Mountain Ice (David Dean Mysteries)

She kissed him. "Thanks for being 'a bit misleading.'"

Dean put his arms behind his head. "It won't do any good. He'll know I was lying. He must have traced her by the charge slip so he knows she came here."

"Perhaps it will give Edith enough time to go to the authorities and force him to stay away."

"We're not going to get involved in another mess again, are we?" he asked, knowing full well the answer.

"No," Cynthia answered. "But it turns my stomach to think of a man hurting a woman like that. I feel so sorry for her. She's so vulnerable and practically incapable of doing anything on her own about her problems. And so troubled. Did you see how she adopted the Annie Quincy persona? On the one hand, she's trying desperately to escape, while she's so brow-beaten and insecure she believes it's impossible! God, what a life! It sounds like some English gothic-a naive waif married off to tyrannical older man who holds her hostage in a golden cage and beats her into submission!"

"Just remember, we can't solve all of the world's problems."

"But we can't turn our backs on them either," Cynthia answered. Dean knew both statements were correct.