Stone had a question for her? He had not shown himself to be the gabbing sort. Still, people talking or not talking changed from time to time and from place to place. Sometimes Baz talked to her with ease. Other times he tripped over his words as if they were stray cats and he was a drunkard attempting to navigate a dark alley. She never had sorted the mystery of that.

“Doc never told anyone you were married,” Stone said. “Did that bother you?”

Gemma blinked. That hadn’t been anywhere near what she thought the man might ask.

“Have you a particular reason for asking? You don’t seem the sort to pry.”

“I ain’t,” Stone said.

“Are you fretting over Baz?”

“Not on account of this,” Stone said.

Gemma looked to Móirín. “Care to shine a light on this?”

“If he wants answers, he needs to do the asking.”

“But you know why he’s asking?”

Móirín nodded. “We’re good friends. I suspect there’s not much about him I don’t know.”

Stone neither confirmed nor denied it. His expression had, however, grown more earnest. Something about his question was important.

“If I thought he’d kept me a secret on account of being ashamed of me, that would’ve hurt, for sure and certain,” Gemma said to Stone.

“Then you don’t mind that it’s been a secret?”

She had minded a little. “It stings that he didn’t even tell his friends. It’s enough to make a person wonder if she’s been forgotten.”

Stone nodded as they walked, his brow furrowed in a look of deep pondering.

“Same as I told you,” Móirín said. “Keeping a secret from people who aren’t owed your confidence is one thing. Not telling your friends . . . ’tis a hurtful thing to do.”

“I’ve told you,” Stone replied.

“But you’ve not introduced me.”

Gemma was piecing a great many things together. “Do you have a secret sweetheart?” she asked Stone.

He didn’t offer any verbal response, but she was sure she’d guessed right.

“Why is it you ain’t told anyone?” Gemma asked.

“Because he’s stubborn as a duck,” Móirín said.

While Gemma suspected that was true, her own experience made her wonder. “Are you ashamed of this secret love of yours?”

He shook his head firmly. “There’s parts of my life that I like keeping to myself.”

“Most of your life you keep to yourself,” Móirín corrected.

Stone smiled a little, something Gemma’d not seen him do, though he didn’t seem sour. “Then how is it you know so much?”

Móirín flashed a grin. “I’m exceptionally bright.”