At his request, she read aloud from the journal his mother had kept, long ago on a wagon train, and his gaze, distant and blue as a mountain sky, stayed fixed on the ceiling while he listened.Experiencing Mattie Killigrew’s joys, tribulations and hopes for herself, through the fading, carefully shaped words inscribed on the thick vellum pages of that diary, Aislinn was glad Shay wasn’t looking at her. That way, she was able to wipe away the occasional tear without his knowing.On the fifth day, Tristan appeared for his usual morning visit, wearing a badge and looking so much like Shay that it seemed no great wonder a lot of the townspeople were mightily confused. Aislinn knew there was still a lot of speculation concerning who was whom, and some folks even maintained there were actually three brothers, all of them just alike. The unmarried ladies of Prominence were especially fond of that particular theory, which at once amused Aislinn and caused her to guard the door of Shay’s sickroom like a mother bear with a cub.Tristan gave Aislinn an apologetic glance as he entered, reached for a chair, and turned it back to front beside Shay’s bed.
