Nathanial Craig never expected to find himself under contract for marriage. At forty-eight, he was content with his books, his students, and his quiet life in the small coastal town of Gull Harbor, Maine. But when the school board insists their new teacher must be married before the term begins—or risk losing his position—Nathanial has no choice but to comply with their demands. A wife, they claim, will anchor him to the community and silence any whispers of impropriety. At forty-five, Miss Cora Hollingsworth has long accepted that love and courtship have passed her by. Strong-willed, practical, and far too wise to believe in fairy-tale endings, she seizes Miss Mabel’s offer as her one chance at freedom—from the wealthy, overbearing woman she has served most of her life. But Gull Harbor proves far from welcoming. Parents doubt Nathanial’s strict methods, town gossips whisper about their hasty marriage, and rumors threaten to cost him the very post that forced him into wedlock in the first place. As tensions rise, Nathanial and Cora must decide whether to cling to pride and pretense—or to risk their hearts on the covenant God may be weaving from their fragile arrangement. Sometimes, even in life’s autumn years, God’s sweetest lessons arrive in the most unexpected classrooms.