And so we set out. As soon as we turned off Crooked Street, Joel and Anne increased their pace, as if by arrangement, so that Caleb and I could fall just far enough behind to have private speech. Caleb, as ever, was direct. “Anne says you have a suitor. She said he as good as proposed marriage to you this morning.” I turned my face to him. “It is true. I believe he will ask me, formally, at the first opportunity. I don’t know how I should answer him.”
