excerpt

A mile away, across the fields, Penny McNeill spooned mashed
vegetables into her son’s mouth, and said in answer to her husband’s
question, “She’s lovely. She’s so homey, and I just felt comfortable
with her from the moment we met.”
Dave reached over to touch his wife’s hand. “I’m happy for you,
Pen. You haven’t had a friend your own age since you came out.
Maybe now you’ll stick around for a while.”
Penny used her free hand to push him in the shoulder, but she
smiled as she said, “Yes, maybe I will. But only on account of Sarah,
mind.”
Throughout the exchange between husband and wife, Alan kept
his head down, eating his supper with concentration.
Dave glanced at him. “You’re deep in thought tonight, little
brother.”
Alan looked up and frowned. “I don’t know how a girl like that
could have got mixed up with Ben Fielding,” he said sourly.
“Well,” Penny offered, “Ben may have been on his best behaviour
when they met. Maybe he can be charming when he wants to be.”
“That would be a surprise to everyone who knows him, wouldn’t
it? How did they meet, anyway?”
“I don’t know,” Penny said. “Sarah didn’t say, and I didn’t like to
ask her. But one thing I do know is that Bertha Johnson was wrong
about them meeting in Winnipeg, and Sarah being the aunt’s housekeeper.
Just as she told Dave the other day, she was a schoolteacher
in Ontario.”
“I can believe that,” Alan said with a slight smile.
“And,” Penny continued, “I’m absolutely certain that what Bertha
said about them having to be married is just malicious gossip.”
Alan dropped his fork onto his plate with a clatter. “Bertha Johnson
should mind her own damn business,” he said savagely, “She
spends too much time with the Nimkus busybodies, if you ask me.”
Penny and Dave exchanged covert glances, and changed the subject.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0981073530