“Even so, hotels are expensive. You don’t want to run through whatever you have by staying at one.” Nor did I want her to venture out of my sight at this point.

She shook her head. “Creighton, I can’t be at your place.”

“Why—” I cut myself short, realizing I might have just stepped into a cultural minefield. “Explain to me what you’re thinking.”

“You’re asking to take me back to your house, aren’t you?”

“Yes.” We looked at each other. “What does that mean to you?”

“Among the Inisi, a man takes a girl from her parents’ hut into his own. Once he does, they are considered married. Prior to that, no woman would enter a man’s hut.”

“Do you think that’s what I’m trying to do?”

“I…” She looked perplexed. “That’s not how you select mates here. Isn’t that correct?”

I nodded.

“So I know you don’t want to marry me…” She shook her head, clearly embarrassed. “I just don’t know exactly what you’re suggesting. I guess I’d like it defined first. That might seem silly, but you can’t take the village out of the girl overnight.”

“Abby, I’m simply offering you a place to stay for the time being because you don’t have one. We’d be roommates. Nothing more.”

“So that’s what you want me to be—your roommate?”

I laughed. “Yes, I suppose. I’m asking you to be my roommate.”

“And just to be clear, you don’t intend to make me your wife.” There was a hint of a smile in her eyes.

“If I ever intended that, I’d talk with you about it first.”

She paused and thought for a moment. “I’m not entirely comfortable with it, but I don’t have many options. Do you have plenty of room on the floor?”

“On the floor? For what?”

“For me to sleep.”

“No. I mean, yes, I have ample room on the floor. But you can sleep in your own room, in your own bed. I have a guest bedroom.”

“I prefer the floor.”

“You can sleep in your own room on the floor.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

Half an hour later Abby and I sat in my home office and opened her message from Inland Tribes. A man’s image appeared on the visiscreen. He was African and sitting behind a desk.

“Abigail, I apologize, but it has come to my attention that Inland Tribes had received one more communication from your grandfather, a message sent several weeks ago. It is addressed to your father, so we thought it appropriate to send it to you. Unfortunately, it wasn’t filed in the same place as the previous one, which is why I’m sending this one late. Please contact me if anything in the message requires our attention at Inland Tribes.”