Was the terrain smooth or rocky? What was it like in Hampton, Virginia? Did the summer sun beat at Jude’s tobacco crop? Or were the fields as fertile as the fields she now longed to walk through? "Oh Jude," she mumbled. What was he doing now? Was he at work in the shipyard or was he wooing his future bride? She pursed her lips into a bitter line and wished that envy didn’t coil around her heart. But was it truly envy or anger at herself for allowing him to leave on such a bitter note? For she had her opportunity and she let him go. She forced him from Pembridge with her dismissal of his feelings as false. Yet, how could she trust him? How? When he toyed with women’s emotions and took pride in soiling their reputations? But here and now, she missed him and longed to see him more than she cared to admit. Was it time softening the pains of his rakish behavior, or had she always stifled her feelings because she didn't dare to hope that when he said he loved her he meant it? She shook her head, an outward sign of her inner turmoil.
