The wedding of Hannah and Aloysius came quickly, just two weeks after Alice had made the fated match official. 

The happy couple did not want to wait and the Kennards certainly had no desire to delay such a propitious match. Aloysius’ parents, though, had encouraged delay, hoping that their son’s ardor would wane and they could then arrange a different match, one that would solidify their already impressive wealth and power.  In the end, though, the Millmans could not resist the entreaties of the son they loved. They had other sons who could fulfill that dynastic function.

And, of course, winter was coming, and it would soon be difficult to travel.

Everyone who attended the solemn ceremony was convinced that the pair had been given all of the blessings of the heavens. 

The great church was vaguely gothic in style, though it had been altered so often that it would be hard to attribute it to any one style. Rather than being discomforting, it was one of the rare occasions where the hodgepodge of disparate styles blended to create a reverential and beautiful place of worship. Monsignor Lang, though, was not pleased with the holy place as it existed. Instead, he could not see past his embarrassment at overseeing such an undersized church.  The monsignor had come to the town from the great cathedral where he was certain he would one day be the archbishop.  However, his refusal to grant an annulment to what he thought was an ordinary merchant couple had been his undoing.  The woman in the couple was the pregnant mistress of a very powerful and childless lord.  Had he known of the connection, his scruples would have been more flexible.  Instead, almost a year earlier, he had been sent away to this distant and undistinguished town, the expectation being that he would disappear from sight, never to return.  The monsignor, though,   had not accepted his fate and planned his return one day to the cathedral.  His first plan was to erect a new church in the town, or negin the process since the actual completion of such a large structure would take several decades.  He was correct that the existing church was much smaller than those in other equally prosperous towns.  He just had to convince the local wealthy merchants that their pride demanded a large church.  He had made an unfortunate error with Miss Porter, but there were many other prominent families he could woo.  He knew, though, that he needed to somehow make amends with the angry woman since no one in town would feel compelled to finance a new place of worship unless Porter money was also committed to the project.