Can't Fight My Heart, Uncle

The two families in Riversouth keep to arranged matches, and when one of them is called off the elders on both sides are left with the mess. They also keep an older custom, in which a small child at a ceremony is set down to reach out and take hold of something, and whatever she takes first is read as the shape of her life. Celeste lost her parents young and was brought up by Zane, whom she calls uncle. He raised her carefully and she grew up sure that he was out of her reach. An aunt living far off sends a letter breaking off an engagement, and both families are thrown into it. The elders have nothing to suggest. An aunt by marriage says that Celeste and Zane suit each other well enough to be matched instead. Celeste is out in the rain in Riversouth when she looks over at him and her face goes hot, and she agrees to it. She hears afterward what happened at her own ceremony as a child, when the first thing she reached for was Zane's hand.