She shook her head. “No. I am fine.”
Noah nodded, then faced the group walking ahead of them. “Very well. Let me know if you change your mind.”
Hannah put a hand to her bonnet, holding it in place as they spanned the last stretch of hill that held the decorative building. She looked up the tower to a window and envisioned a woman trapped within, staring down and watching them, helpless to join yet yearning to do so all the same. Hannah could not confess to such confinement, but there were times she felt that way. Watching from the outside, too scared to join for fear she would do something rash and cause her parents to whisk her away to a place where no one knew who they were. Perhaps it would be better for Hannah to hold people at arm’s length. Then it wouldn’t hurt so much when the friendships had to be severed.
Hannah sighed, then brought her gaze down, only to jerk back when she found Noah watching her.
Noah’s head gently dipped to the side. “What I wouldn’t give to see into that mind of yours.”
She put a hand to her chest and swallowed. “Excuse me?”
“The expression on your face as you stared at the tower. It was as if you were telling yourself a story—and I find myself wishing to know it.”
Hannah looked at the ground, feeling insecure under his gaze. “It was only something silly that Sarah had mentioned earlier.”
“Let me guess.” Hannah glanced up and found Noah grinning at her. Then he took a deep breath. “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”
“No,” she said, smiling. “Nothing so romantic.”
“Are you going to leave me in suspense then?”
Hannah breathed a laugh, then looked up at the tower window again. People were swarming about the base of its walls, some going inside to climb the stairs and others taking a rest on the grass. “Sarah thought it would be rather fanciful to pretend a young woman had been trapped in the tower, going mad from her forced isolation.”
“Goodness,” Noah said. “That is rather dark.”
Hannah found herself transfixed—the world moving around her while she was transported to another time.
“You are telling yourself the story again,” Noah said softly.
Hannah’s eyes fluttered closed. “I only wondered if all towers have walls.”
“Something happened.” Noah took Hannah’s hand and placed it on his arm. “Please, tell me. You are always so quick to listen to me, but whenever we broach the subject of yourself, you close up. I want to listen, Hannah. Please.”
“I just—” Hannah’s voice caught. She took a moment to collect herself. The last thing she needed was to make another scene and give her mother more reasons to leave. “Remember the other day? When the bee was buzzing about my ear?”
“Yes,” Noah said, his brow furrowed as he gave a single nod.
“Well, today, while Mrs. Baxton was retrieving me, it came to be known to my mother.”
“About the bee.” Noah’s head tipped forward.
Hannah bobbed her head. “I know it sounds silly, but I saw it in her eyes, Noah. The warning. The deliberation in her mind.”
“What do you mean?” He took an infinitesimal step closer. “That she might honestly make you move because you were scared of a bee?”
“That is exactly what I mean.”
Noah scoffed. “That is utterly ludicrous. I know I had joked about it the other day, but I was not serious. She cannot possibly—”
“But she can,” Hannah said, cutting him off. “She will tell father that no man within earshot will have me and that we must be off to somewhere new.”
“And he will believe her?”
“He always has.”
There was silence for a moment as they both collected their thoughts.
“That is ridiculous,” Noah finally said. “You did nothing wrong. And your parents cannot keep moving you about the country. It is not sustainable. Nor is it fair.”
