It's something to be worried about. It's something that will need to be handled. It probably means that they're going to start to need to be more careful, to make better plans for the quiet way they all come together.

Particularly if people are slandering his wife this way. If she's here shaking before him from her own father bringing report of such things.

"I know your heart, Rachel. Elliot knows your heart." One thumb brushes at the corner of her eye, compulsive against tears he doesn't see but worries will fall. "These boys are-- Rachel, this child--" One hand has to drop down and touch the boy's cheek again "Is mine. I will go to the grave swearing that to the world that he is my son and that you have been nothing but faithful to our holy love. And it will-- not be a lie."

Not to them. Not to the honesty of the emotions between them.