"You know Annie would kill me if I told you."Laura looked at Anne askance, confused, but ready and willing to accepta secret. Anne fussed with her apr...on, straightening it out. He continuedto pretend not to listen."Killed by a maid, like in an Agatha Christie story" Laura joked."Did I ever tell you about Ryan?" I said, getting to the point.I could almost hear Anne's heartbeat through his bodice as he stood nearme. He dropped a hairpin, and bent over, corset willing, to pick it up,but Laura got. I don't know about growing on me, but she soon occupied a larger portion of my thoughts than she ever had previously.During this time I'm talking about, I wasn't spending all my time bantering around with Tina. There was a lot we had to get done on the farm, including applying the soil amendments that we had planned on spreading. Every crop harvested removed important nutrients from the soil, and it was very important to add those nutrients back in, to keep those bountiful harvests coming. The. She called his work and the secretary informed her that he had quit that very morning. She didn’t know how to tell her fifteen-year-old daughter, Cathy, that was still at school, that her father had deserted them.It hit Cynthia tremendously hard, it devastated her, and she was extremely depressed. Financially, she really didn’t have to worry. The house and her car were paid for, and her daughter had quite a large trust that she could tap into if she needed to. She also had several thousand in. "Kristen, would you allow me to walk you back to your place. I know we met at the funeral, but I never got to say more than hello. I could take Mike's keys and drive his car back." Why, Dennis, I would love that. If you don't mind, though, I would like to get my usual workout in while I'm here." The family could hardly hide their astonishment at this move. "You could kill a half hour more with these folks, or come down and keep me company." With that, she stood and headed for the basement.