She hadn’t noticed him. None of them had.
Torin stood at the edge of the tree line, and the warmth that had carried him down the mountain—the hope, the tentative openness, the fragile, dangerous willingness to imagine a different future—turned to ice in his veins.
Ivy went behind my back.
She’s broken my trust.
The thought was a blade, slicing through everything else—through the sound of his daughter's laughter, through the sightof four children innocently spinning in the sunshine, through the rational part of his mind that was trying, even now, to tell him that this incident was not a betrayal but a gift.
I told her no visitors. I told her to keep Jewel away from the children. And the moment I left the house, she turned against me.
Righteous anger burned through him. He breathed. In and out. Slow and controlled.
Be calm. The girls are neighbors. They've done nothing wrong. Jewel has done nothing wrong. Your anger is for Ivy.She’s the one who betrayed you.
Ivy saw him first. Her hand dropped from her mouth. Her expression shifted—the joy draining away, replaced by a wariness as she obviously braced for his reaction. She stood.
Good.
“Hello.” His voice came out pleasant. The careful, neutral tone he'd perfected over years of concealing his inner turmoil from his daughter.
He walked the remaining distance to the children and forced a smile. “You must be the Swensen girls. I’m Mr. Rees, Jewel’s father.” He nodded at the eldest. “Inga, you do such a good job with our mail.”
Inga straightened proudly, smoothing her pinafore. But she didn’t smile. She was old enough to sense the undercurrent, though she couldn’t have understood the reasons. “We came to deliver a letter, Mr. Rees.”
“That was kind of you.” Torin made himself sound calm.
Krista clasped her hands together. “Thank you for the fairytale book, Mr. Rees. Mama’s been reading us the stories.”
“That’s one of Jewel’s favorites, too.” He managed to remain polite.
Jewel released Elsabe’s hand and came running, her expression incandescent. “Pa-pa! Pa-pa, we play Ring round the Wo-see! Elsa-bee and Kis-ta and In-ga—they my fends!”
“I can see that, Sweetheart.” He crouched and gathered her to him, pressing his lips to the top of her head, smelling lavender soap and sunshine and the green, growing scent of the grass she'd been rolling in.She’s safe.
Over her shoulder, his stare connected with Ivy’s. He held her gaze for one long, charged moment—long enough to say, without words,we will discuss this—and then turned back to the Swensen girls with a smile that cost him effort.
“Thank you for the letter, Inga. And for playing with Jewel. Your parents will be expecting you home before too long, I’d imagine.” He dropped a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “Jewel needs to go inside now, girls. Say goodbye.”
Inga gathered her sisters with a quick word and a gesture—the practiced efficiency of an eldest child accustomed to herding younger ones.
“Bye-bye, Jewel!” Krista waved, wiggling her whole body. “We’ll come back soon!”
Oh no, you won’t.But that was a problem for a later time.
“Bye-bye, Elsa-bee!” Jewel waved back with both hands, bouncing on her toes. “Bye-bye, Kwis-ta! Bye-bye, In-ga! Come back, come back!”
“Bye, Jewel,” the other girls sweetly chimed, as they walked away. After a few steps, Krista took her sisters’ hands and the three swung their arms and began skipping in unison.
Torin had the idle thought that they’d obviously had plenty of practice in moving as one. He watched the three girls head down the path until they rounded the first bend and disappeared. Then he looked at Ivy, who stood on the porch steps with her chin lifted and her shoulders squared—the posture of a woman braced for the coming storm—and the wave of betrayal hit again.
He held up one hand. “Let’s see if we can persuade Jewel to take a nap. We’ll talk then.”
Ivy nodded once—a short, tight nod that acknowledged the temporary truce.
Getting Jewel down for a nap required more persuasion than usual. The child fizzed with energy, her body still humming with the residual excitement of the morning. She chattered the entire way to her room—about Krista’s braids and Elsabe’s singing, and how Inga helped her with words.
Torin listened without hearing. He made the right sounds, “Mm-hmm,” and “Is that so,” and,“How nice, Sweetheart,” while his mind churned behind the carefully neutral mask of his face. He helped her take off her shoes and remove her pinafore and dress, leaving her only in her shift. After tucking the quilt around Jewel's shoulders, he scooped up Brave and placed her on the bed. He leaned to kiss his daughter’s forehead.
