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Show Page 252 seemed a small matter in comparison to the misery and want that surrounds us. But now it can be put off no longer and I fain would speak." My heart pounded within my thin breast, for I feared John had something dreadful to tell me. "Sarah," he said, "before we sail downriver to Martin's Hundred, I think you should become my wife." For a time the mist that swirled about the town seemed to dance behind my eyes. Then, as though I were naught but a silly scullery maid, a flush mounted into my cheeks and my breath caught in my throat. A sudden shyness overtook me and I could not meet John's eyes. It was the moment I had waited for, longed for, all the long days since John's return. Now I stood as though struck dumb. Perhaps I was waiting for that feeling of doom and dread that had washed over me each time John had spoken to me of marriage, though I knew it would not come. It could find no room to enter, so full of joy was I. Yet still I stood silent. "Do not play coy with me now, Sarah," John scolded. "Though we scarce mentioned it since my return, we both understood we would be married when I attained my freedom. So do not dissemble so. Anyway, you have no choice. Already the governor's brother, Reverend Wyatt, is on his way to the church. |