The crowd let out a collective breath.

A few of the older farmers started clapping in the cold.

I slowly lowered my tired arm and let the white cardboard rest against my leg.

We had won.

We had secured the property against a huge firm.

I had just committed every dollar of our savings, plus a huge thirty-year bank loan, in the space of twenty minutes.

Luke pulled me into a tight hug and buried his face in my shoulder.

He was shivering in the cold, but he was holding on to something permanent.