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died at birth. And then there’s Aunt Edith, who lives with us.”
    Kat sat down on a fallen tree and motioned Parker to sit beside her.
    “Aunt Edith exists for one purpose,” Parker continued. “She lives to marry me off.”
    “Why would she do that?”
    “She’s very strong on family. She wants to keep the title until it passes on down to infinity to the end of the world, I suppose.”
    “The title? You have a title?”
    Parker seemed uncomfortable. “Well, as a matter of fact, there is a title involved. It doesn’t mean too much, though.”
    “So . . . what is it?”
    “My father is a baron—Lord Braden. When he dies, I’ll have the title.”
    “I’m terribly impressed. I’ve never spoken to the son of a baron before.”
    “It’s not that important. It’s a pretty lowly title, in fact. I’m just an ordinary manager of an airplane factory who raises cattle on the side. Please don’t make a fuss over the title.”
    “You manage your father’s factory? You didn’t tell me that.”
    “Some people get all caught up in jobs and titles. That’swhy I didn’t tell you before. I just wanted you to treat me like a normal person.”
    Kat tried to pry more out of him, but he resisted, steering the conversation back to her family.
    “I rather like your stepmother’s way of finding a husband,” he said.
    “It’s a wonderful story, isn’t it?”
    “It is. I’ve never heard another quite like it. Do you plan to use the same technique?”
    “In a way I do.”
    Startled, Parker turned and studied her face. It was hard to see her eyes in the moonlight, but he noticed the richness of her expressive, clean-edged lips. He could not help also noticing the lovely turn of her throat and the perfect fit of her dress. The moonlight ran over the curve of her shoulders, and her face was a mirror that changed as her feelings changed. She wasn’t smiling, but the the hint of one was tugging at the corners of her mouth.
    Parker Braden felt himself stirred by her in a way that startled him. She was tall and shapely, and as young as she was, her eyes mirrored some sort of wisdom. She gazed at him silently, and he knew that a woman’s silence could mean many things. He was not sure what it meant in her, but it pulled at him like a mystery. He only knew at that moment that she was a young woman with a great deal of vitality and imagination and beauty.
    “And that surprises you,” she finally said, “that I’m waiting for God to send me a husband.”
    “Actually it does. It’s a wonderful story about your stepmother and your father, but do you think that sort of thing can happen to anyone?”
    “I’m not sure, but I’ve set my heart on following whatever it is God has for me.”
    The heavy air of summer moved against Parker with a sweet and winey odor. The silver disk overhead diluted the darkness and suddenly he felt the immensity of the skies, buthe ignored it, for he was fascinated by Katherine Winslow. “So you will wait until God brings a man into your life, and then you’ll marry him?”
    “It’s more than that, Parker,” she whispered. Her lips were soft and vulnerable as she spoke, and her skin was like alabaster in the pale light that bathed them. “I know that God has something for me to do. I sense that He has a high calling for me, and I intend to find out what it is.”
    Parker was moved by her speech. “I say, that’s a wonderful aspiration.” He reached out and took her hand. He raised it to his lips and kissed it but didn’t release it. “I’ve never met a woman like you.”
    Kat was startled by the gesture, and her face grew warm. “Nobody has ever kissed my hand before.”
    He smiled. “I kissed the queen’s hand once, but yours is much better.”
    “Wait a minute. Don’t work your wiles on me.” She pulled her hand back, but they both laughed.
    “I’m afraid we should be heading back,” he said, rising from the log and pulling Kat to her feet. “I want to hear more about