“I finally meet a guy who's interesting and who seems to have a half-interest in me and it is TOTALLY the wrong time and place.”

“And what of your children?" I gestured to the others at the table. "The only thing that divides us from that laborer who toils far beneath the surface of the earth in our fathers' mines is the blood that runs through our veins.""Or half our blood," Vivian said with a sniff."Vivian,"Mr Kensington warned.I didn't flinch. "Half my blood, then," I said with a prim nod back at Vivian. "But if I cut open my wrist alongside yours, would it not appear as the very same red? Despite your effort to be a blueblood, sister, you are as red-blooded as I.”

“Were they laughing at me? I forced myself to block them from my mind, to concentrate on the lake, the water. What were they to me? People I met today, that was all. We shared blood. The One who mattered to me still found me worthy, still loved me, whether I knew when to curtsy properly or not.”

“We are attempting to play God, when maybe God put ushere in the first place.” Father Tomas’s words by the stream came back to me. I could see his stick in theriver, the water dividing on either side. “We can only move forward with what we have been given. Negotiatethe river of life. Of time. And we’ve been given this,” I pleaded, waving at our circle. “Family. Love. Joy. Life.Can we not embrace it, for as long as we have it? Isn’t it what we all most dearly want, deep down?”

“Our faces were overly close, and in that moment something more passed between us. I’d never felt this kind of thing with a guy – such a connection. I knew, in my head, that we were practically strangers; but this thing – whatever it was – made me feel known. Seen. Acknowledged and appreciated and admired.”

“We are well," Hugh said, looking me over with more intensity than seemed proper. "And you?""I'm well, thank you," I said, lying through my teeth. I'd been better the day I took to my bed with measles.”

“His eyes opened, and he stared at me. The morning light was streaming through the window,and my hair rolled in waves over either shoulder.“God has smiled upon me. I have the most beautiful wife in all the land.”