That was their wedding.
That night, Reid did not touch her.
He brought her hot water.
Added wood to stove.
Then stood awkwardly near the bedroom door.
“We don't know each other.”
Lena nodded.
“No.”
“I won't assume—”
“Thank you.”
He looked relieved and disappointed simultaneously.
She appreciated both.
“We can learn.”
she said.
His eyes lifted.
“Learn?”
“Each other.”
A small smile.
“I’d like that.”
“So would I.”
He slept in the barn room.
Three nights later, a storm blew snow through a crack beside the little room’s window.
Lena found ice inside his boots the next morning.
“You’re moving back into the house.”
Reid nearly choked on coffee.
“What?”
“There’s a spare cot by the stove.”
“I’m fine.”
“No.”
“Lena.”
“You have seven sons and three hundred cattle depending on you.”
“I’m not explaining to the undertaker that you froze because you were too polite to sleep fifteen feet closer to a woman you legally married.”
Thomas looked up from breakfast.
Peter grinned.
Reid’s ears turned red.
Lena pointed at everyone.
“Eat.”
That evening the cot moved inside.
By the sixth day, nobody had mentioned the wager.
Lena did.
At supper she placed a small brown hen on the porch.
The boys stared.
Thomas looked horrified.
“You remembered?”
“Yes.”
Reid leaned against the wall laughing.
Eli ran toward the chicken.
“What do we call her?”
Lena looked at Thomas.
“He made the wager.”
Thomas groaned.
Peter shouted, “Six Days!”
Lena shook her head.
“No.”
Jacob suggested, “Victory.”
Samuel rolled his eyes.