But words failed him, as they so often did with his father and on various jobs when he encountered highly competent men who reminded him of his father. In his father’s presence, Zachary felt insignificant. The ability to make simple, everyday conversation failed, leaving him tongue-tied.

He never expected to come home penniless except for his mother’s trust, and he could hardly support a family on that the way it came to him in drips and dribbles. Fear squeezed his heart, and his throat tightened. He wasn’t prepared to be a father. He hardly knew how to be a husband.

I can do this. I can take care of my family, he thought. But it sure would be easier if Dad hadn’t married Hannah. That land of his is the key to my freedom. What do they need all that land for? If I had some of it I could build rental houses for income that would free me to travel. Zachary leaned forward and lay his head against the steering wheel. I’ve got to figure out a way to get my hands on a chunk of that land. Then he shifted gears and drove from the parking lot.

Sarina’s sadness vanished with the birth of her child. No one spoke of the young family moving out of Max’s farmhouse, especially as Zachary’s attitude and behavior softened. Hannah came and went with almost the ease and lightheartedness she had enjoyed prior to their arrival. Zachary no longer disappeared, and when Sarina spoke to her about her fears that Zachary might have had another woman, Hannah told her about Grace playing detective and Zachary’s gambling.

Some days Zachary sat in Anna’s kitchen with a mug of coffee in his hand relating tales of his life in India. One afternoon, Hannah eavesdropped as Zachary told Anna of his travels, about the ship he crewed on being locked by ice floes in the Bering Strait and about the tropical beauty of the east coast of Tanzania. He spoke of mountain climbing and the beauty of Nepal.

“I’m a good climber. Not the best, maybe, but good enough,” he said. “Up there on that mountain, I felt close to my mother.”

“She was a special woman, a good woman, your mother,” Anna said softly.

Hannah tiptoed away, but in the kitchen Anna listened, smiled, nodded, and patted Zachary’s shoulder. Unsure that she understood everything he said, Anna was certain that he was different, happy, since the baby came. After all, he smiled and was attentive to his family, and pleasant to Señora Hannah.