drew in another breath. She wasn’t sure why he stayed. Was he too marveling that his life had changed?
“Do you feel different?” she asked.
He frowned as if considering the idea. “No,” he said with a shake of his head that sent the breeze fingering through his light brown hair. “You?”
She wiggled a little, trying to sense any change in her bones, her muscles. “No. But I never thought to marry. Well, there was a young man from church who showed interest, a Mr. Winnower. He used to talk to me after services, and once he even walked me home. My brother, Charles, took him aside to discuss his intentions. He only ever looked at me from across the room after that. If I approached him, he’d dash out the door. I always wondered whether Charles might have told him I had some dread disease that would infect him.”
“I’m going to enjoy talking with your brother,” Simon said with such a dark tone that Nora could only smile.
“And perhaps my sister-in-law?” she suggested. “Meredith always claimed I was destined to die an old maid. If she could have picked a husband for me, I’m certain it would have been some elderly widower who needed comfort in his final hours and wasn’t overly particular in his bride. I’m having the most delightful time imagining the look on her face when I walk in on your arm.” She couldn’t help the giggle that bubbled up.
“Her as well,” Simon agreed.
Nora smiled. “Oh, and perhaps a few of the ladies in town? There has been a distressing rumor that I’m destined to be the last Mercer Belle to wed.”
He shifted away from her. “I’ll win your freedom from your family, Nora, as I promised. But don’t expect to parade me all over Seattle like one of your fancy gowns. I have work to do, and the sooner I get to it, the better.”
She almost acquiesced. It was on the tip of her tongue to say, “Yes, of course.” To bow her head contritely for impinging on his precious time. To crawl back into her corner and lick her wounds.
Not again. Not with him. Not ever.
She raised her head and met his gaze. “I understand you have work ahead of you, Mr. Wallin. But know one thing—I may owe my brother a debt for taking me in after my parents died, but you and I have a bargain. You are getting one hundred and sixty acres from our marriage. I am getting a husband who helps and supports me. If you cannot abide by that agreement, then I will take the first ship back to Seattle, and you can argue with the registrar over whether you have earned those acres.”
Who was this woman he’d married?
Nora had quaked at stern words from Mr. Bagley. She claimed she could not stand up against her brother. Now her face was set, her fists planted on her ample hips. He felt as if a tabby had turned into a mountain lion right before his eyes.
But he’d never run from a mountain lion, and he didn’t intend to now.
“I’ll honor our bargain,” he told her. “You’ll be free to live as you like. All I ask is the right to do the same.”
She relaxed with a brisk nod. “Very well. You can go and wait in the captain’s quarters. I’ll be fine. I’m used to being alone.” She turned her gaze once more to the water.
He could not find his equilibrium with her. Feeling as if he’d been dismissed, he went to join John and Levi farther down the rail.
“I like her,” Levi said. “She seems nice.”
Simon was no longer so sure. Where had that surge of confidence come from? Had she overstated her fears about her brother? Did something more lay behind her proposal to wed?
He kept his distance the rest of the trip.
They arrived in Olympia late in the afternoon. Unlike Seattle, the territorial capital afforded several docks, and more than one ship crowded the harbor at the base of Budd Inlet, the terminus of Puget Sound. The entire town was built on a spit of land, with water on three sides and mountains on two. Simon much preferred the more solid footing of Wallin Landing, with the hill at his back and the lake in front.
But as he walked down the pier toward the town proper, Nora’s case in his hand, he couldn’t help noticing that they were causing a stir. Sailors glanced at Nora as she passed; longshoremen paused in their work to watch. Even here, where the territorial legislature met, women were rare. Though Nora seemed unaware of the interest, Simon put his other hand to her back and stayed close. She favored him with a frown but did not resist him.
“Busy place,” John commented behind them as they made their way south along the boardwalk past all manner of businesses.
“I like it here,” Levi declared, glancing at a hall where banners proclaimed the upcoming performance of a dance troupe. “A fellow could find a lot more to do than farm and log.”
“There’s the land office,” Simon said, nodding to a whitewashed building ahead. He strode to it, shifted Nora’s case under one arm and held the door open for her, then followed her inside with his brothers in his wake.
The long, narrow office was bisected by a counter. Chairs against the white-paneled walls told of lengthy waits, but today the only person in the room was a slender man behind the counter. He was shrugging into a coat as if getting ready to close up for the day.
Handing Nora’s case to John, Simon hurried forward. “I need to file a claim.”
The fellow paused, eyed him and then glanced at Nora, who came to stand beside Simon. The clerk smoothed down his lank brown hair and stepped up to the counter. “Do you have the necessary application and fee?”
Simon drew out the ten-dollar fee, then pulled the papers from his coat and laid them on the counter. The clerk took his time reading them, glancing now and then at Nora, who bowed her head as if looking at the shoes peeping out from under her scalloped hem.
“And this is your wife?” he asked at last.
Simon nodded. “I brought witnesses to the fact, as required.”
John and Levi stepped closer. The clerk’s gaze returned to Nora. “Are you Mrs. Wallin?”
She glanced at Simon as if wondering the same thing, and for a moment he thought they were all doomed. Had she decided he wasn’t the man she’d thought him? Had he married for nothing?
Nora turned and held out her hand to the clerk. “Yes, I’m Mrs. Simon Wallin. No need to wish me happy, for I find I have happiness to spare.”
The clerk’s smile appeared, brightening his lean face. “Mr. Wallin is one fortunate fellow.” He turned to pull a heavy, leather-bound book from his desk, thumped it down on the counter and opened it to a page to begin recording the claim.
Simon knew he ought to feel blessed indeed as he accepted the receipt from the clerk. He had just earned his family the farmland they so badly needed. The acreage would serve the Wallins for years to come and support the town that had been his father’s dream. Yet something nagged at him, warned him that he had miscalculated.
He
