Rowena crouched slightly, meeting Ashley’s eye level. “I never blamed him. The authorities had investigated thoroughly, and he’d been exonerated of all blame,” she said softly. “When you introduced us to him, I wasn’t sure it was him, and later, I wanted to know whether he remembered and you knew…” Her restraint suddenly made sense.
“I’m sorry,” Ashley said, the words surprising her as they left her mouth. “For assuming. For never asking.” Rowena nodded, not offended, just tired. “We both survived loss,” she said. “We just didn’t know how to speak the same language.”