She took out a stiff blue legal folder and laid it flat on the mahogany table between the two armchairs.

“We got married four years ago at the Westfall Municipal Court,” Ruth said.

She opened the top sheet of white paper and turned it so the inked side faced my hand.

The page carried the raised official seal of Stark County, dated November twelfth, four years earlier.

Robert Vance and Ruth Vance were printed on the main line as husband and wife.

“We bought this cottage three years back,” Ruth said.