“Yes.”
“Good.”
Emma smiled.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
“Means you still have sense.”
The ceremony was simple.
Elias’s voice cracked once.
Emma loved him for hating that it had.
When Reverend Shaw asked whether Elias took Emma willingly, Elias answered before the sentence finished.
“Yes.”
The reverend raised one eyebrow.
Elias muttered:
“Sorry.”
Emma laughed.
When it was her turn, she waited.
Just long enough for Elias to suffer.
Then:
“Yes.”
Afterward, they ate beneath the trees.
There was no grand dance.
Emma’s knees hurt from standing.
Near sunset, Elias held out one hand.
“One dance.”
She looked toward the rough grass.
“Here?”
“Here.”
“I’m not floating around like Abigail.”
“Nobody floats like Abigail.”
Abigail shouted from the table:
“I heard that.”
Emma took Elias’s hand.
They moved slowly.
Not formal steps.
A sway beneath cottonwood leaves.
His hand rested at her waist.
Emma’s arms circled his shoulders.
“You know everyone is watching.”
Elias looked toward the guests.
“Levi is watching cake.”
True.
Emma smiled.
“Do I embarrass you?”
The question slipped out before she could stop it.
Elias’s eyes returned to hers.
“No.”
“Never?”
“I’m sure you will eventually.”
She laughed.
He continued.
“But not because of how you look.”
Emma’s expression softened.
He kissed her forehead.
“I’m proud you chose me.”
That night, after everyone left, Emma stood inside Elias’s bedroom doorway.
Their bedroom now, perhaps.
He had not assumed.
Her bag remained in the spare room.
Elias sat on the edge of the bed removing his boots.
He looked up.
“Do you want me to sleep somewhere else?”
Emma stared.
“We married six hours ago.”
“I’m aware.”
“Then why ask?”
“Because marrying me answered one question.”
“Not every question.”
Emma closed the door.
Elias stood.
She moved closer.
For all the confidence she had found in the bank and street, this was different.
Nathaniel’s cruelty had lived here too.
In bedrooms.
In the way he touched her as though testing the weight of an object.
In the way he sometimes refused to touch her for weeks and then blamed her for noticing.
Emma looked down.
Elias waited.
“Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“I’m afraid you’ll see me.”
His brow furrowed.
“I’ve been looking at you for three weeks.”
“Not like this.”
Understanding arrived.
Elias stepped closer.
“Emma.”
She shook her head.
“Don’t reassure me because you think that’s what a husband should do.”
“I won’t.”
“I want the truth.”
He nodded.
She took a breath.
“Do you desire me?”
“Yes.”
Immediate.
“Like this?”
“Yes.”
“At this size?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve never seen a woman my size undressed.”
“No.”
The honesty steadied her.