Chapter 4: Courthouse

I married Leon Merrick at ten past ten on a Wednesday morning in a green wrap dress.

Shawna stood next to me in her best black skirt and her Velvet Hour apron, because she said she had nothing else with pockets.

Leon stood on my other side with his lawyer and his tie.

Across the aisle, Reginald sat in the front row with his wife and a notary in a brown suit.

The notary had a stamp and a ledger and an expression like a man waiting for a bus.

"He's counting my breaths," I whispered.

"He's counting yours too," Shawna whispered back. "Smile, you're in love."

I smiled.

The judge at the front was a short, round woman with reading glasses on a chain.

She'd married four couples already that morning and had the speed of a woman who wanted lunch.

"Do you, Leon Merrick, take this woman?"

"I do."

He said it the way he'd said everything else, low and level and a little too certain.

"And do you, Lilia DeGraff, take this man?"

"I do," I said.

"Entering freely?"

"I read every page."

The judge looked over her glasses.

"That's not a normal answer."

"It's an accurate one."

Somebody behind me made a small noise that might have been a laugh.

It was Reginald's wife.

Reginald turned his head and she stopped.

"Rings," said the judge.

Leon's lawyer put a small box in his hand.

I'd told him no diamonds.

I'd told him I'd wear a plain band and give it back at the end of the year.

He took out something else.

It was a thin gold ring with a small green stone, old and a little scratched, set low so it wouldn't catch on anything.

"That's not a plain band," I whispered.

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