It could be all of the above. Somehow I suspected it would take me much longer to find the honest answers, but that only made me more determined to get them.

My mother and I went to work.

When she thought the table was perfect, she sent me to fetch them. My father rose quickly as soon as I entered. He looked at Garland and then turned to me and said, “Mr. Foxworth asked for a few minutes alone with you. I’ll keep your mother entertained,” he added, and left us.

Garland rose and approached me slowly. I was sure the expression on my face would frighten anyone, even him.

“I guess I’ve made a mess of things,” he began.

I didn’t say anything. I would do nothing to make this easier. He did look quite uncomfortable.

Finally, satisfied I was dangling him long enough, I spoke. “Looks like I’m the one in the mess, however.”

“Absolutely not.” He seized my hands. “I knew from the moment I saw you that you would be the woman I’d love and the woman who should be mistress of Foxworth Hall. I was determined to court you for as long as it would take. All that’s happened to us, I pray, is that fate has decided to speed up our future.”

Fate? I thought. We might better blame it on limoncello.

“I’d get down on my knee right now, but I know I have some turning of the earth before planting.”

“I think you’ve already planted, Garland.”

I saw his lips tremble as he fought back a smile. “You will be a challenge, Corrine Dixon, but I do welcome it. I do. Most of the women I’ve met have been so shallow and obvious. Life will be most interesting with you at my side or making me work harder at being a proper husband and, it seems, a proper father. Mine never was, but you have a wonderful father, so you know the standards any man should meet. I hope I can.”

“How did my father convince you of this?”

“He had no convincing to do. Believe me. Please.”

What choice did I have? What other choice did I want? I had yet to meet another man like him, but truthfully, I had yet to know him. However, from what I understood, witnessed, and heard about so many women pledged to marriages, they really weren’t that much more confident of the men they hardly knew. They put all their faith in vows, but if anyone knew how empty words could be, it was I, who used them so well.

“We’d better go to the dining room. My mother is as nervous as I’ve ever seen her. I haven’t told her very much. She knows only that you saw me at my aunt’s home. I said nothing about going to Foxworth.”