Persepha couldn’t believe it when her beloved guardian died suddenly, leaving her alone in the world just as her life was beginning. Perhaps it was because she was still numb with grief that she listened to the magnetic Don Diablo Ezreldo Ruy, her guardian’s friend, when he announced his intention to marry her. “But you don’t know me — you don’t love me,” Persepha protested. And he replied, “In Mexico, señorita, the knowing and the loving come after marriage.” But would they? How could she ever begin to love him when, all too soon, she realized that what he truly wanted from her was a child?
