The words set a storm in Kate’s heart. Her jaw set hard. How easy it was, she thought, to forget how to breathe.

Lily was loud as she descended the stairs, Tilly’s voice soft and agreeable as she followed.

He moved away, out into the hall to the melody of their voices.

Kate placed the sponge by the tap, her heart desperately attempting to find its rhythm as she listened to Lily and Declan disappear down the hall to the lounge room. Moments later, Tilly’s heels tapped lightly onto the kitchen tile.

Kate spun. The plastic covering of Lily’s costume crinkled in Tilly’s arms. Her brow furrowed as she stared at Kate. “Is everything all right?” she asked, hiking the halo up to her elbow.

Kate cleared her throat. “Of course,” she lied. “Should we head out soon?”

At the stern of the car ferry, they stood together, looking out into the darkness of Port Phillip Bay as they made the crossing back home. “So,” Kate started. “St. Vincent’s at Mornington…”

“Yes.”

“Not a Catholic Church. Not St. Gerard’s? No nuptial mass?”

“If God is our witness,” Tilly said, “I don’t believe it matters.”

Kate believed it had more to do with the fact that Declan was the vicar at St. Vincent’s and less to do with Tilly’s considerations. For somebody who had wanted to join the sisterhood, Kate knew that marrying in a Catholic church had to be important to Tilly.

“Does he know that you wanted to be a nun?”

Tilly rested her forearms on the railing. “Yes.” She fixed her gaze on Kate. “You think that’s the allure for him, don’t you? That I understand his devotion to God. That I’ll understand he is married to both God and myself and I won’t dare challenge that.”

Kate raised an eyebrow. “Challenge?”

“Resent.”

Kate rubbed at her jaw. “No, I don’t think that.” She paused. “I…”

“Yes?”

“I don’t know. I think the allure is that you’re a very beautiful, very selfless woman.”

Blushing, Tilly rubbed at her arms. She’d left her knit jacket in the car.

“St. Vincent’s will be nice,” Kate offered, shrugging off her black blazer. “I mean, you don’t have to be married in the church for it to be marriage,” she said as she helped Tilly into the blazer.

“No,” Tilly agreed, smiling her thanks, “But it’s important to me to be married in the Lord’s house.”

The need to know burned hot in Kate’s heart like a blue flame. “What did you vote?” she asked pointedly.

Tilly’s head whipped around. “Vote?”

“Last year on the marriage equality survey. I want to know what you voted.”

Silence eclipsed them. It was a loaded question, one she perhaps didn’t have the right to ask.

Tilly’s eyes were clear, unveiled as she gazed up at Kate. “I voted ‘yes.’ Of course I did.”

Kate’s heart fluttered with relief.

Tilly wrapped her arms around herself. “Church and state are separated, of course. It’s just that, I suppose, for me, personally, I would like to be married with God as my witness, in His House.” She shook her head, her chin ducking to touch her chest. “You know I can’t help it, Kate. It’s something I’ve always held close. It’s been ingrained in me since I was little.” Tilly stared up at her like she was waiting to be challenged—like she wanted to be challenged.