“Why not?” William asked. His eyes had narrowed and I could see he was getting ready to be cross about something.

“I just didn’t,” I said. “I’m not like Diane or Sharl.” Diane and Sharl were two of my big sisters who hadn’t come West with us. Diane had been saving up for music school when we left; Sharl had finished college and been married.

William looked suddenly thoughtful. “And your sisters who came here — Allie and Nan both went to work as soon as they finished with upper school. Rennie —” His voice cut off abruptly and he gave me an apologetic look.

My sister Rennie had run off and married a settler, a member of the Society of Progressive Rationalists who thought using magic was a weakness. Mama and Papa had been crushed and disappointed, and it tore up the rest of the family pretty bad, too, at the time. But we’d had five years to get over it, and we all pretty much had, even Mama.

“Yes,” I said, so William would know it was all right and that I knew he hadn’t meant anything by bringing it up. “And Julie got married practically right out of upper school back in Helvan Shores, too. She just didn’t run off to do it.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to do the same.”

“I wasn’t planning to!” I looked at my boot tips again. “I wasn’t planning much of anything, I guess.”

“And neither was anyone else,” William said. “Don’t look at me like that. It’d take a blind prairie skunk all of ten minutes to see that the plans in your family have always been about Lan.”

“William!”

“It’s true,” he said in that tone he had that meant there was no arguing with him. “I think Lan feels guilty about it, too. Which is probably why he came up with this idea about you going East for school.”

“It’s not just that,” I said, because I knew William was right about my twin feeling guilty. “Lan has a whole pile of good reasons.”