“Will you look, Henrietta, you’ve missed a spot right in the middle of the table and you know how she likes the whole thing to shine. Now what was I saying? Oh, yes, that nice Mr. Middleton, a good-looking man and educated and good-hearted and generous to a fault, and money to burn. And her. It don’t make any sense at all, not unless—”

Ethan reached for the door to shut it, but Callie caught his arm and forced it away.

“I’m just saying I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s got something growing under her apron. Why else would a man like that marry such a awkward ugly little thing with nothing to her name but some tore-up old apple trees?”

The walk back to the hotel took no more than ten minutes, and every one of them was utterly silent. Ethan considered things he might say and then rejected each one. When he ventured a glance there was nothing to read from her expression. No trace of anger or hurt. Just the same expression Callie wore every day of her life. Focused on some goal just out of sight.

When they were within sight of the inn, she stopped. Without looking at him she said, “What is in this for you?”

Swallows reeled overhead against a darkening sky. On his face the breeze was warm and damp, and he realized how very tired he was.

Callie was waiting for his answer. He wondered if there was any way for him to say the right things, and decided there was not. He would have to settle for the truth.

Ethan said, “I’m tired of being alone.”

She snorted a short laugh. “You’ve got the whole Bonner clan, all those cousins.”

“I do,” he agreed. “I am welcome at my aunt’s table whenever I care to show my face, and the same is true of all my cousins. They are glad to see me, and they like my company as much as I like theirs.”

“But?”

“I’m a cousin, but I go home eventually to an empty house and I don’t like it. You’re alone in the world too, and we have always got on just fine. I thought we could help each other. Are you regretting this already?”

“You’re the one who should be having doubts. You heard what that serving girl said. That’s what everyone will be thinking, that I trapped you, and forced you into marriage. Nobody will understand why you’d take me otherwise.”

He said, “Nobody whose opinion I value will think that.”

“I think it.” She turned to face him.

“I find that sad.”

She flushed. “You made some promises.”

“And I will keep them.”

“Separate beds.”

“Yes. No marital relations, no children.”

“How is that possible?”

Ethan looked at her directly. They had come to the sticking point. He said, “I am incapable of that act that produces children.”

“Physically incapable. You have tried?”

“And failed. I am reconciled to my situation.”

“Ah.” She drew back a little. He wondered if she would ask more pressing questions. Not now, he thought, but someday. Someday her curiosity would get the better of her. And maybe by then it wouldn’t matter.

He said, “So you see, we are well suited. It will be just the two of us, but we have friendship and mutual understanding and common interests. Those things can be enough. I believe that.”

She let out a small laugh, one that sounded almost pleased. She said, “That’s more than most people get.”

“Exactly,” Ethan said. “That is exactly what I was trying to say.”

“People mustn’t know,” she said. “No one needs to know, do they?”

“It’s no one’s business but ours.”

“And if Jemima—if anybody should ask—”

“Ah, well. That’s a question. If you’re willing to go along with it, I will tell anyone who needs to know that this is a proper marriage.”

“That it’s been consummated.”

“Yes. If you’re agreed.”

She looked as though he had handed her a treasure beyond counting. A gift more valuable than any of the things he had paid for with coin, something she had never thought to have. Callie took his arm and they walked on. “Yes,” she said. “We are agreed.”

Chapter XXXVIII

“If I didn’t know better, I would swear you arranged all this,” Martha said.

They were at the kitchen table with the remains of their midday meal spread out before them. Daniel sat across from her with his head resting on his right hand.

She said, “Why do you stare at me?”

That only made him grin, which made her want to pinch him.

The storm was directly overhead now, and a strike of lightning made the window glass shake. Another long, stuttering bluish flash came almost immediately, and then the double boom.

He said, “Why shouldn’t I look at you? You are very nice to look at. And oh, yes, you also happen to be my wife.”

Odd how two words could cause her color to rise.

Daniel got up and leaned over the table to whisper in her ear. “Do you know what we’re going to do now, all alone in the kitchen?”

Her throat was too dry to produce even a squeak.

He said, “We’re going to drag the tub out here and heat water so you can have a bath.”

Her fist came up of its own accord and he caught it neatly before it could connect with his ear. Then laughing, he pulled her up against him and kissed her soundly.

“Bath first,” he said. “And then you can do with me as you like.”