“Wrong question?”
“Potentially.”
He did not kneel.
Good.
Both of them had knees with opinions.
He held a small ring.
Not expensive.
Silver band.
Dark green stone.
“Martha Higgins.”
She looked at him.
“I have rehearsed this.”
“That worries me.”
“I forgot all of it.”
“Better.”
He smiled nervously.
Then:
“I do not need you to save my ranch.”
“Good.”
“I do not need you to cook for me.”
“Very good.”
“I do not need you to manage my accounts.”
“You absolutely do.”
“Probably.”
He laughed.
Then his face softened.
“I want ordinary mornings with you.”
Martha stopped breathing.
“I want arguments about doors.”
“Coffee.”
“Snow.”
“Bad knees.”
“Good years.”
“Years where everything goes wrong.”
“I want you when you solve the problem.”
“And when you are the problem.”
Martha raised an eyebrow.
“Risky sentence.”
“I know.”
He continued.
“I want to know what you are angry about before breakfast.”
“I want you to tell me my ideas are foolish.”
“I want to watch you build things I would never have imagined.”
“And I want to grow old enough that both of us become unbearable.”
Martha’s eyes filled.
She hated him for that.
Josiah held out the ring.
“Will you marry me?”
Martha looked at it.
Then at the ranch.
Then back at him.
“What happens to my partnership share?”
Josiah’s face went blank.
“What?”
“After marriage.”
“I—”
“Does territorial marital law transfer control?”
“Martha.”
“Important question.”
He stared.
Then laughed.
Not mockingly.
Completely.
He bent at the waist, one hand over his eyes.
Martha crossed her arms.
“When you finish losing your dignity—”
“I love you.”
“I heard.”
He straightened.
“Your share stays legally protected.”
“You checked?”
“Yes.”
“With the attorney?”
“Yes.”
Martha paused.
“You anticipated that?”
“I know you.”
That mattered.
She looked at the ring again.
“Yes.”
Josiah froze.
“Yes?”
“Yes.”
His face changed so dramatically that Martha laughed.
Then he kissed her.
And this time, when the ranch hands later claimed they had not been spying from behind the smokehouse, Martha allowed the lie.
The wedding took place in October.
Martha refused to let town gossip dictate its size.
She invited people she liked.
A much shorter list.
Billy stood beside Josiah.
Gideon insisted he was too old for ceremony, then wore his best coat.
The bank manager was not invited.
The county attorney was.
The mine superintendent sent an entire crate of wine.
Martha wore dark green.
She had considered blue.
Then decided green made her skin look warmer and matched the ring.
No symbolism.
At least none she admitted.
The dressmaker from Silver City panicked when taking measurements.
Not because of Martha’s size exactly.