They arrived at the 8T8 near suppertime. Eli was sitting on the veranda in his rocking chair when they pulled up. He stepped out to meet them, followed by Ben and Bobby, and all of Eli’s younger children from his marriage to Ida Mae—Calvin, Seth, Jenny, Mabel, Anna, Leo. She said hello to all the children, let Calvin and Seth tote her things inside, hugged Bobby and Ben, walked hand in hand with them into the house. She had just stepped into the enormous parlor with its twenty-foot ceiling and the long, winding staircase to the upper floor when Ezra came in, fresh from looking after the Appaloosas. It was the first time she had seen him and Eli together. She found it uncanny that two men could look so exactly alike and be so different.

The girls had made a big roast beef dinner to welcome Emaline to the ranch. They sat down at the long, long table, Ben and Bobby on either side of Emaline, Juanita and Eli facing her across the table, the two of them canoodling like schoolkids. Emaline had never seen so much food on a table at once. She didn’t realize how hungry she was until she started to eat, then she was embarrassed when she realized she had polished off her entire dinner while everyone else was still eating. Juanita heaped seconds on her plate. Eli didn’t say much at dinner, but from what Emaline understood, he never did. It was strange to be so close to him, stranger still to find herself feeling something like affection for this man she had hated for so many years. It was Juanita who had changed Emaline’s opinion of the man. If, after all the years she had worked in his employ, Juanita cared about Eli enough to marry him, then he must be very different from the remote, uncaring grandfather she had always pictured.

Emaline was pleased to be on the ranch at last, but she was also exhausted. She chatted with Ben and Bobby a little after dinner, but soon she could barely keep her eyes open. It was only as Juanita was showing her the room where she would sleep that Emaline thought to ask what day the wedding would be held.

“Oh, that’s not till the last day of July,” Juanita said.

“But you said I had to come up right away.”

“No, I didn’t exactly say that. I knew that if I told you it was still a month away, you would probably go back to the farm and work yourself to death. I had to get you up here so we could look after you.”

“Well, you all made me feel really good tonight. I think this will be good for me.”

“Of course it will. I wouldn’t have dragged you up here otherwise.”