“The course of the river is changing. Clay’s grandfather told us when we were boys that, when he was a boy, there was no bottomland, but each year the river moved a little and left some more lowland.”
“Here,” she said, stepping back from the map in the ashes. “Show me what you mean.”
He knelt over the hearth. “I guess the river’s trying to bend itself. This curve used to be straighter, broader, but over the years it’s changed.”
She studied the map. “What you’re saying is that the river is eating away my high ground and creating this low, flat land of Clay’s.”
Wes looked at her in surprise. “I don’t think you have to worry about it. It’ll take fifty years for the river to take much of your land.”
She ignored his look. “What if we gave the river god what it wanted?”
“What are you talking about?” Wes snapped. He thought she was being selfish because she was worried about the river taking her land.
“Nicole—” Janie said. “I don’t like that tone of voice.”
Nicole took a piece of kindling. “What if my land were cut away here?” She drew a line from one curve of the river to the other. “What would happen?”
“The land is wet and steep, and it’d probably break away and fall into the river.”
“And how would that affect the water level?”
His eyes widened as he began to understand what was going on in her mind. “Nicole, you can’t do that. That would take days of digging, and the land that would fall away is covered with your wheat.”
“You didn’t answer my question. Would it lower the water level?”
“It would give the river another place to go, to expand—maybe. How can anyone know?”
“I’m asking for an opinion, not an absolute answer.”
“Yes, damn it! The river would probably love to swallow your land instead of Clay’s. What does the goddamn water care?”
“I would appreciate it if you would watch your language in front of the children,” Nicole said primly. “Now, we’ll need shovels, and picks for the roots and rocks, and—”
Wes interrupted her. “Have you looked outside? That rain is coming down so hard it could kill, and you’re talking about working in it.”
“I know of no other way to dig a trench. Perhaps you could bring the ditch indoors for us where it is nice and warm.”
“I can’t let you do this,” Wes said flatly. “Clay can make it without your sacrifice. Travis and I will lend him the money, and next year will be better.”
Nicole gave him an icy stare. “Will it? Will next year be better? Look at what we’ve done to him. We’ve all abandoned him. He’s a man who needs a family. He was happy when he had his parents, James, Beth, and the twins. Then, one by one, they all left him. For a while, I gave him my love, but then I took that away—along with the twins.” She lifted her arm and pointed toward the direction of Arundel Hall. “Once that was a happy house, full of people he loved and who loved him. What does he have now? Even his own niece and nephew live with a stranger instead of with him. We’ve got to show him that we care.”
“But Travis and I—”
“Money! You’re like a husband who gives his wife money instead of the attention and love she needs. Clay doesn’t need money; he needs to know that someone cares. He’s got to feel that he isn’t alone in the world.”
Wes stood and stared at her, as did Janie and the twins. Gerard lowered his lashes in a lazy way, but they didn’t flicker.
“Are you guessing at the way Clay feels?” Wes asked quietly. “Or are you transferring your feelings to him? Is it you who is lonely and wants to feel someone cares?”
Nicole tried to smile. “I don’t know. I don’t have time to think of it right now. Every minute we waste, the river is rising and getting closer to Clay’s tobacco.”
Wes suddenly grabbed Nicole and hugged her. “If I ever find a woman who loves me half as much as you love Clay, I’m going to hold on to her and never let her go.”
Nicole pushed awa
y from him and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “I’d like to have a few secrets, please. And, besides, I have no doubt you’ll be as ridiculous as Clay and I have been. Now!” she said sharply. “Let’s organize this. You wouldn’t happen to have some shovels, would you?”
Janie untied her apron, hung it on a peg by the door, and then grabbed Wes’s slicker.