I looked at him.
“Why didn’t you?”
Douglas closed his eyes.
“Because of my father.”
The answer was so unexpected that I almost laughed.
“Your father?”
“He came to the station that morning. He knew about the ring.”
Lucas lowered his gaze, as if he had heard this story before but still disliked being near it.
Douglas continued.
“He told me my mother had collapsed at home. He said she was in no condition to hear that I was leaving school, proposing to you, and taking you three states away. He said she needed me.”
“Was she ill?”
“Yes.”
The word came slowly.
“She had been depressed for years. After my younger brother died, she stopped driving, stopped seeing friends. Some days she barely left her bedroom. My father said if I went away then, she might not survive it.”
I sat down in the chair opposite the bed.
