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married forty or fifty years but I wouldn’t expect it from you.”
    “Maybe...,” Polly returned. “maybe they don’t feel like celebrating when someone has determined to kill us both at the altar. I don’t much care to celebrate it myself.”
    “Do you mean,” the Master asked. “ that you don’t care to celebrate Noah Bartlett’s hollow threat? Or that you don’t care to celebrate him killing us?”
    Polly folded her hands in her lap. “You know, Mr. Buchanan, I really don’t appreciate you making a joke out of this situation.”
    The Master sat back in his chair. “Oh, come on, Polly. I’m just trying to lighten up the conversation a little bit. You can’t blame me for that.”
    “I just wish you’d take this situation a little more seriously,” Polly replied.
    “I’m sorry I can’t take Noah’s Bartlett’s empty threats seriously,” the Master told her. “They’re too ridiculous to consider at all.”
    “What makes you think his threats are hollow and empty?” Polly asked.
    The Master shrugged one shoulder. “I’ve been in this town a few years now. He hasn’t done anything to me yet, and I don’t think he’ll have the guts to do it now.”
    “And you’re willing to bet both our lives on that?” Polly asked.
    “Noah Bartlett is a schoolyard bully, just like his son,” the Master replied. “He isn’t dangerous if you only stand up to him. He wants the chance to try something underhanded at the church tomorrow so I can de-fang him.”
    “I think maybe you don’t understand just how malicious he can be,” Polly remarked.
    The Master raised one eyebrow. “What makes you think you know more about him than I do? You saw him once at the train station. I’ve lived in the same town with him for more than two years now. I think I know something about him that you don’t. Unless there’s something you aren’t telling me.”
    “I found out everything I needed to know about him yesterday,” Polly mumbled.
    “You’ll just have to trust me about tomorrow,” the Master replied. “I promise you, it won’t be the disaster you think it will be.”
    “I hate to see you in trouble,” Polly returned. “You seem like a good man. I think I would have liked being married to you.”
    The Master studied her for a while. Then he said, “I won’t try to argue with you about it anymore, Polly. I only wish you would trust me on this.”
    “I wish I could,” Polly whispered.
    The butler came over to the table just then with their brandy, and they stopped talking. Not long after, the food came, and they ate almost the entire meal in silence.
    Afterward, the Master saw Polly to the foot of the stairs. As she laid her foot on the lowest step, the Master took her by the hand. “Promise me you’ll come to the church tomorrow. Promise me you won’t back out of this before then.”
    Polly refused to look him in the eye. “I don’t want to go if it means watching Noah gun you down at the altar.”
    “I don’t think that will happen,” the Master replied.
    “You think what you want to think,” Polly told him. “You don’t recognize the danger you’re in.”
    “Maybe not,” the Master admitted. “Just promise me you’ll come.”
    “I didn’t come all this way to back out now,” Polly replied.
    “Just promise me,” the Master repeated. “Promise me you won’t run away.”
    “I won’t run away,” Polly replied. “I’ll be there, even if it means attending my own funeral.”
    The Master kissed her hand. “Thank you. Rest well. After tomorrow, no one will separate us again.”
    Polly ascended the stairs without saying good night.

Chapter 10
    The Master turned away from the staircase. But instead of going out through the front door of the hotel, he went back into the dining room. He strolled over to the table he and Polly just left and drained the rest of the brandy out of his glass. Then he turned around and pulled back the curtain.
    “You can come out now,” he told