The board scheduled the hearing for the second week of November. They sent an auditor, a thin man with thin glasses named Mr. Hale, who walked through the house with a clipboard and asked me questions in a voice that never changed temperature.
"Do you and Mr. Voss share a bedroom?"
"No."
"Do you share meals?"
"Sometimes."
"Do you share finances?"
"I have an allowance. He has the trust."
Mr. Hale wrote something down. "The charter is quite specific, Mrs. Voss. The estate is granted on the condition that the marriage is a true marriage. For six years, the board has looked the other way. Now there's a competing claim. A challenge from the coast."
I felt my stomach drop. "Julian."
"Mr. Voss has filed a petition arguing the original crossing was void, since he left the barge before com
