The shadows spilled over him, but I could feel the way he was looking at me. The air was so still, not even a slight breeze. Perhaps it was only in the darkness that people truly saw each other. We could momentarily be distracted by the glitter of stars, the cry of an owl, or, when they were stirred, the whisper of the leaves, but darkness has a way of undressing you. It lifts off false faces. Only your voice reveals what’s truly in your heart.

“Of course,” he said. There was just a hint of surprise. I was determined that he would believe he was going to marry a woman who clearly was no longer a girl. I would not be dazzled. I would be cherished. “We’ll have a great life. I promise. Oops. I wasn’t supposed to say that.”

He laughed and then moved closer so he could kiss me.

“Some men think that in the dark, all women are the same, but I would never say that about you, Corrine Dixon.”

“I hope not.”

He took my hand again, and we turned back toward the house.

“Let’s think about a honeymoon.”

“Let’s wait to see what my mother says.”

“I doubt she’ll oppose what your father wants for you.”

I wanted to say probably not, but not because she was an obedient wife. She was more likely seeing my marriage as lifting a burden off her shoulders. She’d rationalize and think she had to send me off eventually, so why not now?

As soon as we entered the house, my father called to us. I could see from the opened bottle of his highly prized port and the four glasses that the decision had been confirmed.

“Let us be the first to toast the future Mr. and Mrs. Garland Foxworth,” he said, and handed a glassful to Garland and one to me.

“Oh, then, in that case,” Garland said, reaching into his pocket to produce a ring. “Another of my mother’s beautiful jewels, her engagement ring.”

He held it out to me. It was a three-diamond gold ring.

“Will you have me, Corrine Dixon?”

I looked at my mother. She wasn’t smiling, and she wasn’t gloating.

I held out my hand, and Garland slipped the ring onto my finger.

“As I suspected, a perfect fit. My mother was remarkably similar to you in so many of her features. It’s uncanny.”

I gazed at the ring and then looked again at my mother. For the first time I could recall since I was a little girl, she looked frightened.

But not for herself.

For me.

Chapter 11