"I loved you and Joshua easily. Joshua was too young to be anything but sweet, and you were my first friend. I spent every day hoping to spend time with you. But I missed my parents, too."

She could not say as much. Not within earshot of Anabella, and she worried anything said in confidence to the boys would somehow put her relatively comfortable position in danger. It was better to keep it to herself, cry when she thought no one was paying attention, and simply hope that one day she would see her mother and father again.