"Do you mean to say that you didn't love Grace?" Mary asks. "Or simply that you married her because you wanted your son to have a legitimate family?" It was the noble thing to do. Mary supposes that even thieves and criminals have a code of honor.

That brings her to asking what she knows she must and she takes a deep breath before continuing. "What is it that you did in Birmingham?" Her tone is quiet, resigned. "Horses? Cards? Bootlegging? Blackmail?" Please not opium.

She isn't going to judge him or stop spending time with him, but she has to know the sort of man that she's dealing with and how violent he might be.