something in a short pencil and handed it to Don Julian.
“All right. Saturday.”
Nothing more.
No courtship. No questions. Not a single sign of illusion.
The ceremony lasted less than ten minutes. Father Ignacio pronounced the words as one who fulfills an uncomfortable obligation. Clara repeated the vows with a voice that she did not feel her own. Elijah merely nodded when necessary. When the time came for the kiss, he barely grazed her cheek with his lips and immediately turned away.
He didn’t seem happy.
It also didn’t seem cruel.
That, strange as it was, left Clara even more dislodged.
The trip to the ranch took almost two hours. He drove the cart quietly. She, next to her, carried her hands intertwined on her lap and watched the white landscape extend as far as the eye could see. Upon arrival, he found a solid wooden house, a corral,
