It took Rochester peeling his eyes away for Louisa to bounce back to the present day. She had indeed been looking into him for an insanely long time.
Now, that Rochester had moved his gaze away, she was able to drown in her thoughts and try to understand just how critical Adelaide's state was to have him drive with Simon all the way to her town, simply to coax her to go with them.
Was Adelaide's state truly hideous?
In that instant, Louisa's thoughts no longer boiled down the line of Rochester and how she had missed him. Of course, she had missed him. Even watching him stare into her just now had started a feisty battle inside her heart. But the war in her mind was the greater conflict. So yes, she did miss the man and wanted to run into his arms. But he was married now. Simon had made mention of that. Whether he was happy in his union or not was something she would ponder about, but not at this point.