devil?" he said. "Is the whole house awake at this hour?"
Grace slipped forward and hoped he would notice the way the lamplight danced on the folds of her silk robe. Surprisingly, he had on his coat and that awful animal still over his back. She could not understand how Ahcho had allowed her husband to march into the front hall and rise to the living quarters with desert dust flying off him.
"Reverend," she asked, "would you like to take off your coat?"
He stared down at his traveling attire as if noticing it for the first time. His hand touched one of the ropes of leather around his neck, and a bell sounded. "Yes," he said, "I believe I would."
"Mai Lin, don't keep the Reverend waiting."
Mai Lin shuffled forward and tried to help with the animal hide, but it was too much for her elderly arms and short stature. He yanked it off himself and tossed it onto Grace's chaise. The lace antimacassars fluttered and were instantly covered in a fine layer of dust that flew out from the fur.
"Heavens," Grace said, "that creature has seen better days."
The Reverend did not smile. He bowed his head and allowed Mai Lin to remove several leather ropes from around his neck. She started to undo the red sash that crossed his chest, but he held on to the pouch with the twin yellow dragons and would not let her. Then Mai Lin reached up to unbutton his long coat, but he brushed her aside again.
"That's enough," he said. "Leave me be."
Grace was alarmed by his gruff tone. Usually, he was the model of civility with the servants, always attempting to teach by example. Do unto others, his tone customarily seemed to suggest. Now he sounded as coarse and uncaring as the lowliest coolie.
"Reverend, perhaps I can help you remove your overcoat?" Grace asked.
He peered down at her through glasses covered in dust.
"Or shall I first clean your spectacles?"
He nodded slightly, and she took them and wiped them on her robe. When she handed the glasses back to him, his hand touched hers, and her heart swelled with the possibilities still between them.
"My darling," she said.
He sat heavily upon the chaise. A light puff of dust wafted off him and reminded her not only of the distance he had traveled but of the one between them even now, although they were finally together. It made Grace deeply weary.
"Your coat now, sir?" she asked again in as light a tone as she could muster.
"I had best keep it on," he said. "I may be leaving again soon."
Grace's shoulders drooped, and she sensed her heart literally sinking deeper into her chest. Mai Lin must have sensed it, too, for she stepped closer. Grace felt faint and wished she were lying down again, but she remained standing over the Reverend as he placed his elbows on his knees and dropped his head into his hands. If she was worn and sorrowful, then he had to be so as well. She felt it her duty to help him return to his usual optimistic state.
"Mai Lin, you may leave us now," Grace said.
Her amah looked at her with anxious eyes. Grace mustered a smile and shooed the old woman off with a pale hand.
"Close the door after you, please."
Mai Lin's expression as she did so could only be called pleading.
After Mai Lin's departure, Grace knelt down with some difficulty before her husband. The baby in her belly kicked as she shifted, but she ignored it for now. She lifted her husband's callused hand and put it upon her cheek. He flinched at her touch, but after a few moments, he settled into it, a horse newly broken. She tossed back her hair like a girl, and still he did not look into her face. She felt silly as she stroked his hand, but it was her right. He was her husband, after all, and while there was no injunction in the marriage vows for a wife to console her husband in low moments, every American woman understood this to be part of the bargain.
"You must be terribly tired," she said. "Shall we lie down together upon my bed?"
He offered a soft grunt of agreement but didn't move.
"It has been so long since we have truly seen one another. I miss you, my love. And I want to know where you have been and what you have experienced. Tell me all." Her own bright voice surprised her. It was true,