Chapter 4

Aunt Leila picked up the chipped stoneware bowl, took a sip of water, and sat there mulling it over for a long stretch without a word.

The room went so quiet you could hear a mouse gnawing wood in the corner.

Then she set the bowl down hard on the table and dropped her voice. "Truth is, there's still one girl left. Only thing is, I'm afraid your Dickerson family wouldn't dare marry her."

My father jumped in fast. "Whose girl? As long as she doesn't want a bride price, we don't care if she's missing an arm or a leg!"

Aunt Leila leaned in, all secretive. "Carrie Fox, from Fairview! Now that's a hellcat and a wild woman known for miles around!"

The name hit me and something in my chest lurched. The matches dropped right out of my hand onto the floor.

Aunt Leila launched into it, spit flying. "That girl's clean out of her mind these days. Every man who's gone to propose, no matter how good his prospects, she beats and curses him straight out the door. Day before yesterday she took a broom to the son of the richest man in Westbrook and left his head covered in lumps!"

She shot me a glance. "Nathaniel, if you don't care whether you live or die, if you've got the guts, your aunt'll take you over tomorrow and you can try your luck!"

My parents went pale as they listened, staring at each other, neither of them daring to say a word.

I shut my eyes. Behind them flashed the sight of Carrie Fox, that wild look on her face as she smashed a brick against her own forehead. Then I looked at my parents, at those eyes full of hope and helplessness.

I gritted my teeth and gave a hard nod. "I'll go! As long as she dares to marry, I dare to take her!"

The next day I carried two packs of the cheapest brown sugar and a bundle of low-grade glass noodles, and, steeling myself, followed Aunt Leila through the gate into the Fox family's yard.

The moment I stepped inside, the air in that yard was downright strange.

I'd braced myself for a broom to the head. Instead, the second Carrie Fox's parents saw me, their eyes lit right up.

Her father charged straight over, snatched the sorry little gifts out of my hands, warm as if he'd just laid eyes on the man who'd saved his life. "Nathaniel's here! Come in, come in, get up on the kang and warm yourself!"

Her mother flew into a fluster, dug out an unopened tin of tea, and steeped me a whole big mug of it.

The strangeness of it broke a cold sweat down my back and set my mind spinning.

Before long the door curtain to the inner room lifted and Carrie Fox came out.

She had a handful of sunflower seeds in her fist, cracking them as she came and spitting the shells right down by my feet.

She rolled her eyes, her voice sharp and grating. "Well now, who do we have here. Turns out it's the penniless wretch who can't even earn back his own bride money. What, you come crawling to my house to sponge off us?"

My face went hot and red, both hands clamped down on the hem of my shirt, and it took me a long time to force out, "I... I've come to propose."

Carrie Fox stopped cracking seeds all at once and stared me down, something in her eyes I couldn't put a name to.

Just when I was sure she was about to go for the broom, she let out a cold laugh. "Fine. I'll marry you."

The instant those words left her, the room went dead silent.

Her parents, like they were terrified she'd take it back, shot up off their stools.

"Really? Carrie, you agreed? Oh, thank the Lord above!" Her mother's tears spilled over, and she turned and started rummaging through the drawer for the household register.

Her father gripped my hand tight, tripping over his own words. "Nathaniel, let's set the date right now! The eighth of next month, that's a lucky day! We won't take a cent of bride price, and we'll send her off with a dowry too! Two sewing machines and a bicycle!"

I sat there watching this whole absurd scene play out and felt like a condemned man being marched to the execution ground. My whole life was about to be ruined for good in the hands of this hellcat.