Chapters Forty & Forty-One
The men finished well before their supper time and took their leave of Jonas with much winking and elbowing and queries as to whether he might need his own tiny house renovated, in the case that his bachelor days might soon be over. Jonas laughed with them, but said neither yea nor nay. He realized that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Mariah, but he hadn’t formally asked her, and until he had asked and received a positive response, he would make no assumptions about his future with her. Once he was alone in the house, he began his routine of checking each room and securing the house so he too could go home. He wanted to talk with Mariah. He would ask

Chapter Thirty-Nine
The trip back to Hannah and Jemima’s home was uncomfortable for Mariah.  The girls were obvious in their pleasure at the thought of Jonas leaving town, and they freely and unselfconsciously talked about the time the three of them—Mariah and the girls—would have together.  Hannah and Jemima tried to make it seem as if they only wanted to keep Mariah company while Jonas was gone, but their glee suggested otherwise. “On Sundays, you should come home with us and we can bake pies and cakes and then take them to the poorest among us.  On Saturdays, we can all go to the library and study, like we used too,” said Hannah as she happily skipped ahead of Mariah.