"What's it like for you, Velvet? Being married, I mean?" Velvet permitted herself a dreamy sigh and gazed into the bonfire as though she saw some wonderful pageant being played out there. "It gets better every day," she answered after a long time. "Hank and me, we work together, side by side, all day through. And come night, we--well, we're together then, too." Lily was touched, and a little amused, to see that her worldly friend was blushing. "Do you think that's enough, though--liking what a man does to you in bed?" Velvet shook her head. "Wouldn't be enough by itself, I reckon. It's if you can laugh and talk together, and if you know you'd stand by him no matter what, and he'd stand by you." Glancing toward Caleb, Lily let out a long sigh. "I just don't know. That man is so stubborn, sometimes I think I'd better just give in and marry him." "Why don't you?" "He'd own me then, just like he owns his horse and his land and his shotgun." Velvet smiled. "I don't mind Hank ownin' me," she said. "That's silly, Velvet," Lily protested. "You're a human being, not a saddle blanket or a wheelbarrow. Nobody can own you." "Can if you let 'em," Velvet insisted. Lily"