“You still want this marriage?”
Caleb looked startled.
“You think what you just learned would make me want it less?”
“It might make a sensible man run.”
“I’m not sensible.”
“That much is becoming clear.”
Something like a smile touched his mouth.
Then vanished.
He reached for her hand but stopped.
“May I?”
Abigail looked at his open palm.
She placed hers inside it.
His hand closed carefully around hers.
Not fragile.
Careful.
There was a difference.
Abigail whispered:
“I’m frightened.”
“So am I.”
She looked at his scar.
“You don’t look frightened.”
“I’ve practiced.”
Her mouth trembled.
“What happens if this marriage is another trap?”
Caleb’s gaze held hers.
“Then it’ll be a trap with two people inside it instead of one.”
“That is not romantic.”
“I told Bell I wanted a grown woman.”
Abigail laughed despite the tears.
Caleb’s thumb moved once across her knuckles.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“When Bell described you…”
Abigail stiffened.
“What did he say?”
Caleb’s jaw hardened.
“He said you were desperate enough not to care what I looked like.”
Her face burned.
Caleb continued quickly.
“He said you were too large to expect better.”
Silence.
Abigail pulled her hand away.
Not from Caleb.
From the words.
“He said that?”
“Yes.”
“And you still agreed?”
“I agreed after he left.”
“Why?”
Caleb looked almost angry.
“Because I wanted to meet the woman he thought he had the right to measure.”
Abigail stared.
He continued.
“I asked Mrs. Whitcomb about you.”
“She said you ran Turner Bakery more than your father did these last five years.”
“I asked Levi Ward at the feed store.”
“He said you caught an invoice error nobody else noticed.”
“I asked Reverend Shaw.”
“He said you sat with his wife every afternoon after their baby died.”
Caleb’s voice softened.
“I didn’t ask anyone whether you were pretty.”
Abigail’s eyes filled.
“That sounds like something a man says when he doesn’t think a woman is pretty.”
Caleb blinked.
Then laughed once.
Low.
Almost disbelieving.
“Abigail.”
“What?”
“You walked toward that church and I forgot what Reverend Shaw had just asked me.”
She stared.
“What did he ask?”
“Whether I remembered the vows.”
Despite everything, she smiled.
Caleb stepped closer.
“I think you are beautiful.”
“I also think you’re angry.”
“And stubborn.”
“And likely to reorganize my house before supper.”
“I don’t know you well enough to know the rest.”
“But I want to.”
Abigail looked down.
For years compliments had arrived with conditions.
You’d be pretty if.
You have a lovely face, but.
Such beautiful eyes for a woman your size.
Caleb offered no subtraction.
She lifted her eyes.
“Take me into that church.”