He had expected punishment.
Clara understood because part of her had considered it.
She could have charged him double.
She could have refused.
She could have repeated every cruel sentence he had spoken in May and July.
Instead she asked him to come the next morning so she could show him how to plant them.
Blackwell looked toward the grove.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why help me?”
Clara thought about it.
Not because she had forgiven everything.
She had not.
Not because Evelyn would have wanted kindness at any cost.
Evelyn had been capable of holding grudges with remarkable endurance.
Clara looked toward the dry creek country beyond Blackwell’s property.
“Because your creek runs into everybody else’s water eventually.”
Blackwell stared at her.
Then gave a single nod.
“Tomorrow morning.”
“Seven.”
“I’ll be here.”
He was.
That mattered too.
The farmers’ requests eventually exceeded what Clara’s grove could safely provide.
Vance suggested establishing a nursery row on two acres of higher ground where cuttings could be rooted deliberately for future distribution.
Clara hesitated.
“That sounds like a crop.”
“It is.”
“You told me willow wasn’t a crop.”
“I said no such thing.”
“Blackwell did.”
“Then enjoy telling him he was wrong.”
Clara considered market possibilities.
Streambank stabilization.
Windbreak material.
Basketry stock.
Nursery cuttings.
Fuel wood eventually.
She had no idea which would become reliable income, but for the first time the willows represented economic value beyond land improvement.
Henderson at First Mercantile noticed immediately.
He came with a ledger and proposed a small operating line secured against future nursery sales.
Clara nearly laughed him off the porch.
“You wanted me to sell six months ago.”
“Six months ago you had no income plan.”
“I had trees.”
“You had sticks.”
She raised an eyebrow.
Henderson corrected himself.
“You had unproven cuttings.”
“And now?”
“Now you have orders.”
“Requests.”
“Potential orders.”
“Banks do like that word potential lately.”
“Banks like evidence that potential may become payment.”
Clara did not take the loan.