“I am glad people like me work so much,” she murmured with her lashes lowering. Admittedly, she’d rather be a nurse than a laundress, but she was smart enough to take whatever job she could to keep a roof over her childrens’ heads. She was still living with a small cushion from the sale of the newly finished house that she and Harold would have lived in if he hadn’t been killed.

She felt an unwelcome flutter in her belly when Lorn used her given name, feeling a little bit of heat creep up into the back of her neck.

At his next words, she held up her hands. “Oh no, she is wonderful. I…” she trailed off lamely, not sure what to say. “I just… I…” Why in the world was her tongue so tied? Karen gazed at him almost longingly, then turned to finish drying the dishes she had done. When her back was turned, she said over her shoulder, “Ye’re always welcome here, it was just… I worry what people think too much I suppose.”

She obediently sat down when he bade her to and looked down at her hands. One could see the tears threatening to spill from those big brown eyes of hers, the concern evident in those orbs. She was over-thinking it.

But then his words… Her heart fluttered that time. The laundress stood up again and looked at him, saying, “I… don’t know what to say.” She had never had someone say something so kind to her.

When he said something about leaving, she took a step forward and held her hands up, “Oh please don’t go. I… Stay just a little while longer. Please.”