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understanding.  "Oh, I wouldn't mind at all."  He carried a few logs of wood over from the box next to the front door, frowning as he looked at it.  He kept it there because it was easier to carry the wood to just inside the door, but he could see it would need to be moved.  Her convenience was so much more important than his.  He knelt down and started the fire, getting to his feet.  "Anything else?"
    She shook her head, touching his shoulder.  "Thank you for helping me."  She walked to the work table and put away some of the supplies they'd purchased, trying to decide what she would cook for their supper.  "I won't always be so helpless."
    He stared at her in surprise.  "You're not helpless at all.  You helped me with purchasing things in town.  You've done everything I expected of you.  In fact, I think you should sit down and let me heat the water.  You can put the supplies away after your bath."
    She shook her head.  "I'm strong.  I can do this."   She wouldn't let her new husband down on her first day of marriage.  She couldn't do that to either of them.
    He brought in the tin tub from where it was resting up against the side of the house.  "Why did you come here as a mail order bride?  Why not stay back East?"   He glanced at her as he asked.
    She flushed, not wanting to answer him, but not willing to lie to him either.  "From the time I broke my leg, my mother has treated me like an invalid.  If I so much as walked into the kitchen to sit at the table and peel potatoes for our supper, she'd become angry and make me go back to the parlor to do embroidery.  I was allowed out of the house to go to church, but she stayed beside me.  She wouldn't let me wander around and talk to the other young people.  I've pretty much been a prisoner for the past twelve years.
    "Our family's cook, Mrs. Jenkins, saw an ad for a mail order bride, and she brought it to me, knowing it may be the only way I would ever get out from under my mother's thumb.  I loved the idea, and jumped at the chance.  I didn't tell my parents that I'd sent the letter off until the day before I was to leave Beckham, though, because I knew my mother would do everything she could to keep me from leaving."
    He looked at her with surprise.  "But you left anyway?"  She had to be strong-willed to go against her mother that way and strike out on her own.  He was very impressed, because he knew few women who could do that.
    "I had to.  I talked to my father and told him, and he dealt with my mother.  He said he thought it would be the only way I would ever find happiness."
    Colin walked across the room to her and pulled her into his arms, holding her close to him.  "I can't promise that I'll always be easy to live with, or that I'll be the best husband in the world, but I do promise that I will not keep you from doing things you're perfectly capable of doing."  He kissed the top of her head as he held her.
    She smiled against his shirt, inhaling his scent.  "I think I was meant to marry you.  John wasn't ever meant to be my husband."   Apparently, John wasn't meant to be anyone's husband.
    He laughed.  "I hope you still feel that way after our first argument."
    She looked at him in surprise.  "Are we going to argue?"  Her parents hadn't really argued much, because her father hadn't allowed it.
    Colin shrugged.  "I come from a long line of hard-headed argumentative people.  If we don't fight, I'm not sure that I'll feel like I'm really married."
    She laughed.  "My parents never fought.  They had discussions.  Mother told father how she thought things should be and he either said yes or no.  That was the end of it." 
    "Elaine, I'm not your boss.  I believe marriage is an equal partnership.  If you don't like something, you need to tell me.  Your opinion will always matter to me."
    She nodded smiling.  "My water's boiling."  She rushed to the stove and picked up a towel, carrying the pot to the tub and pouring it in.