They spent most of the day rejecting plots. One sat too far from the road. One backed right up against a noble's hunting grounds, guaranteed trouble sooner or later. One dipped low enough that Nicole was fairly sure it flooded every spring. One had soil so loose the driver himself said he wouldn't trust a foundation on it.
By mid-afternoon, sun already sliding west, Gareth called for the carriage to stop.
He climbed out, waded through weeds up to his knee, and stopped in a wide clearing, turning slowly to take it all in.
"This one."
Nicole and Luna joined him. The ground here was untouched, flat enough to build on without a fight, high grass rolling in the wind like something alive. From the rise, the main road was visible in the distance, carriages moving along it like slow beetles, close enough that the ride into the city wouldn't eat half a day.
Off to one side, a stretch of mixed forest, unremarkable, no beasts worth worrying about, decent timber if they ever needed it. Ahead, maybe half a kilometer out, a stream cut through the tree line, catching the afternoon light.
"Close to the road, flat, no nobles breathing down our necks, and it's pretty." Nicole ticked the points off on her fingers. "I think that's everything you wanted."
"It is." Gareth crouched, took a handful of soil, worked it between his fingers. Decent quality, not the richest he'd seen, but more than enough for a garden and some livestock. Better than anything else they'd looked at all day.
He stood and looked at Luna. She hadn't stopped scanning the tree line and the stream since they'd arrived, something in her posture more settled than he'd seen from her in a city street.
"I like it here," she said, taking his hand without looking away from the horizon. "What do you think?"
"If you both like it, that settles it."
Finding the land turned out to be the easy part.
The owner ran a shop in the city, a merchant in fine silk with rings on both hands, the sort of smile that had clearly closed a lot of deals at other people's expense.
"Plot Five," he said, once Gareth described the location. "That's a good piece of ground. I've had offers on it before, never could bring myself to let it go. But for the right buyer."
"Name a number."
"Seventy gold an acre."
Gareth kept his face still, though the figure landed harder than he let on. Nicole's research had put the going rate for that stretch of land closer to forty. Some premium made sense for good ground. Seventy was closer to robbery.
"Too high," Gareth said. "Land closer to the city runs cheaper than that."
"Closer to the city runs a hundred and fifty, easily," the merchant said, unbothered. "You saw the plot yourself. Flat ground like that alone saves you gold in labor before you've laid a single stone."
He wasn't wrong. Gareth had already walked the whole plot in his head, and there wasn't a better one waiting somewhere else for less money.
"Fifty. Four acres."
"Sixty-eight."
"Fifty-five."
"Sixty-six."
"Fifty-eight."
"Sixty-five." The merchant spread his hands, done haggling. "That's my floor, and it's a fair one. Look elsewhere if you want, I think you'll be back."
Gareth ran the math fast. Four acres at sixty-five came to two hundred sixty gold, and the transfer tax would add another chunk on top of that. Between the two, it would swallow nearly everything they had, leaving next to nothing for the actual work of building anything on the land they'd just bought.
But land like this didn't sit unclaimed for long. Wait for a better deal, and there might not be a second plot this good within reach.
"Sixty-five stands," Gareth said. "You cover the transfer tax."
The merchant's smile flickered for half a second before recovering. "Fine. For young people starting out, I'll eat the tax. Full price on the land, though."
"Deal."
They shook on it, the merchant's grip soft everywhere except where the money had worn calluses into his palm over the years.
Gareth counted out the gold, coin by coin, until the pouch was nearly empty. The merchant produced the transfer papers on the spot, signatures and thumbprints exchanged, with a trip to the Count's office set for the next morning to finalize it.
Outside the shop, Nicole exhaled like she'd been holding her breath the whole negotiation. "Two hundred sixty gold. Just like that."
"That's the cheap part," Gareth said, managing a tired smile. "Building on it costs more. And there's land tax every year after that."
"Worth it, though." Luna's hand found his again, fingers lacing through without hesitation.
"Every coin of it," he agreed, and squeezed her hand a little tighter.