Lily spoke quietly as if it would hurt too much to say the words any other way. “You said you were their choice for a while.”
“Mm-hmm. They changed their minds.”
“Do you know why?”
“The short of it is that I made you sick.”
“What?” Lily frowned deeply.
“Perhaps I’m doing it now. Are you sure I can’t get you anything? A headache powder?”
She touched the twin creases between her eyebrows with her fingertips and smoothed them away. “No. I’m fine. Confused, but fine.”
“Do you recall accompanying me to the drugstore for fizzy drinks?”
“Very well.”
“Then you might also recall that you were not feeling well afterward. I have this information from Clay, and he and Hannah both knew it was not the fizzy that caused your distress. You were not yourself for days, I believe. Hannah told Clay you were grieving. They concluded that I needed to stay away.”
“Grieving? Hannah said that?”
“According to Clay she did. He was inclined to believe her.”
“Hmm.”
“Was she right? Were you grieving?”
Lily stared straight ahead and didn’t answer.
“Clay said I make you skittish.”
“My son tells you things he knows nothing about.”
“I’m not so sure that’s true. He observed that I make the librarian twitchy.”
Lily’s hand flew to her mouth. She hid her bubbling laughter behind it.
“I know,” said Roen. “It made me laugh, too. Not in front of Clay, mind you, but later when I thought about it.”
Sobering, Lily lowered her hand and picked up her teacup. The tea was cold now. She sipped it anyway. “You have good instincts where Clay is concerned, and I’ve glimpsed the same with his brother and sisters.”
“I wish those same instincts were as sharply honed with you.”
“Yes, I’m sure you do.” She fell silent, holding her teacup in both hands but not drinking from it again. “Why me, Mr. Shepard?”
“Roen,” he said.
She didn’t bite at the dangling bait and continued doggedly instead. “Why put your proposal to me instead of any of the other unmarried women in Frost Falls?”
“Miss Fletcher, for instance?”
“Well, yes. Or Mrs. Fish’s daughter. Or Cerise Palmer.”
“Do you mean to name every unmarried woman? Don’t forget Miss Renquest. If not for the fact that she’s nearing ninety, I would have gone to her home first.”
“Please...Roen... answer my question.”
“I already explained that Dr. Madison gave me the idea.”
