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the children that day?” Ella asked.
    Nathan smiled. “I hoped you would.”
    “I’m happy to do all I can,” she said. “And I’ll help clean up after breakfast,” Ella offered.
    “I doubt you’ll have time today,” Mrs. Shippen told her.
    “Why not?”
    “You’ve forgotten,” Nathan said. “It’s Sunday. Mrs. Shippen’s son comes to get her for the day, and Charlotte will clean up. We head out for church in—” he withdrew his pocket watch and flipped open the cover “—about twenty-five minutes.”
    “Yes, of course.” Ella absorbed that piece of information with a calm smile pasted on her face. Of course it was Sunday, and everyone was up early and dressed for church. She glanced at Grace in her green plaid dress and the boys in white shirts and miniature ties. “Am I dressed appropriately?”
    Nathan’s attention flickered over her hair and touched on her dress. His gaze warmed in appreciation. “You look lovely.”
    She gripped her napkin in her lap. She had evening dresses aplenty, a selection of day dresses and a few skirts with blouses, but she’d never had occasion to own clothing for church. “I wasn’t sure what the ladies in Sweetwater wore to church, is all. I don’t want to make a bad impression. Perhaps I should wear a dress with a jacket.”
    “You’d be too warm,” he replied. “I like what you’re wearing.”
    “I’ll just go select a hat then.” She stood.
    “You’ve barely eaten anything,” he said.
    “It was very good, but I’m full. I’ll be down in time to leave.” She hurried from the room and up the stairs, where she dragged a stack of hatboxes to the center of the room and tossed off the lids. Finally deciding, she donned a black straw hat with a small brim. Tiny yellow and red silk flowers adorned the brim, and ends of frothy black netting hung down her back. Standing before the mirror, she settled it just right and stuck a long pearl-headed pin through each side, catching her hair.
    She lifted the tray from a trunk and rifled the contents until she found a pair of short white gloves with bead and seed pearl design. This was her debut morning as Mrs. Nathan Lantry. Nerves jittered in her stomach, chipping away at her always-firm composure. These new circumstances were out of her realm of confidence, but she couldn’t let her serene facade slip.
    The hat didn’t go well with her dress, so she removed her hat and tugged off the gloves, then changed into a white handkerchief blouse and donned a short-sleeved plum-colored velvet jacket. The color required she select a different hat, so she barely made it down the stairs and out the door as Nathan was helping the children into a buggy.
    “You look lovely,” he told her, and held her arm as she climbed in.
    “I noticed the carriage house from the window, but where are the horses kept?” she asked.
    “I stable two horses at the livery. The liveryman or one of his helpers brings one to the house on Sunday mornings. Whenever you want to go somewhere and don’t want to walk, simply let me know in the morning, and I’ll make arrangements for a driver to come hitch up the buggy.”
    She would want to go visit Celeste soon, but for now all she could focus on was this morning.
    This was her only chance for a first impression. She hoped for all she was worth that she measured up to the standards of the townspeople…and that Nathan would have no reason to be embarrassed by his hasty choice in a wife.

Chapter Five
    T he oak doors were already closed, so Nathan tugged one open. Organ music swelled as he gestured for Ella to enter ahead of him. She stepped into the white frame church, her boot heels echoing on the floorboards as she hesitated at the rear of the long aisle. Everyone had been seated, and now heads turned as Nathan guided her forward, the children in tow. Discomfort prickled at the collar of Ella’s modest white blouse, and she tried to walk more quietly. Beside and behind her the children’s