Then she overheard him telling a friend that her appearance did not matter because he only needed someone to raise his children.
She ended the courtship the following morning.
At twenty-eight, she had almost agreed to marry a traveling preacher who described himself as a man of extraordinary compassion.
But during a church gathering, she heard him joking about the challenge of finding a bed strong enough to accommodate her.
He apologized when confronted.
She did not accept.
By thirty-two, she had stopped expecting romance.
She still loved stories about marriage.
She still watched couples walking together beneath the trees and wondered what it would feel like to have someone reach for her hand simply because he wanted to.
But she had taught herself not to mistake politeness for affection.
Then a letter arrived from Montana.
The writer was a prosperous merchant who owned a general store, several freight wagons, and interests in nearby cattle operations.
He had obtained her address through a respectable matrimonial correspondence service.
His first letter was surprisingly thoughtful.
He described Cedar Run, the surrounding mountains, and the difficulties of establishing a business in frontier country.
He said he was forty-one, financially secure, and searching for a wife who valued honesty over appearances.
He did not ask for a photograph.
Instead, he asked whether she enjoyed reading.
She answered cautiously.
Over the following months, the letters became more frequent.
She told him about her family.
She described her work.
She explained that she was unusually large and that travel and ordinary household furnishings sometimes presented practical difficulties.
She was careful to be direct.
She did not want another man claiming she had deceived him.
In one letter, she wrote that her weight was close to seven hundred and seventy pounds and that she understood if he wished to end their correspondence.
His answer arrived three weeks later.
He wrote that a woman's worth was not measured by the size of her waist.
He claimed that life on the frontier required character, intelligence, and determination.
He said he wanted a companion rather than a decoration.
She read those words so many times that the paper began to soften along its folds.