"In spite of the reason I still can't help but feel incredibly sorry for the girl. I just wish she had been able to escape and draw a curtain on her past like Fred O'Connor and move into a secure and happy life."
"Well, I'm sure Fred wasn't a hooker but I'm content to accept him on a present day basis, regardless of why he's so protective of his past."
"I never will understand how you could know so little about Fred. Two women couldn't room together for fifteen years and, in some ways, remain virtual strangers. You must have wondered about Fred's past at times."
Dean just shook his head. "Fred married my mother years after dad passed away. I was off in the service. Then she died a few months later. I never even met Fred until a couple of days before she died. But I loved her very much and trusted her judgment. She saw the basic good in Fred and she was correct." Cynthia nodded her head in agreement. "Of course that doesn't change that half of what Fred tells me is an out and out fabrication and the rest doesn't make any sense! I love the old geezer but the few times he starts talking about the old days, I tune him out. At some point his past may crawl out of the ground and bite him on the butt, but it won't be because I did the digging."
Then there was only silence and the night sounds of the old building as Cynthia lay awake next to this man she loved. Even after Dean's rhythmic breathing told her he was sleeping she remained awake, her mind alive with thoughts of their discussion and all that had transpired. And what Cynthia Byrne might have become in a different century, under different circumstances, without a David Dean beside her.