“You’re pretty enough,” Liam conceded. “Except for that floaty dress you’re wearing. It makes you look like you’ve got a pea in the pod.”

She threw a clump of pigweed at him, and he caught it with a grin. For a moment Liam had been the protective older brother she’d always longed for. It had been nice for the ten seconds it lasted.

She stooped to pick up the hoe. “I’m telling you my sorry tale so you don’t walk down the same path. Fortune hunters are everywhere. They can be hard to spot. Many people tried to warn me about Jasper because when an impoverished college professor marries an heiress, tongues wag. Jasper created a respected scientific journal, but jealous people claimed it was only because I paid for it.”

“Did you?” Liam asked, and she wanted to explode in frustration.

“Yes, but that shouldn’t have mattered! Why should anyone care who funded it? It was an excellent journal that advanced scientific understanding all over the world.”

Patrick abruptly stood. A book fell off his lap and splatted on the ground, but he didn’t pick it up. “I have some errands I need to run. If you’ll excuse me.”

Odd. He didn’t smile or meet her eyes as he strode away. He headed toward the main street, his back stiff.

“Patrick?” she called after him. “Did I say something wrong?”

He held up a hand to acknowledge that he’d heard but didn’t break his pace as he walked away. She looked at Liam, baffled by Patrick’s odd behavior.

Liam frowned. “For a smart woman, sometimes you can be dumber than a stump.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded. After baring her soul, leave it to Liam to start acting like a lout again.

“Patrick is street-smart and book-smart, but he’s soft when it comes to you,” Liam said. “He swallows his pride and lets you lord it over everyone. Hey, don’t look at me like that. You probably can’t help being an uptight Mother Superior, but go easy on him, okay?”

“Was it because I talked about Jasper?” It couldn’t be. Patrick already knew about how badly her marriage had failed and why.

“It’s because you talked about how Jasper was your dolly boy, and Patrick doesn’t want to be your next one.”

“Dolly boy?” she gasped. She’d never heard that expression but could guess what it meant. “I don’t think that way about Patrick. He’s my hero. I dream about him at night. He knows that.”