After Thomas had retired for the night, she and Esther sat at the kitchen table talking, and Harriett finally brought up her worries. “I’m so nervous about meeting Max.” She gripped her hands together tightly, her knuckles white. Esther stared at her friend in shock. “But you two have been writing for over two years! How can you be afraid?” Harriett shrugged. She’d never discussed her first marriage with Esther, or with anyone else for that matter. It wasn’t something she liked to talk about. “I’m really nervous about marital relations,” she finally blurted out. She knew it wouldn’t make sense to her friend, but how else could she possibly explain herself without the whole back story? “But you’ve been married. You must know all about relations!” Esther obviously couldn’t imagine what her friend’s problem was. Harriett sighed. How could she explain herself without telling her friend more than she wanted her to know? “I never really enjoyed relations with my husband.” Of course, it was hard to enjoy something that was always accompanied by a beating, but she didn’t tell her friend that. Esther shook her head. “Well, I don’t know what to tell you. I enjoyed relations with both of my husbands. I think if you find a good man, it will be fine.” She reached out and squeezed Harriett’s hand. “From what you’ve told me about Max, he sounds like a really good man.”
