 |
She didn't actually own it, she leased the land...
Posted on Saturday, May 1, 2010 at 10:18 PM
She didn't actually own it, she leased the land and
building to the man who did, for thirty dollars a monthPeople would
likely be drinking more than ever ? when times got hard, maybe she
should raise the rentBut a few more dollars a month wouldn't be
enough to bail out AshleyShe needed real moneyThe gold in her
safe boxShe had real money, more than twenty-five thousand
dollars
of real moneyShe was a wealthy woman in her own right by most
people's reckoningShe still didn't feel safeI
could buy the business back from Ashley, she thought, and for a
moment
her mind hummed with excitement, with possibilities
That wouldn't solve anything
Ashley was such a fool he'd insist on taking only what he could get on
the open market, and that rolex 18k watches was hardly anythingThen, when she
made a
success of the business he'd feel like more of a failure than ever
No, no matter how much she would love to get her hands on that
lumberyard and the sawmills, she had to make Ashley successful at it
I just don't believe that there's no market for lumberPanic or no
Panic, people have got to be building something, if it's only a shed
for a cow or a horseScarlett riffled through the stack of books and
papers
There it was, the plot of the farmland Charles Hamilton left her
The farms produced almost no income at allWhat good did a couple
of
baskets of corn and a single bale of seedy cotton do her?
Sharecropping was a waste of good land unless you had about a
thousand
acres and a dozen good wholesale chanel bags farmersBut her hundred acres were right on
the edge of Atlanta now, the way things were growingIf she could
find a good builder-and they must all be feeling mighty hungry for
work-she could put up a hundred gim-crack houses, maybe two
hundred
Everybody who was losing money was going to have to draw in their
horns
and live closer to the boneTheir big houses would be the first thing
to go, and they'd have to find someplace they could afford to liveI
won't make any money, but at least I won't be losing muchAnd I'll
see to it that the builder uses only lumber from Ashley, and the best
he's got, tooHe'll be making money-not a fortune, but good steady
income-and he'll never know it came from meI can manage that
somehowAll I need is a hermes replica builder who can keep his mouth shutAnd
not
steal too muchThe following day Scarlett drove out to give the
sharecropping farmers notice to vacateButler, I'm hungry for
work all right," said Joe ColletonThe builder was a short, lean man
in hisforties; he looked much older because his big hair was snow
white, and his face was leathered by long exposure to the sun and the
weatherHe was frowning, and the deep creases in his brow
shadowed
his dark eyes"I need work, but not bad enough to work for you
Scarlett almost turned on her heel to leave; she didn't have to swallow
insults from some jumped-up poor whiteBut she needed Colleton
He
was the only honest-to-the-bone builder in Atlanta; she'd learned that
when she was selling lumber to bag gucci them all in the ? boom years of
rebuilding after the WarShe felt like stamping her footIt was all
Melly's faultIf it hadn't been for that silly condition that Ashley
mustn't know she was helping him, she could have used any builder at
all because she would watch him like a hawk and oversee every part of
the work herselfHow she'd love to do it, tooBut she couldn't be
seen to be involvedAnd she couldn't trust anyone except Colleton
He had to agree to take the job, she had to make him agreeShe put
her small hand on his armIt looked very delicate in its tight kid
gloveColleton, it'll break my heart if you say no to meI
need somebody very special to help me She looked at him with
appealing helplessness in her eyesToo bad he wasn't cheap gucci handbags tal
« Last Page :: Next Page »
|
|