She wasn't able to mask her surprise at his words. The distance between them in those days was intentional, a forceful shove of separation to drill the break into their hearts. No one — not her family, friends or coworkers — mentioned anything about him then, even now it was a rare that his name was brought up at all. Still, someone would have seen him between March and February. His coworkers, his family, his friends — someone had to have noticed him after his wedding fell through. "What do you mean by no one?" Rosalie asked, unable to stop herself from pushing.

His questions made her pause though. It felt wrong to discuss the curse with him when he'd made his position clear. She had hundreds of questions for him, countless possible solutions to try, and hadn't mentioned any because of his boundary. Rosalie was waiting until she found something she was certain would work to reach out again. Maybe then he'd be willing to listen.

Still, any solutions found wouldn't help with the questions he was currently asking.

"I'm not sure what you mean by it," she eventually honestly answered. "Your curse in general or something specific? I only ever saw two instances of something bothering you beyond the altered speech and both times were well after 1890."

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