“You still want to get married, after everything that just happened?”

“More so than ever. Each day is a gift down here, tomorrow promised to no one.” I nodded. I had not thought about it that way, but Saul was right. Even before Krys hid the munitions, our lives in the sewer were dangerous and uncertain. “Why not take this one bit of happiness, now while we can?”

“All right,” I said. We returned to the chamber and slipped in quietly so as not to wake Pan Rosenberg. I climbed into my bed. I could not sleep, though, but tossed and turned. The incident with the munitions played over and over in my mind. Someone had been in the sewer. The danger felt worse, our situation unsustainable.

Hearing my restlessness, Saul crossed the chamber. He climbed in bed and lay down beside me. “Is this all right?” he asked. I could not answer over the lump in my throat. He embraced me from behind and my heartbeat quickened as I wondered if he might try to take things further than we previously had, now that we were to be married. But he simply held me tight. “One more day,” he murmured in my ear, and I knew exactly what he meant. By tomorrow night, we could be together properly as man and wife. Still, it felt like forever. I imagined our life after the war, Saul writing and me studying to become a doctor. It had been so long since I believed things like that might someday be possible. I didn’t know where, but we would be together. I drifted off in the warmth of his arms and slept soundly for the first time since Mama had left.

In the morning when I awoke, Saul was already gone. “He went to prepare things,” Pan Rosenberg said.

Saul must have told his father the news about our wedding already. I searched Pan Rosenberg’s face for a reaction. “You don’t mind?”

He smiled and his eyes danced with excitement. “Sadele, I couldn’t be happier!” I saw then that our marriage would be a vote of confidence, a statement that there would be a future. It would bring all of us, including Pan Rosenberg, a bit of much-needed hope. Then his face turned solemn. “I only wish that your parents were here to see it. I hope, though, that you will let me be a father to you both.” I saw then that he had ripped a page from one of his books and was attempting to write a makeshift ketubah for us.

I didn’t know where Saul had gone or what he needed me to do by way of wedding preparations. So I set about getting ready, putting on the dress that Ella had given me, which somehow had remained relatively clean, and fixing my hair as well as I was able. My thoughts turned back to the munitions and I wondered if Krys had been able to find the crates or figure out who had come into the sewer to take them.