On the eve of the wedding, she made the decision that changed everything

Описание: The harbor smelled like low tide and coal smoke on the morning Josephine Caldwell agreed to ruin herself.

Not that anyone called it that. Her mother called it salvation. Her uncle called it opportunity. The family solicitor — a thin man named Pratt who wore the same gray suit in every season — called it an arrangement of mutual benefit. He said those words the way men said things they had already decided. With a kind of practiced finality that left no room for questions.

Josephine sat very still in the chair across from him and listened.

The Caldwell name, Pratt explained, had once meant something in Westcliff Harbor. Her grandfather had built the cannery. Her father had expanded it into a small shipping concern before his lungs gave out three winters ago, leaving behind ledger books full of figures that no longer added up and a house on Elmore Street that the bank now held a lien against. Her mother had been quietly selling furniture since October. Josephine had pretended not to notice.

She noticed everything.

"Mr. Montgomery has agreed," Pratt said, "to absorb the outstanding debt in its entirety. The cannery, the shipping contracts, and the Elmore Street property will be transferred back to the family within sixty days of the marriage."

Josephine looked at the window. Outside, a gull was perched on an iron fence post, perfectly still, facing into the wind.

"And in exchange," she said.

Pratt cleared his throat. "In exchange, he requires a wife. Specifically, one of reputable family and appropriate standing." He paused. "The Montgomery Bank is being considered for a federal charter. The committee evaluating the application places considerable weight on the character of its applicants. A man of his position—"

"Needs to appear settled," Josephine said.

Pratt looked slightly relieved that she understood. "Precisely."

She thought about her mother upstairs, resting — which was what they said now instead of declining. She thought about her younger brother Eli, who was fourteen and needed a school he would not be getting if things continued as they were. She thought about the gull on the fence post, how it leaned into the wind without fighting it.

"When does he want an answer?"

"He's asked to meet you this Thursday."

"That isn't an answer to my question."

Pratt adjusted his papers. "Thursday is the answer, Miss Caldwell."

The Montgomery house was not on Elmore Street. It was not on any street that ordinary people lived on. It sat on the bluff above the harbor, behind an iron gate flanked by stone pillars that had been imported from somewhere in Europe. She had heard someone say Scotland once, though she doubted Charles Montgomery had ever been sentimental enough to care about the origin of his stone...