“I want to propose a marriage in fact.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Mrs. Salt?” Roen bent his head to catch her eye. She was staring at his hand. When she didn’t look at him, he wiggled his fingers. That seemed to lift her out of her trance.
“Hmm?”
“Did I hear you correctly? You want a marriage in fact?”
She said nothing for several seconds. “Yes, that’s what I want. A legal marriage. I require nothing for myself beyond a certificate. No church ceremony. No marital bed. No ring. For my children, I require that you assist in providing for their care and demonstrate respect for me in front of them. When your work requires you to move on, we can arrange to be divorced.”
“Those are your terms?”
She nodded. “I would still like to have the tutoring, but that is up to you.”
Roen searched Lily’s face and could find no hint that she was anything but serious. Still, he needed to hear it again from her. “You’re sure?”
“I am. I know what I’m offering is not what you were proposing, but I cannot agree to the arrangement you want. You have not said whether you can agree to mine.”
“No romantic entanglements,” he said, more to himself than to her. It was how Ridley Madison had characterized his interest in Lily Salt.She’s a widow with four children who has even less interest in romantic entanglements than you. The terms by which Lily was agreeing to help him certainly bore that out. “I accept your terms.”
Lily laid a hand against her midriff and sank her teeth into her lower lip.
Roen moved to the edge of the chair cushion in anticipation of Lily requiring his help. “Are you all right? There’s no color in your face.”
She smiled weakly. “There’s no breath in my lungs.”
“What can I do?”
Lily shook her head and waved him back into his chair.
Roen sank back but didn’t take his eyes off her. She looked as if she’d been poleaxed. “Did you think I would say no?” he asked.
She inhaled deeply through her nose and released the breath slowly through parted lips. “I suppose I did.”
“Do you want to change your mind?”
“No. Do you?”
“No.” He noticed her cheeks were regaining their modest color. Lily had skin as smooth as her namesake but only when she was troubled was it as pale. He wondered if she’d had freckles as a child, maybe a light spray across her nose and cheeks that faded as she grew older. Hannah had that freckle spray, and Hannah bore the most resemblance to her mother. “Will you tell me about your particular terms? Why do you want a husband?” He watched her eyebrows lift in surprise and knew then what was coming.
“Did you misunderstand, Mr. Shepard? I don’t want a husband. Wasn’t I clear? I want a father for my children. Even if you only fill that position for a short time, it will be a good experience for them.”
Roen wasn’t as sure, but he didn’t argue the point. “There isn’t much time to arrange a ceremony.”
“I know, so you are fortunate that Frost Falls is on Judge Miner’s circuit and that the judge will be here Friday. That gives you all day tomorrow to make the arrangements.”
“Yes, the arrangements. What are those exactly?”
“Your sister Artemis was married three times. Weren’t you paying attention to any of them?”
Roen gave a shout of laughter that pushed Lily back in her rocker. She had to set her feet down firmly to stop it moving. “Sorry,” he said.
She regarded him narrowly. “I don’t think you are.”
“Probably not. Not really. You have a rather biting sense of humor that I appreciate.”
“I wasn’t trying to be humorous.”
