He pulled away from her and pressed his body and arms and face as flat against the door as he could, as if to embrace his love.

There was a sharp click; he drew back. Then there was the sliding of the bolt, and the door opened; but the woman there was not Selma.

“Hit me, if you will,” Pauline said. “You’ll not touch her again.”

Bonard frowned. “Who are you?” He turned to Lovey. Lovey slammed the door in her daughter’s face and took him by the arm and led him to and down the stairs, as if he were a sleepwalker and she were guiding him back to the warmth and safety of his bed.

Floyd stood at the foot of the stairs, not smiling or stern. Lovey did not know what had brought him—perhaps he’d heard the horse galloping when Bonard first came—but she was thankful to see him.

“Floyd?” Bonard said. “I seem to be—” Bonard shook his head, started to speak again but could not make words, looked enquiringly into the other man’s face.

“I’ll ride with you back to Oaks,” Floyd said.

And he did so. Rooster came down to the hall when he heard Floyd and Bonard come in. Bonard was near fainting with tiredness and leaned heavily on his escort. Rooster gave Floyd a thanking nod and took his brother away to his room. Floyd got back on his mule and rode home.

23

By unspoken agreement Sarah and Leon, save for a simple goodnight kiss, did not become intimate, although they slept in the same bed, during the time on Broughton Street. Two days after the wedding, when it was agreed that the bride had had sufficient rest from the exertions that had led up to the wedding, they took coach to Beulah Land, arriving on the afternoon of the second day, after pausing to rest at an inn overnight.

Leon did not take Sarah to his room, but rather joined her in the room she had earlier occupied as a visitor. Because of the room’s largeness and comfortable furnishings, they had decided to take it as theirs, leaving Leon’s old room for guests.

Sarah’s sadness at parting from Penelope was dissipated upon her arrival at Beulah Land, for it was a coming home; and if she had not felt it so surely, the feeling might have puzzled her. But that was the way it was with her and Beulah Land: they took to each other in a way that could not be denied.

By now Sarah and Leon were beginning to be easy and familiar with each other’s small personal ways. They found it comfortable to be together. They touched hands, arms, cheeks easily. It was, Leon marveled, as if they were innocent girl and boy. or brother and sister. Then he laughed at himself for the thought. Yet it was so for him.