Esther and Adam are Jewish. The party enabled them to overcome some long standing disagreements and her father’s interference. Aldridge again came to their aid when it came to negotiating the marriage contract.
***
When they followed Aldridge into a second floor sitting room, Aunt Dinah fluttered in one corner in diaphanous shawls, but the woman in the center of the room would have reassured Esther things would go well, if she weren’t already perfectly certain she could manage Papa. The Duchess of Haverford took both Esther’s hands in hers, examined Esther carefully, and smiled warmly. “I’m to wish you happy?” she asked.
Esther nodded, a lump in her throat making speech impossible for a moment.
After much bowing and greetings, Mrs. Lipson clapped her hands. The woman knew her business. All eyes looked her way.
“Miss Esther Baumann, it is my pleasure to announce that your father has arranged a most advantageous marriage for you to a fine Jewish man of excellent family.”
Esther looked up at Adam standing next to her with narrowed eyes. He shrugged. Of course he spoke to Papa first. She couldn’t hold that against him.
“I assume you agree to this match.”
“Yes,” Esther murmured.
It seemed to be enough. The matchmaker went on without waiting. “Mr. Halevy, I assume you will agree to a traditional ketubah with amounts agreed to between you and Mr. Baumann.”
“Wait!” Esther exclaimed. She frowned. “Traditional? May I see the wording?”
“What is a ketubah?” the duchess asked.
“It’s a marriage contract,” Adam explained, “for a woman’s protection. The husband agrees to provide her with food, shelter, and—” He colored and looked around the room.
“—and her marital pleasure,” the matchmaker finished, “as is a wife’s right.” She gave a firm nod.
“Quite so,” Adam said. The look he gave Esther almost melted her toes. He would have no trouble fulfilling that obligation. Esther’s imagination ran away with her, momentarily distracting her from the question.
“A contract to protect wives,” the duchess declared, “How enlightened.”
“A promise of pleasure,” Aldridge murmured. “Very enlightened.”
“And he agrees to a sum put aside for her should he put her aside or die before her,” the matchmaker explained.
“Like marriage settlements?” Aldridge asked.
“Exactly like marriage settlements,” Adam said.
“But not, I suspect, enforceable in law.”
“No. Secular legal settlements will be required.” Baumann said. “Halevy and I have yet to negotiate the details.”
The blasted men talked about Esther’s future as if she wasn’t there. That snapped her out of her distraction.
“I want to see the wording,” she demanded, “of the ketubah and the settlements.”
All three men turned to look at her with astonishment. Her father looked outraged, Aldridge amused, and Adam? She couldn’t decipher his expression. It was almost as if he was frustrated that he had missed a particularly important point in his studies.
“The wording is traditional,” the matchmaker said, pulling a rolled up paper from her sleeve, “although some men feel the need to add clauses. I don’t approve.”
Esther took it from her. “This isn’t Hebrew,” she said.
“Aramaic,” Adam said, looking over her shoulder. “Legal language. Shall I read it?”
She handed it over with a glare.
“Shall I teach you Aramaic, too?” he asked with a smile that almost chased her annoyance away.
“That’s it?” she asked when he finished. “You’ll provide a house, feed my children, and, um, otherwise care for me? Can we add to it?”
“No,” the matchmaker said.
“Yes,” Adam said at the same time. “What would you add?”
“I want to add that all our daughters will be educated as well as our sons,” she said, raising her chin.
That statement provoked a strangled noise from her father and applause from the duchess.
“What nonsense!” Aunt Dinah and the matchmaker exclaimed simultaneously.
“I agree,” Adam said at the same time. Their eyes caught, and for a moment, the others might as well have been in the Antipodes.
“It also says you will pay 200 pieces of silver to buy me,” she whispered, still staring into his eyes.
He blinked and ran a hand across the back of his neck. “The silver is traditional, and it isn’t for purchase! The money is put in escrow for your protection in case something happens to me. The amount is negotiable.”
“The settlements?”
He nodded.
“Very well. You and my father may draw up the first draft of settlements, but I want to review them before you sign—and I want an English translation of the ketubah as well. If I like what I see, I’ll marry you.”
Against a background of gasps and a few chuckles, Adam drew back at first, but then he smiled and leaned forward until their foreheads touched. “You will like what you see, or I’ll make it right. I promise.”
***
In the end it took two days, particularly after Esther pointed out a nasty loophole regarding control of their daughters’ dowries, before Aldridge sent to London for their family solicitor. By December thirtieth, the settlement draft was complete.
