The next few days passed pleasantly enough, with everyone getting ready for the wedding.

Monday evening, Dan Jefferson paid a visit to Serenity, staying for supper only when Kaylee persuaded him.

“Don’t think you can get round me with … what’s that great smell?” he asked, sniffing appreciatively.

“ Coq au vin ,” Simon supplied as he placed the dish in the centre of the table and lifted the lid. “Only with some of my wife’s home-made wine instead of the vin , and the coq is some creature Jayne went out and caught.”

Dan’s eyes widened in surprise. “You cooked?”

“One of my many talents.” He smiled. “Don’t you?”

“Simon, I grew up with a mother and four sisters, and a Pa who considered a woman’s place was in the kitchen. Or the bedroom. I can’t even boil an egg without nearly burning down the house.”

“Exactly the same as me,” Hank said eagerly. “Without the feeling a woman’s place is in the kitchen, of course,” he added quickly, smiling at Zoe. “But the bedroom’s fine.”

She merely raised an eyebrow at him.

“Won’t Deirdra be waiting a meal on you?” Mal asked, amused.

“Nope.” Dan watched as the plates were filled. “I went home earlier, and we talked a bit. Probably best I give her some space for a few hours.”

“Is everything going to be okay?” Freya asked, putting bowls in front of both Ethan and Jesse.

“I hope so.” Taking a hunk of bread from the platter River passed to him, he paused a moment. “I want it to be. So bad. It’s just … I can’t make her see I’d never want anyone else.”

“Give it time,” Kaylee advised, sighing as Bethie attacked her food as usual, Hope much more delicate with her eating.

“Oh, I intend to. Much as it takes.”

After supper Mal saw Dan to the ramp.

“You really don’t wanna tell me what happened out there today, do you?” the sheriff asked, feeling a pleasant fullness in his belly.

“Well, that kinda depends.”

“On what?”

“Whether you’re talking as a person or a lawman.”

“Can’t I be both?”

“Not right now