Jade Fern Grove the seeds of love have taken hold and if we don't burn together, i'll burn alone

He wasn't prepared for the look she gave him - foggy through the film of his eyes, but clear enough in its repugnance. He faltered, stepped back as if she's struck at him, but still kept his eyes glued to her pretty face.

"I'm right here," he said, desperate, now. "And I'm sorry I took you away. I shouldn't have - " But how could I leave you? He swallowed back his excuses. "But I'm here, now, and we are family. How can you say we're not?"

How could she stand there and accuse him? How could she doubt his love when he'd burned for her for all this time? Hadn't he been patient? Hadn't he been nurturing? Hadn't he been kind? (Purposefully, he did not think of all the other things he had been. She'd been kept safe and hidden from those things - hadn't she?)