.”
Martha started to roll away from him, but Daniel pinned her down. “Are we done talking?”
“Not yet,” she said, and he kissed her through a broad grin. “I think I know what the problem is,” Daniel said. “It’s impossible to think clearly wearing clothes. Let’s take care of that first.”
Martha said, “I believe you could make a fortune wagering at cards. You are ruthless when you want something.” She took a deep breath and then another while her nerves kicked and her heart settled into a normal rhythm.
Daniel had collapsed beside her. He said, “Is that a complaint?”
“Lord, no,” Martha said, smiling in the dark.