Patting the hand resting on her waist to show her compassion - really, Jill had no idea what words to use when it came to lost love. She was sad for Lillie, and she would have done anything in her power to bring the other woman back to Denerim and to the man she longed for. But that of course would mean that Jill herself would loose her new friend, and that she did not want either.
"Don't laugh!" Jill said, not affronted in the least, but a little miffed since she had been quite serious. "I was not jesting...I really do think you'd do a better job of it. Everyone who meets you must be struck by your kindness and graciousness." Ordinarily, maybe Jill would not have used such words to describe someone, but they fit Lillie.
Jill's eyes widened a moment and she bit her lips. She was doubly nervous, because she did not want to let slip secrets that were not her own and she was not used to discussing her own emotions in this way. Lillie's soft laugh made her feel as if she was a silly little girl who did not see the obvious things in front of her, as if Lillie didn't believe it when Jill said she was not in love with Garrett. Well, she wasn't, there wasn't anything more to it. But, even as his friend, she could try to answer Lillie's questions as well as she could. "Yes, not like a Chasind, but he's lived all his life in the wilds." Despite her internal reassurance about her feelings, a smile slipped back onto her face and into her voice without her even noticing. "Well, yes, I suppose. It was a lucky coincidence and then we started talking. I don't see him very often, because of my travels and he wanders too, he doesn't like to stay in one place." The notion that Jill would hunt for a man, actually made Jill a little angry. She was very fond of Lillie, but there were limits. "Lillie!" She cried in vexation. "I wouldn't...why would I....bah."
Going quiet and pensive for a moment she looked at Salma's twitching ears morosely. It wasn't like that, and she felt almost sullied by Lillie's assumption that she was 'hunting for a man', that was just as bad as the things her mother used to say to her. 'Have you found anyone to marry yet? You're not getting any younger...' 'If you washed up and put on a dress you might pass for a quite pretty girl.' 'Make some effort Jill, you do want a family do you?' 'Maybe there are no men that smells like horses like you do?'. And then innumerable more like it. It was not a theme she liked to hear and that words so similar would come out her friends mouth made her ill at ease. Woodenly she replied to the last question, her thoughts still half stuck on the Farm with her venomous mother. "I don't think he's been around horses much...they can sense that you know."