A Bride for Noah (21 page)

“Good work, ladies.” Miles pulled out his handkerchief and mopped at his forehead. “I think we've done enough for one day.”

Evie turned a sour look his way, but chose to ignore the comment. “I have one more thing I want to do before we head back.”

Sarah groaned aloud as Evie retrieved the lunch bag. From it she pulled a folded paper and a coil of thin, stiff rope—clothesline that she had borrowed from Mary that morning.

“I want to mark the boundaries of the building,” she announced.

“Excellent idea.” Miles smiled broadly. “I shall help.”

From nearby she retrieved her ax and four straight branches she had cut earlier for this purpose. All day she'd been eyeing the exact spot she wanted, and now she marched across the grass to the first corner. Turning, she peered through the trees where sunlight shimmered off the clear waters of the bay. One day soon, she would see this same sight through the front window of her restaurant. With a satisfying sense of accomplishment, she placed the end of the first branch on the soil and, using the back of her ax, pounded it into the ground.

Louisa, Ethel, Sarah, and Lucy stood in a row nearby, watching. Evie looked at Miles. He might be untrustworthy when it came to money and supplies, and worthless when it came to work, but he
was
her business partner in the restaurant venture. And besides, without him she would be working as a housemaid back in Chattanooga, living in her rented room and waiting for James to determine when it was time to get married. She handed him the coil and smiled. “Tie it around that stake and follow me.”

She made a show of unfolding the paper and examining her sketch, though she knew the dimensions by heart. With measured steps, she counted off five paces to the rear corner, where she drove
the second stake. Then she turned to her left and counted ten paces for the third, and another five back to the fourth corner. Miles followed behind, securing the clothesline to each stake. He tied the last knot with a flourish and straightened.

A sense of triumph bloomed in her chest. With a grin she could not contain, she made a show of stepping across the line to stand in the exact center of the rectangle, accompanied by the cheers of her friends and the victory calls of the natives.

She had not nearly finished basking in the enjoyment of the moment when a man stepped between the fir branches and into the clearing. Startled, she turned to find Noah standing still, staring around the glade with a countenance of pure bemusement. Through most of the morning she had started at every noise, certain that he would show up and try to force them to stop working, but in the past hours she'd forgotten to be anxious. How perfect that he appeared now, when she finally had something worthwhile to show him.

“There you are, my boy,” Miles said. “You're just in time to join in the celebration.”

Noah spread his arms wide, his head shaking slowly back and forth. “What is this?”

Lifting her head high, Evie folded her arms across her chest with a contented grin. “This is the future site of my restaurant. We've worked all day and cleared it.” She raised her eyebrows and added, “
Without
disturbing your lumberjacks.”

“But…” Head still shaking, Noah walked slowly around the roped-off rectangle, examining the jagged stumps, the pile of brush in the far corner, and the mound of supplies with the two Indian braves standing in front of it. “Who did all the work?”

“We did.” Louisa winked in Evie's direction and adopted a mock-simpering tone. “All by our sweet little selves.”

“And we have the blisters to prove it,” added Sarah, extending her hand for his examination.

He continued the circuit and came to a halt in front of Evie, just outside the boundary line. “So this is the place you've chosen for your restaurant?”

Irritation sparked in her. Did he have nothing else to say? No words of congratulations, or even acknowledgment of their accomplishment? How like him.

She raised her nose high. “This is the place.”

“Really?” He made a show of looking around the clearing. “And have you filed a claim with the land management office in Portland?”

The words doused her irritation. She lowered her nose. “What?”

His lips formed a tight smile. “You didn't know you had to file a claim with the authorities? Have you bothered to check to see that no one else has claimed this particular plot of land?”

The blood drained from her face, leaving her cheeks cold and her head light. She cast a frantic look toward Miles, who stared at Noah with his hand covering his mouth. Eyes wide, he caught her eye and gave a slight shrug.

Her temper threatened to flare, but she held it in check. This was her fault as much as Miles's. After the fiasco with the financing, she should have known better than to rely on him to handle business details. What was she thinking to blithely assume the land she desired would be available for nothing? She looked back at Noah.

“Has—” Her voice wavered. She swallowed and tried again. “Do you know if this plot of land has been claimed?”

“Yes, it has.”

She tried to read his expression, but could not look past the mockery in those steely eyes. “Wh—who owns it?”

He folded his arms across his chest in an imitation of her arrogant posture and planted his booted feet firmly in the grass. “Actually, I do.”

Eleven

A
few days before, Noah would have enjoyed this conversation immensely. But sitting across from Evie now, her features fluid as she struggled to control her emotions, he couldn't take pleasure in her discomfiture.

He'd refused to discuss the difficult situation of the land this afternoon. Not only did he have to inspect the former cutting site and report back to Arthur, but he also saw tears spring to Evie's eyes several times. If those tears had erupted into full-blown crying, he would be lost. He might as well have signed the land over to her on the spot. No, they both needed time to gather their thoughts and their composure before a sensible discussion could take place. So he'd promised to come to the Denny home when the day's work was completed, and the ladies had left. It had been hard to watch their drooping shoulders as they disappeared down the path. They really had done an amazing job.

Now Noah and Evie faced each other in the twilight, sitting near the stream where they could have some privacy for their discussion. At first they'd had a difficult time convincing the children to stay inside and Mary had been forced to speak sternly to the girls. Even now, two little faces peered over the half-door, staring intently in their direction.

Evie sat still, her hands clasped in her lap and her gaze fixed on the stream. “I thought Miles would come with you.”

“He wanted to,” Noah told her. “But after he followed me around all afternoon, reminding me that he is my mother's only brother and attempting to lecture me on the responsibilities of family bonds, I refused to let him. I needed the quiet of the trail.”

That brought a faint smile which faded as quickly as it appeared.

The area's birds began to settle in the treetops before darkness overtook them, calling loudly to one another above their heads. Noah searched for something to say, something that would soothe the awkwardness between them. He would even welcome Evie's infuriating taunts over this gloomy silence.

“I'm sorry I disturbed your land.” Her head ducked and she stared at her hands. “It was foolish of me not to realize I needed to inquire about ownership before we began the work.”

Noah could have agreed, but he didn't have the heart to beat her down further. Instead, he shrugged. “Everyone makes mistakes. And at least now I have a head start on clearing that plot.”

Her lips twisted, and she gave a silent nod.

“I'm curious about something. Why did you choose that place? Why not the landing area?”

She shook her head. “I don't want to be on the beach. I want a higher vantage point.”

“But it seems to me that being near the dock, and hopefully soon the mill, would be an advantageous place for a restaurant. As this settlement grows, that will be the port of entry. When a ship docks, your restaurant would be one of the first buildings they see. You'd have sailors and visitors alike clamoring to eat there.”

“I thought of that, but those aren't the customers I hope to have.”

Noah furrowed his brow. “Seems to me that any customers are good. You don't agree?”

“I do, but sailors will eat there once or twice every few months,
whenever they are in port. Visitors probably even less often.” Finally, she met his gaze with a quick sideways flicker of her eyes. “What I want are regular customers. The men and women who will live here, and who will come back often. Eventually a town will grow here, and families will come to do their shopping and their banking and other business. And while they're in town, my restaurant will only be a few steps away.”

Her logic began to make sense. “But why wouldn't the town be centered around the dock and the mill?”

“You know what sailors are. They get off the ship with their minds set on guzzling as much whiskey as they can hold, and finding”—she looked demurely away—“companionship.”

Noah had to concede her point. He'd been on enough ships and known enough sailors to verify that.

She looked at him, a curious expression on her face. “Did you look at the area around the port in San Francisco?”

“Yes, of course. I've been there many…oh.” His mind took him for a quick stroll down the port-side streets of San Francisco. The area was littered with dingy hotels, saloons, and houses of ill repute. The same was true of Portland. It was true, in fact, of every port town he'd ever visited. A new respect for Evie dawned. She'd spent time thinking of this, evaluating her future and planning for it.

Now she smiled. “You see? I have no doubt that this new town will be wholesome and upstanding, thanks to the Dennys' influence, but if growth is to come, so will those businesses. And I think they'll spring up around the docks.”

“But why my land? What made you select that clearing?”

“It's close enough to the bay that supplies can be easily transported, and that's what most businesses will need. The trail is already well-defined and looked to me like it could become a main thoroughfare. The land all around that clearing slopes, but there's a long flat ridge right there that I thought would be the perfect place for a
town to start. And besides.” She lowered her eyes again and seemed almost embarrassed. “I loved it from the moment I saw it. When I stepped into it, I felt…”

Though she didn't finish the sentence, Noah knew what she was going to say. “It felt right.”

The muscles in her throat moved as she swallowed, and she nodded without looking up.

He spoke in the softest whisper. “Me too. That's why I staked my claim there.”

They shared a smile, and some of the strain seeped away. The air around them became lighter, easier to breathe, and somehow warmer even though the sun had disappeared from view and night's chill had begun to creep over the forest.

Evie broke the companionable feeling by straightening her spine and standing. “I suppose I'll have to start looking for a new place to build my restaurant.” Her smile held a spark of her usual spunk. “Surely not all the land around here has been claimed.”

“Now, wait a minute. We're not through here.” Noah gestured toward the ground. Hesitantly, she lowered herself, but sat stiffly instead of settling back.

He could hardly believe what he was about to say. “What if we worked out some sort of business arrangement?”

Delicate eyebrows rose high on her forehead. “Like a lease for the land?”

“That's an option,” he agreed.

She shook her head. “I don't have any money.”

“Not yet. But once you're able to open, you will.”

Her lips twisted into a sideways grimace. “And if you'll remember, I have a loan to repay, thanks to your uncle.”

That was true. But the fact was Noah had paid nothing for the land beyond registering the claim. That had taken the last of his inheritance, what had been left him after the disastrous arrangement with Sallie.

Sallie. The thought sobered him. He'd forgotten for a moment that the last time he entered into a financial arrangement with a woman, it had cost him nearly every cent he owned. Even worse, the encounter left scars that no one could see, but which haunted his dreams.

On the other hand, this venture wouldn't cost him anything. If Evie was right in her analysis of the town's future—and he felt a growing confidence in her predictions—he stood to gain a lot when her restaurant became profitable.

Plus, she would be indebted to him in the meantime. He'd have the right to insist that she abide by the rules he had already outlined. No contact with the logging crew until their contract was fulfilled.

He became aware that she watched him as though attempting to read his thoughts. Straightening, he cleared his expression. “What if I agreed to defer lease payments until after your loan is repaid?”