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someone young and stupid and wealthy. It’s more like buying a horse than choosing a mate. Even if we only remained friends, it would be a better match than most. So consider it.” He reached for his crutch and got to his feet. “Good night.”
    Hannah murmured a reply. She sat by the fire for a long time. His last words stuck in her mind. Perhaps it wasn’t just an impulsive offer made out of pity or guilt Even in the country, marriages were often based on more practical concerns than love, and friendship was often a hoped-for state.
    He was a handsome man. Hannah couldn’t deny that. With time and familiarity, she could develop an attraction to him. And if he could support them, how much easier things would be. She had divined that his family had money, even if it weren’t in David’s control, and that they would be comfortable.
    And she wouldn’t have to live in her father’s house.
    Before her marriage, she had filled her mother’s shoes, cleaning and cooking and washing for her father and brothers. Now she was used to being much more, the head of her own small household. In her father’s house, she would be little more than a poor relation, and an unwanted one at that. Now that her father had remarried, he didn’t even need the labor she would provide, and saw only the burden she and Molly would be on him. Hannah didn’t doubt that life in his house would be rather grim.
    But she knew too little about David. It wasn’t just her own future she was deciding, it was Molly’s as well, and she couldn’t put that responsibility into the hands of someone she had known only a fortnight. Hannah got to her feet and dusted off her skirt. She would finish the packing tomorrow, after she told David she couldn’t consider his offer.
    It was hard to forget it, though, especially when she tried once more to refuse and David refused to listen. He waved aside all her objections, promised it would be a marriage of convenience, and urged her to consider it a while.
    So the next time Sarah stopped in, Hannah sent Molly into the garden and pulled her sister-in-law into the kitchen. She might be losing her mind, but David’s suggestion was taking root, sounding better and better. Better than her alternatives, anyway. Hopefully Sarah would be able to bring her back to earth.
    But Sarah didn’t “Now, that’s a thought,” was her first comment. Hannah stared at her in shock.
    “But an impractical, foolish thought, right?”
    Sarah pursed her lips. Outside the window, Molly was rooting stones out of the garden with a sharp stick, chattering away in her high, sweet voice to
    David, who sat on a bench in the sun, his healing leg propped on a nearby rock. “What are your choices?”
    Hannah looked down. “You know as well as I do.”
    “Isn’t this choice more attractive?” When Hannah didn’t reply, Sarah took her hand, leaning across the table. “You know it is. Remarrying would be the best solution to your problems. Mind, I hoped you’d marry someone nearer Middleborough. You must write me, when you’re a grand lady in London.” She grinned, letting go of Hannah’s hand to reach for the teapot. “Yes, I think you ought to consider it.”
    Hannah chewed her lip and looked out the window. Molly was now ferrying the stones across the garden to David’s side. Each time she brought him a new one, David took it and examined it gravely. He said something and held up one stone, and Molly dissolved in giggles. Hannah’s heart swelled as she watched her daughter take the rock from David’s large, elegant hand with her grubby little fingers. David listened attentively to whatever Molly was saying, nodded, then gently placed the rock back with the others. He was very patient with Molly. Could he be a good father? “Can I risk it?” she murmured.
    “Can you not risk it?” Sarah asked meaningfully.
    Hannah sighed, dropping her face in her hands. She knew what Sarah meant; if she refused David, she might never have