Chapter 41: They have to stay with an old lady in a small town nearby because the mechanic can't fix the car until the next day. The sleeping situation has Will and Grandpa in one bed and Miss Love on a cot in the next room, so it will look like the married couple was together and Will was alone. Granpa goes to Miss Love after he thinkg Will is asleep, and Will overhears Grandpa and Miss Love confessing their secrets to each other.
Grandpa admits that he has been loving Miss Love since he saw her. He also explains that he and Miss Mattie Lou had been like friends or siblings since they found out having more children might kill Granny. Though Grandpa dearly loved his wife, he had "stayed off from her" for so long that the passion had gone out of their marriage. Grandpa explains how guilty and shameful he felt for so long and how God "set [him] free" of Miss Love when Granny was dying, but how after she dies, he had been determined to marry Miss Love and that he had "stolen" Mary Willis's trip to New York in order to spend time with Miss Love alone.
Miss Love says she never guessed his feelings and that she could never have a "real" marriage: she only agreed to marry Grandpa because she thought she would be merely his housekeeper. She finally tells Grandpa the awful secret that caused Mr. McAllister to initially reject her after she told him: Miss Love's was a violent drunk who, one night, when she was young, had insisted that Miss Love was not really his child and had raped Miss Love.
Grandpa is horrified by the story but still wants to be with Miss Love; he tells her, "[hit] don't make no difference" to him. But she thinks it will and sends Grandpa back to bed with Will.
The next day, on the way home, Grandpa rides up front with Will.
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