pretended to consider.
He frowned.
She kissed his cheek.
Then wrote:
Acceptable.
Gideon shook his head.
He reached into his coat and removed something.
A folded piece of paper.
Rosalie recognized it.
The original marriage agreement.
The one signed by Silas.
She had avoided reading it again.
Gideon handed it to her.
At the bottom was the infamous line:
Consideration: forgiveness of debt valued at fifty dollars.
Rosalie stared at it.
For months she had understood the truth.
Gideon had not purchased her.
Merrick had negotiated forgiveness of his own debt while presenting the marriage as a way to prevent Silas from sending Rosalie to Horace Bell.
Still, the document disgusted her.
She handed it back.
Gideon tore it in half.
Then again.
Then again.
Rosalie watched.
He dropped the pieces into the small porch stove.
Flames curled around them.
She looked at him.
“Why now?”
He understood only part.
