Even though the door had been open, thus signaling that Elias would be home, Irene realized that once she heard his voice, she’d been hoping he wouldn’t be home. That she might be able to delay this until the last possible moment…but she had to give her answer at some point, and she didn’t want to delay. His eyes were bright and of course he seemed in a genial mood; there was rarely a moment when he didn’t seem to be in a good mood these days. It didn’t take a genius to know why, but of course because Irene knew, she only gave him a wan smile and wondered if he was going to be seeing Daffodil later that day.

As much as she wanted to, Irene couldn’t exactly bring herself to return his joke. Any ridiculous answer that she might have cooked up was simply evaporated. “I wanted er — to ask you something.” She began awkwardly, glancing up at him. For whatever reason she wasn’t able to unstick herself from the seat, and so he towered over her. “It’s a bit complicated, so it might be best if you —” Fishing back into her pocket, she unfolded the letters and handed to him, a slight tremor running through her at the anticipation of his reaction. Would he tell her to go? Would he want her to stay? A tiny seedling of hope had been buried at the small possibility that he wouldn’t want her to go alone, and he’d offer to accompany her. Because Irene wasn’t sure she wanted to do this alone.

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