Page 265 of Taken Away

“Why me?”

Burke looked at her for a long moment.

“Because everyone else has been telling me who Mabel Blackwood was.”

Anne said nothing.

“I’m more interested in the woman she was before Blackwood.”

A flicker crossed Anne’s face.

“What do you want to hear?”

Burke rested his hands on the table.

“You and Mabel. What happened between you?”

For several seconds, she was silent.

Then she gave a small laugh.

“Mabel and I were close once.”

Burke waited.

“People forget that part. Or maybe they never knew it.”

Her mouth trembled faintly.

"According to this town, Mabel was the good sister."

"And that made you what?”

Anne looked up.

"The difficult one, of course."

“Were you?”

“That depends on who you ask.”

“I’m asking you.”

Anne looked away again.

“I was young. Proud. Vain enough to believe wanting something badly meant I deserved to have it.”

“Harold?”

The name changed the room.

Anne’s eyes closed.

“Yes,” she whispered. “Harold.”

Burke said nothing.

“I loved him first.”