Blacktail Deer Plateau A dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest.

Something was different.  Concern touched her as he dismissed himself and left, pulling from her embrace and her company.  He'd not been physically affectionate for a long while, but he'd always been open to speaking with her.  Now she sensed something off, a new reticence he must have picked up during his time with Tortuga.

Perhaps she should follow, but she did not.  As a mother she had always been open, but she never pried.  Now that her children were adults it was doubly true.  He would share or he would keep to himself; she would not draw his stories from him.

Still, her gaze lingered on the place he'd disappeared, and a bit of hurt touched on the joy of the reunion.  Then she strode, slowly, in the opposite direction.