Hannah held the infant to Max, who cooed over her. Then Hannah returned her to her mother, and Max and Hannah took their leave.

“They left so soon,” Sarina said. Her eyes searched Zachary’s face. “Hannah was so good to me, Zack. She’s been like a mother to me, so kind and gentle, always saying the right thing. Try to see her as I do. Please be kind to her. Hannah is a good woman and your father is very happy with her.”

He sat in a chair by her bed and stroked the baby’s silky hair. He had shaved his beard and looked like a boy, his dark, curly hair falling forward into his eyes.

For all our sakes, I wish he were more of a man, more like his father or my father, someone I could depend on. I wish he knew what he wanted out of life, what he wanted to do or be. His immaturity frightens me, especially as I am so far away from home. There was no one to blame but herself. Sarina knew this. She had sensed his weakness before marrying him, and chose to believe that he would change, would lose his wanderlust, settle down, and find a place in her father’s business. And he had tried, first this and then that aspect of the multinational export-import business. When that failed, he had shown little interest in her father’s vast land holdings or in the management of her family’s properties. Who was this boy-man she had married? Why would he not share his thoughts and feelings with her?

She had had much time to think of late, and had come to accept that as the saying went, “What you see is what you get.” Zachary was who he was. She could not change him. Her hope that he would change had been an illusion born of love’s insanity. She rationalized: So what if he were not or would never be strong as her father or his own father? She was strong enough for both of them, and if he would agree, with the help of his family and her new friends, they could make a good life in Covington or, if he must live in a city, in Asheville.

One thing, however, nagged at her, one unanswered question. Where had he gone every day while she sat miserable in his father’s house? She refused to think that he might be seeing a woman. This was the one sin she could not, would not, forgive.

At that moment, a nurse entered and gathered up the baby. “You rest now. I’ll bring her back in an hour so you can feed her.”

Zack stood. “Like she said, you need to rest. I’ll go now, and I’ll be back this evening.”

She reached for his hand, and he held hers, then bent and kissed her. “I love you,” he said.