Page 108 of Charlotte

“You know why.”

“No. I know the case you have argued against yourself. I am asking for the truth.”

Cecil looked to Preacher Sutton, then Val, then back to Lottie.

“They should not have to hear this.”

“You brought them into it.”

The realization left him speechless.

Preacher Sutton folded his hands. “Truth rarely suffers from honest witnesses, Mr. Peterson. Mrs. Sutton and I can step outside if Miss Bellamy wishes.”

Lottie shook her head. “No. He wanted this done properly. Let it be proper.”

Cecil drew a deep breath.

“You deserve a man who can stand beside you without wondering when he will shame you,” he said. “A man who can dance with you in a room full of people instead of hiding behind the meeting hall. A man with a house ready, a trade steadier than camp work, and two hands fit for holding children without wondering whether one of them will fail.”

Val made a small sound.

Lottie did not look away from Cecil.

“There it is,” she said softly. His brows drew together. “The list.”

“Lottie—”

“No. I have heard versions of it all week. You don’t have a proper house and are no longer a logger. Instead, you keep busy with tasks around the camp. You don’t have your full hand. We can’t dance in public. You keep presenting your fear as evidence and expecting me to call it wisdom.”

His face tightened. “I am trying to spare you.”

“I did not ask to be spared.”

“You are eighteen.”

“Yes. Shall I fetch Delly so she may give testimony that I am not seven?”

A flicker of pain crossed his eyes. Lottie saw it and regretted the edge, but not the truth.

“I am young,” she said. “I am not breakable.”

“I know you are strong.”

“No, you don’t.” Her voice shook now. She hated that too. “If you had known it, you would not have gone to the preacher first. You would not have asked how to undo my future as if I were a parcel addressed to the wrong house.”

“That is not what you are to me.”

“Then do not treat me like something to be handled correctly and returned.”

Cecil flinched.

Good.

Let that one strike where it needed to.

Lottie drew a breath and lowered her voice. “Do you love me?”

The room went utterly quiet.