Ruth bent her head to the side and tried not to eye her brother as the woman made such declarations “I understand. Your wishes should be respected. However, you did, at some point, accept a proposal. What prompted this change of heart?” Ruth tried to be reasonable. She didn’t have any particular stakes in this situation and she was not going to force the woman to stay, but since she had been told Sonia wasn’t doing well she would check on her thoroughly before taking her anywhere. 

The shrikes were kind of annoying. Ruth wished she could command Zechariah to stay where he was and not move, but she would need eyes or voice to that and they were both otherwise occupied.