I shook my head. “I won’t tell him,” I said, but I felt a little numb. There were ghosts in this house. When you don’t let go of the dead, you turn them into ghosts, I thought. Maybe my father had told me that. I couldn’t remember. No, I wouldn’t tell him what Dora had revealed. Someday perhaps he would trust and love me enough to tell me it all, including why he wanted his mother to forgive him. I took a deep breath.

“Okay. I’ll wear what you put out, but I want to wash and fix my hair. The minister is coming today to talk to us.”

“Yes, ma’am,” she said, and curtsied.

This time, I let her. Maybe I would always let her. Why did Garland trust her enough to keep such a deeply emotional secret? Was there more she wasn’t telling me?

I started out and then turned, stopping her from following. “If I find out he does touch you and you’re lying about that, I will tell him you’ve betrayed his secret, Dora.”

She shook her head.

“The moment he does, if he does, you will tell me.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She lowered her eyes the way a lady in waiting might lower them for a queen. I didn’t want to be a queen. I wanted to be a wife and eventually a mother. I wanted this great house that truly seemed above all the troubles in the world to protect me and my child, my children. Of course, I wanted to be rich, too.

When I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror, I saw a new firmness come into my eyes. I will have my place in Foxworth Hall. I will have my portrait on that wall, and with my beauty, I will drown out and silence the bleak, dark chorus of ancestors that have ruled it so firmly for so long.

Maybe a marriage shouldn’t be this much of a challenge, I thought, but I was prepared for it. Garland Foxworth would see my self-confidence. I was determined about that.

Later, we sat with the minister and talked about ourselves. Garland held my hand the entire time and repeatedly pledged his love. Reverend Chase, a man close to seventy, with silvery gray hair and charming, soft blue eyes, smiled.

“I feel like I’m sitting with your parents, Garland, and such a beautiful wife at your side. As they say, this is a match made in heaven.”

“Yes, it is, Reverend.”

“I kept your parents’ wedding words, and I think I will, with your permission, use them for you two.”

“Of course,” Garland said. He looked at me.

“Yes,” I said. “It would be an honor.”

“Well, then, it’s all fixed and perfect,” Reverend Chase said.

I looked at Garland. “Why don’t we make our first toast now with Reverend Chase?” I said.