Laurel gasped and stared at him. He couldn’t have said what she thought he said.
“W-What?”
Adolph’s face burned with embarrassment but he didn’t avert his gaze, holding her gaze and enduring the awkward quiet.
“Will you… marry me?”
Laurel couldn’t believe the gall of this man. Alice wailed in despair.
*Don’t!*
But what else could she do but reject him? Love or not, mate or not, she still had some manner of dignity!
She drew back violently, “How could you be so cruel? I will not marry you to be your dead wife’s replacement!”
Adolph looked as though he’d been slapped, shocked, and confused.
“What?” He shook his head, his brown furrowing as he stared at her. “What does she have to do with us?”
She scoffed, pushing free of him and wrapping her arms over her breast, curling into
