I saw now I’d been hoping he’d answer my question without my having to be brave enough to speak the words. But he’d never even suspected that I would ask. He had never thought of me as I had endlessly imagined him.

And perhaps, more than that, I’d never known him as truly as I’d wished I did. I’d been hoping, not believing. Imagining, not knowing.

I dropped my eyes, avoiding his confused gaze, taking in safer pieces of the boy I adored. Rounded shoulders. The soft shell of his ear beneath his laurel wreath. His hands, clean and slim and white-knuckled with disquiet beneath their dark complexion.

I would never hold them. And they would never hold me.

Peter disappeared through the trees, and I watched him walk away.

Then Daddy crouched beside me, eyes gentle in his thin, drawn face, and took my hand.

We couldn’t truly get lost among those milling through the damp, green hall, but as the candles burned low in the trees, the party had seemed to move on and forget me. My father gave my hand a squeeze. “I’m sorry, sweet girl.”

My parents’ love story was one I knew well. My grandparents had been less than amused when the wealthy Savannah princess they’d invited to visit brought a sharp-tongued nun along for company. But that nun had become my godmother, and Althea told me Daddy fell for the girl from Savannah the first time she smiled at him.

Momma had been his solid ground, and he’d been her open sky. I wondered if anyone would ever see me that way.

I’d been blind enough to think Peter had.

“Is something wrong with me?” I finally asked.

“Oh, honey.” Daddy stopped me, hands on my shoulders, weary eyes serious. “You are everything you ought to be. Everything, and more. And that’s nothing compared to what I know you’ll be someday.”

He pulled me into a hug, and I wanted to weep against his chest like a child at the sharpness of his ribs. “Daddy, are you feeling all right?” His too-large jacket muffled my words. “You look like Alessandra’s got you on a diet.”

He chuckled. “Don’t you fret about me. I’m just getting old, that’s all. Don’t need as much to keep me going anymore, since you do all the work around here these days.”

I huffed a weak laugh. “You aren’t old. And don’t be silly. You do a lot.”

“Well, I ain’t young.” He sighed. “You hear all that racket last night?”

I shook my head.

“Maybe I’m imagining it. But I don’t think I’ve slept through the night in weeks. Always seems to be so much noise.” Daddy pressed bony fingers to his temples. The band had struck up again, a boisterous song with a heavy drumbeat. “I thought it would help.”