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If ever Bodie was going to tell Sarah about his quilt, noas the perfect opportunity He could explain about her quilt Her note Her impact on his life That, like her aunt, she helped so many people, too

She’d helped hilad to hear that Maybe it would help

But he hadn’t planned to tell her about the quilt he treasured evento know the woman who’d made it What would be the point?

“I iine she was very proud of you”

How could her aunt not have been proud? Sarah was the best person he knew Good, wholesome, unjaded by the cruelties of the world He wanted to protect that To protect her fros he’d seen and done To wipe away the sadness in her eyes

Sarah nodded “She was proud, but always pushedothers and lived her life doing so”

“Nothing wrong with that life philosophy if you’re able to do it”

“As a young , she took care of her in-laws and then, much later, she took care of me”

“She never had children of her own?”

“No They’d planned to start a family after Roy came back from the war”

“But he never came back,” Bodie finished for her

She gave hiht in any wars, Bodie?”

Not ones where the eneht out in the open His ene open battlefields and attacking fro destruction on their lives

Taking the lives of his brothers in arms

His sto into his palms as his hands clenched