She said his nickname, the one he’d given her. It didn’t sound as well with her voice laced in anger.
“Adoniram is the name my mother gave me. A bit of a mixed bag, an overseer to the king…who was stoned in a revolution.” He scooted a little closer. “I now oversee all of my father’s wealth, but I did survive my execution. If you are asking if I am the same fellow you knew, the one so full of rage… No. I’ve learned to be deliberate and methodical.”
“If you die before tomorrow, will they inherit the means to pay their debts? Will they win again?”
“I don’t intend to die, but my son, my heir, Christopher Wilky will inherit.”
“Then you’ve set the evil on my baby.”
He wrapped his hand around her closed fist. “I’m alive. All will be done in a day. I win, unless you make me a loser. Are you going to pretend that what we had, what wehave, what we rediscovered, isn’t enough?”
He took the ring box and presented it to her.
The hinge whined when she opened it, but then she snapped the case closed before the diamond could sparkle in the candlelight.
“Do you trust me, Adori…Wycliff? You’ve asked me to trust you so often. I need to hear you trust me.”
He knelt and took her hand. “Yes, I trust you implicitly. I love you, Ruth. Marry me. Look past your anger at a name and see that I’ve changed.”
“Do you still twist up all the bedclothes and leave the mattress looking crazed?”
He wanted to laugh that she remembered, but Ruth wasn’t smiling.
“I’m no longer quick tempered. I’d like to think I’m thoughtful and deliberate. I’m a man who will keep you safe, who will love and cherish you. Be mine again, now and forever.”
“Can’t we just go one step at a time? Adam…Wycliff?”
“I am Adam, I am Wycliff. I know how precious life is, how things can change in an hour. Let’s not wait. Trust that I can make everything right this time.”
She held his face close, smoothed her fingers in his beard, then closed her eyes. “I miss your smooth face.” She sighed. “If we’d taken things more slowly. We would’ve had a chance.”
He swallowed the lump in his throat. “It’s not rushing when we are married, unless…”
It hit him like a cannonball across the bow.
She didn’t love him or Adam.
She’d been through too much.
With this last secret, there was nothing left of her for him.
…
I felt frozen and empty.
I’d spent the last hour consoling a woman whose husband was truly dead.
Wycliff’s face grew darker, more distant.
“I see,” he said and stood. “Then tell me how this is to go.”
“Well, as you say, we are married.”
“Are we, Ruth? Where’s your half of the registry? Go get it.”
I left him for a moment, went to my room and returned with the trunk. I put it in his hands. “Here.”
“Your old trunk.” He took it and pulled the registry from the lining. “This is the only thing that proves our marriage exists. Maybe there is a misspelling or something to get you out of this conundrum.”
