“But truly, Rose, I don’t wish to talk about it any longer. Please tell me of something more cheerful! How have you been since I left? Do you have any suitors of your own?”
Rose chuckled, looking away. “Not as of yet.”
“But they are taking you to balls again? You have what you need?”
“We do. You don’t need to worry about us so much.”
“It's hard not to. Old habits die hard I suppose.”
“I can understand that, but we really are all right.”
“I’m so glad to hear that.”
Rose looked away. “I have to confess, I have been rather worried about you too.”
“You don’t need to.”
“How could I not be? We didn't even get a chance to say a proper goodbye after the wedding.”
“I know. It was horrible. I wanted nothing more than to run to you and hide away somewhere.”
“I felt the same way. It soothes my heart to see you doing so much better now.”
“Me too. I was worried about how you and Milly would do on your own.”
She laughed. “You make it sound like you were abandoning us in the middle of the woods.”
“Wasn’t I?”
“I would hardly say you had.”
“Well, I can assure you, it very much felt that way.”
“That’s rather funny. It very much felt like that was what I was doing to you.”
“You didn’t leave me anywhere.”
“Didn’t I?” she said, echoing Veronica’s own concerns.
“It didn’t feel that way to me. The only ones who abandoned me were our parents.”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t like that.”
“Please, can we just drop this for the moment? I just want to enjoy my time with my sisters while it lasts.”
“Of course. I’m sorry if I was pushing it too much.”
“It’s alright,” she assured.
Rose let out a breath. “Well, I think I’m going to go check on Milly for a bit.”
“That’s probably a good idea. You know how much she likes to wander off and get into mischief.”
“Yes, quite.”
“Oh!” Veronica said, stopping her just before she was about to slip out the door. “Before you go, I wanted to warn you, we aren’t in the habit of dressing for dinner. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Truly?” Rose didn’t try to keep the surprise from her voice.
