While Ivee and the queen were over at Sophie's store, Koyin had arrived with the second order of milk for the day- there were four every day, one before breakfast, one shortly before lunch, one before the evening meal, and a smaller one nearer to dark -so Pruce had actually lost track of where the women were.
So when the queen entered the shop alone, he worried. He slowly set the second to last bottle of milk that Koyin had handed him in the cold display that kept it cool over the course of the few hours it would be on sale before it was inevitably was bought out, giving Koyin a worried glance, and receiving a shrug in response- whatever was going on that had the queen left alone wasn't something Koyin had seen on her way in -then looked back to the queen.
"I see a lack of Ivee with you. She didn't run off, did she?"