"Still someone who can keep loneliness at bay." Ruth agreed with that assessment a good bit. After all, why be alone if you didn't have to be.
Ruth felt Irene reach to gather the threads of the future and she felt it also when the lady recoiled away from that future. There was something there, Ruth could feel it, something bad. It wasn't clear yet though, so she didn't push to try and find out what her surrogate parent was seeing.
"Protection isn't always what we need. Instead we need love. Dat we can get plenty of."
And in the coming days it might well be the only thing which kept some of them alive. Love. Comraderie. Hope. Memories of better days. That could be enough, couldn't it? It would have to be.