Madly Yours novel · Chapter 3 of 32
Chapter 3: The Terms
In the Halstead house Colette signs the marriage terms and keeps her hearing secret, until Leland's uncle walks in and says a deaf bride is perfect because she won't hear him at night.
I stared at his hands.
Nobody had signed to me in an airport before.
Nobody had signed to me anywhere but a classroom and a hospital.
I signed back with my good hand, clumsy with the sling.
You learned sign?
For my grandmother. When I was nine.
He looked at the sling, then at the cut on my cheek.
His expression went dead still.
Who did that?
I shook my head.
He held my eyes a second longer, then let it go.
He reached for my bag.
I reached for it at the same time.
We both held the strap.
You're sick, I signed. I'll carry it.
He coughed into his fist and kept hold of it.
I'm insane, he signed. Not weak. Different rumor.
I let go before I could laugh.
A black car waited at the curb with a driver in a grey coat.
Leland lowered himself into the back seat.
The second the door shut, he took out a small leather notebook and a pen.
He wrote, tore out the page and handed it to me.
You don't have to do this. Your mother says you said yes bleeding. That's not a yes.
I read it twice.
Then I took his pen and wrote under it.
I said yes because I meant it. Bleeding was just timing.
He read it.
The corner of his mouth moved.
He didn't cough the whole rest of the drive.
The Halstead house sat at the top of Pacific Heights, grey stone and tall windows over the bay.
A tiny white-haired woman was waiting in the front door in a cardigan and red sneakers.
She came down the steps faster than I'd have guessed.
She took my face in both her hands and looked at the cut.
Then she let go and signed, fast and sharp.
Who hit you? I'll kill him.
Gran, Leland signed. Let her in the house first.
I can kill him from the house.
I laughed out loud.
It came out as a wheeze of air, but it was a laugh.
Gran grinned.
She signed slower for me, the way kind people do for beginners.
I'm deaf as a post. You're deaf as a post. Finally somebody in this house I can talk to.
She hooked her arm through my good one and walked me inside.
The front hall had a black and white floor and a staircase that curved up into light.
Somewhere above us, a clock ticked.
I'd forgotten clocks ticked.
In the library, Leland laid three typed pages on the desk.
He signed and spoke at the same time, low.
"We marry tomorrow at two. Small chapel. Your mother has the guest list."
I read along.
The Sheridan debt to Halstead Marine, eleven million dollars, forgiven at signing.
Separate bedrooms.
One year, then a quiet divorce, with a settlement I could set myself.
He'd left the number blank.
I looked up.
Fill it in, he signed. I won't argue.
I picked up his pen.
I didn't touch the blank.
At the bottom I wrote my own terms.
I keep working. I'm a piano technician. I'm going back to it.
You don't touch me unless I ask.
He read them upside down.
He signed it.
Done.
Then he took the pen back and wrote under mine.
You don't touch me either, unless I ask. I'm told I bite.
I gave him a long look.
He gave me one back, perfectly serious.
Gran, reading over my shoulder, snorted so hard she had to sit down.
I signed every page.
Then I wrote the question I'd carried all the way down from Seattle.
Why me? My mother says you asked for me two months ago.
He read it.
He didn't answer right away.
He turned the page face down on the desk.
After the wedding, he signed. I'll tell you everything after the wedding.
Tell me now.
If I tell you now, you'll get back on the plane.
He said it out loud too, quietly, looking at the window.
"And I need you to stay."
The front door opened.
A man's voice in the hall, loud and pleasant.
"Where's my nephew? Where's the lucky groom?"
Leland's whole body changed.
His shoulders came down.
His hand went to the cane and the cane went to the floor and he leaned on it hard.
He started to cough, deep and wet.
By the time the door opened, he looked ten years older.
The man in the doorway was sixty or so, silver-haired and tan, in a camel coat.
He had Leland's jaw and none of his eyes.
"There she is." He smiled at me with all his teeth. "The understudy."
Gran's mouth went flat.
He turned to Leland and didn't lower his voice at all.
Why would he?
The bride was deaf, and the groom was crazy.
"Good," he said. "A deaf one."
He looked me up and down.
"She won't hear him at night."
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