The contradictory response was answer enough. Maybe she was in love, maybe she wasn't — Ife was certainly not the expert on such matters — but she was clearly conflicted. The real question, the one Ife couldn't guess at the answer to, was whether Callista was conflicted about Mr. Echelon-Arnost or about someone else. If she'd turned down an offer of courtship because she thought the relationship might prove dangerous, that was a level-headed, if difficult, decision to make. If she'd turned him down because she was caught up in romantic notions and dreams pinned on someone else... Ife would like to have dismissed the idea outright, to say that Callista had been raised better than to be so foolish, but apparently Bosede had not been.

"It might have been a smart match," she said. "You thought you'd suit too well?"

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