It was a practical, sensible arrangement. Alice needed someone to claim the child and offer her a home. He needed a child and someone to make his lonely home a home again. But it was also not more than that, and he wouldn't mind the ceremony to be over quickly. He barely knew the girl. This felt like a circus.

Alice looked shy and frightened, her father and the constable worried, and though her sister Anne tried to control herself, she was clearly near tears. Her other siblings just watched quietly. Alice's oldest sister and her family were there, as well as a young man he didn't know and some fishing girls. None of Tobias' friends of family were there. He had told Bess not to bother. The wedding was a formality, and he was far more grateful for her promise to help the maid prepare an evening meal for them, than he would have been if she had joined him here.

Though he usually listened attentively to the Bible reading and the sermon, he barely paid attention now. He hadn't even registered which passage had been read. He sat quietly next to Alice, not looking at her, though he sensed how occasionally she would tilt her head lightly to look up at him, before quickly looking down again.

When the time came for giving their vows and exchanging rings, they both stood.