She smiled.
“Yes.”
His hand touched her cheek.
Slowly.
His thumb rested near her ear.
Then he kissed her.
Soft.
So soft that for the first second Ruth almost wondered whether she had imagined it.
Then she leaned toward him.
Jonah responded.
The kiss deepened slightly.
His other hand moved toward her waist.
Stopped.
Ruth noticed.
She took his wrist.
Placed his hand there herself.
Jonah’s breath caught.
That pleased her.
They kissed again.
Longer.
When Ruth finally pulled away, Jonah did not follow.
He rested his forehead lightly against hers.
“Still practical?”
She whispered.
“No.”
“Good.”
Then someone knocked violently on the front door.
They separated.
Jonah stood immediately.
Another knock.
Three hard blows.
Near midnight.
Jonah grabbed his shirt.
Ruth rose.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
He pulled on the shirt while crossing the room.
Ruth followed.
Jonah opened the door only a few inches.
A man collapsed against it.
Jonah caught him.
Ruth gasped.
Blood covered the man’s coat.
Not fresh from a gunshot.
Older.
His face was bruised.
His beard overgrown.
Jonah dragged him inside.
The stranger looked toward Ruth.
His eyes widened.
“Ruth.”
Her body froze.
She knew that voice.
Impossible.
The man tried to stand.
Failed.
“Ruth…”
She covered her mouth.
Jonah looked between them.
“Who is he?”
The stranger lifted his face.
Thinner.
Older.
But unmistakable.
Edwin Pierce.
The man who had abandoned her.
The man whose disappearance destroyed her name.
The man everyone said had fled because Ruth had tried to trap him.
He was standing—barely—inside her husband’s house.
Alive.
Ruth could not breathe.
Edwin reached for her.
Jonah moved subtly between them.
Not aggressively.
Instinctively.
Edwin saw it.
His expression broke.
“Good.”
Ruth stared.
“What?”
Edwin collapsed into a chair.
“Good.”
He looked at Jonah.
“You married her.”
Jonah’s face hardened.
“Yes.”
Edwin laughed weakly.
“Then Father failed.”
They spent an hour cleaning Edwin’s injuries.
Nothing was life-threatening.
Bruises.
A cut along his scalp.
Rope marks around one wrist.
Exhaustion.
Hunger.
Ruth’s hands shook so badly she spilled water twice.
Jonah said nothing about it.
He simply refilled the basin.
Edwin ate half a bowl of stew before speaking.
“My father knows I came back.”
Jonah leaned against the table.
“Why come here?”
Edwin looked at Ruth.
“Because this is the one place he told me never to approach.”
Jonah’s eyes narrowed.
“Why?”