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"I’ll escort her upstairs," Villiers said, cutting her off

Eleanor let go of the table and rose froht It must have just been the shock I do believe I shall retire, however"

"Please forgive ly after her

Eleanor’s heart was beating a guilty rhythm

"Don’t be a fool," Villiers said harshly, behind her on the stairs

She waited until they reached the landing "I never wished her ill But I--I wished to be her"

"Well, be grateful that you didn’t get your wish," Villiers said, as uneht now" But she was learning to read those gray eyes, and they said soe of Gideon standing over Ada’s body was so heartbreaking that Eleanor actually swayed and caught hold of the railing

Villiers swore and plucked her up as if she weighed no hters

"You needn’t," she said feebly

"Be quiet," he ordered

So she was quiet and stopped thinking about how she felt about Ada when she was alive, and just remembered her quiet smile, the sweetness in it, and the happiness hich Ada would show her newest ean to roll down her face

Willa pulled open the door to her bedchamber and left immediately when Villiers jerked his head He sat down in the chair and tucked her head against his shoulder, and Eleanor sobbed as if she were no older than one of his little girls He handed her a white handkerchief but he didn’t say a word

After a while she stopped crying, sat up, and blew her nose "I’m sorry she’s dead"

"I know you are"

"Iall her ," Villiers said "The shoe black around your eyes has run in little streaks down your cheeks You look like the sister to a zebra"

"It’s not shoe black," she protested, wiping it off with his handkerchief

"I should return to the supper table," he said, not ray eyes

"Tobias has exactly the same eyes you do, have you noticed?" she asked

"The same temperament as well And the same brute nose"

"He doesn’t have a brute nose"

Villiers leaned closer, so slowly that it seemed an eternity before their noses touched "Yours is quite patrician," he said "Slender, straight, narrow Like the pathway to heaven, now that I think of it"

"Then yours is as short and wide as the path to another place," she whispered

"Nothing about me is short"