“Jemima hasn’t said anything about your property,” Ethan said. “Do you think she wants it?”

“She’ll take anything she can get. It’s her nature.”

“Yes,” he said. “I suppose that’s as true a thing as has ever been said of Jemima.”

“Can she do it?” Callie’s voice sank to a whisper. “Could she take the orchard?”

“Yes,” Ethan said. “I think she could. We could fight her in the courts—we will do that—but she has some grounds.”

The tears had started to flow again. Callie pressed her weathered, work-scarred hands to her eyes and made a sound deep in her throat.

“Callie,” he said. “There are ways to put you out of her reach. Ways to turn the law so that it stands between the two of you, to your advantage.”

“As Martha is doing,” she said. “By marrying Daniel.”

He said nothing, and watched the ideas work. She was putting herself in Martha’s place and wondering if she could be comfortable there.

Finally she said, “You’d be willing to do that. To marry me to keep me safe from Jemima.”

“Yes,” Ethan said quietly. “I am willing.”

She walked to the window and back again. Ethan was surprised to note how calm he was, almost to the point of numbness. What happened in the next few minutes could solve multiple problems, or it could be disastrous.

Callie said, “I don’t love you as a woman loves a man. I couldn’t—I couldn’t—” She broke off.

“That’s just as well,” Ethan said. “Because I couldn’t either.”

He might have laughed, if the situation were not so dire. Her expression was so comically torn between confusion and hope. She sat down across from him.

“I don’t understand.”

“I think you do,” Ethan said. “But for the sake of clarity, here is what I’m proposing. A partnership. A legal marriage, but one that is platonic.”

“You don’t want to share a bed?”

He shook his head. “No.”

She scowled at him openly. “You will change your mind, and what then? I do not want children, and I don’t want the business that goes into making children either.”

“I promise you,” Ethan said calmly. “I will not change my mind. And I am content to remain childless.”

Her brow furrowed. “Are you—incapable?”

It was only a word, one that would give her the assurance she needed. “Yes,” he said finally. “I am incapable of being a husband to you in that one way. But I will be your friend and supporter. You’ll have my protection and my resources and my family to claim as your own. Jemima will not be able to touch you.”

“But she might still challenge me in court,” Callie said. “She might still claim that she has a legal right to my father’s property.”

“She will try,” Ethan said. “But it is me she’ll be challenging as your legal husband. I know many excellent lawyers, Callie. If they can’t stop her outright, they will tie the matter up in the courts for the rest of her life. Or if you prefer to have this settled more quickly, I’ll pay her to drop her case and leave us in peace.”

“That would be expensive.”

“My stepfather left me a great deal of money, and I’ve invested it well.”

She was studying her folded hands. Without raising her head she said, “Why would you do this for me?”

“Because I love you as a friend and I like you very much,” Ethan said. “And because I’m lonely.”

That seemed to reach her as nothing else had. Her expression softened, and Ethan knew it was more than time to leave her to sort things out for herself.

He stood. “You need time to think. We can talk again in the morning.”

“And you might change your mind,” Callie said, looking at him directly. A challenge.

“I’m not going to change my mind,” Ethan said. “If you decide you want to accept this offer, we can be married tomorrow before we set out for Paradise.”

He was closing the door behind himself when she stood suddenly. Ethan raised an eyebrow.

She said, “Where would we live?”

“Wherever you like,” he said. “We could build a house in the orchards or stay where I am now. We could live in Manhattan for part of the year, if you like. Or Boston, or London. The look on your face, Callie. I can’t tell if you’re horrified or delighted.”

“I never thought I’d ever see any of those places,” she said. “I never let myself wonder.”

Ethan bowed from the shoulders. “I will be yours to command.”

And there it was, finally. Callie laughing. In surprise, and disbelief, and the first glimmerings of hope.

Chapter XXXVI

When a servant had taken the horses away to the stable, Daniel and Martha followed Mrs. Allen into the kitchen, the warmest room in the house. It smelled of new bread and a stew rich with gravy and vegetables. Martha’s stomach growled so loudly that Mrs. Allen laughed.

“Food first, by the sound of it. If you’d get down two more bowls—”

Martha was glad to have something to do. She set the table and poured water into the teapot while Daniel hauled water and wood and saw to the fire. The hardest part, as far as Martha was concerned, was trying to look disappointed when Mrs. Allen told them that her son Michael and his whole family had gone to a wedding in Little Falls and wouldn’t be back until late the next day.