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“Interesting idea.” Nettie studied Lenora. “I cannot decide on a story. However, Lenora is clearly not as happy as I would have expected.”

“No,” Emily agreed. “But we both know she was quite happy the day after the maze meeting.”

“Hummingly happy.”

“That’s not a word, Nettie,” Lenora snapped.

“Perhaps not.” Nettie lifted her chin. “However, you did hum a great deal.”

“Perhaps,” Emily said, “Lenora is just anxious now because clandestine meetings are hard on the nerves.”

Both Nettie’s and Lenora’s heads swiveled in Emily’s direction.

“I imagine,” Emily added, with innocently widened eyes. “Are you nervous, Lenora?”

Terrified. Lenora pursed her lips.

Not until Asquith had forced her to relinquish sisterly comfort had she realized just how much her sisters’ counsel, their perspectives, even their teasing, shaped both how she felt and how she acted.

For eight weeks, she’d kept her explosive feelings locked inside. She expected she would burst at any moment.

“She is nervous.” Nettie cocked her head. “I can tell.”

“Nettie,” Lenora said. “Having one’s inner thoughts involuntarily exposed, dissected, and analyzed is not pleasant. You’re making me feel like a deceased body propped up for a ghastly medical presentation.”

“Eww!” Emily shivered.

“Not a suitable comparison,” Nettie commented. “The deceased are oblivious.”

“But what if their souls know?” Emily whispered.

Nettie glanced heavenward. “My departed soul would gladly offer up my body for the sake of scientific discovery.”

“Nettie,” Emily groaned.

“Well, you did ask!” Nettie exclaimed.

“Wait a moment.” Emily shifted back to Lenora. “Isn’t exposing, dissecting, and analyzing what you do to others so you can mimic them?”

“Not the same,” Lenora insisted. She simply felt what people were feeling and then used the mannerisms she observed to reproduce a facsimile of their character.

But Nettie had just studied her with the same level of intent concentration she used whenever she wished to memorize a person’s quirks.

Turnabout might be fair play, but Lenora did not like the sensation. When she observed others, did she make them this uncomfortable?

Emily placed her hand on Nettie’s arm. “Perhaps we should stop teasing? Lenora is becoming distressed.”

Again, Nettie studied Lenora’s face. “You are truly distressed, aren’t you?” Her shoulders fell. “Pay me no mind, Nora. I know my inquisitiveness can make me bothersome.” She reached out and intertwined their hands. “You’ll be fine. Certainty has a way of influencing outcomes. And where Asquith is concerned, you have always had righteous certainty. ”

Righteous certainty.

Nettie had meant to reassure her, but the words only made Lenora feel worse.

Righteousness didn’t always equate to goodness, as her father had unintentionally taught. Hubris was a trickster cloaked in moral absolutes.

But was her certainty false? If only she could confide her fears, she might find out...

She’d vowed not to tell her sisters what happened in the meetings. But must she also withhold any mention of her feelings?