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She’d been outrunning her fears for so long, pushing theround didn’t exist below her But now she’d secured her far else aside for later And noith nothing left to reach for, later had come

He didn’t move toward her, but he didn’t have to The dark recesses of her i to push hiht would pin her down She could hear herself breathing overloud; her vision darkened at the edges

She wasn’t sure where the first tear came fro so useless as weep

But the next thing she knew, she was crying into the orange linen of her wedding gown And these were no de sobs that she couldn’t hold back

She wasn’t sure when he came to sit next to her on the bed, when his arms went around her When he started to wipe away her tears

He didn’t offer useless platitudes, pros He simply held her It felt as if his waran to fade to hiccoughing sobs, he handed her a clean handkerchief

"Uncomfortable memories?" he finally asked

Those Is that she had put off like so many unpaid bills had returned to ha on immediate collection of all a Don’t worry about et on with it?"

"No, sweetheart I have to be aroused to get on with anything, and I find nothing to desire in laboring over a woman ishes herself elsewhere" He touched her nose She was sure it must have been red But he didn’t comment on her looks "Even if she is you," he said

"I’m well now"

He shook his head "I don’t think this should happen"

He started to stand, but she set her hand on his arm "You don’t understand I only have the one ulped air "When I wake up at night, reht upon ht banish the thought I need you to drive hiathered all her nerve and stood The bodice of her goas already undone All she had to do was slide the sleeves off her shoulders and let the fabric fall Like that, she was left in corset and che would do the trick But he was not overco her in dishabille He siainst her, warm and close; he parted her hair briefly and then, pulled a hairpin free

"We’re not going to be doing this that way, Serena," he said

She sed "Which way is that way?" Her voice was unsteady

He reht now Your hands are shaking"

"What--how--I don’t know--" She choked on her uncertainty, on the dark fears that rose up inside her

But he kept re her as he did so Her coiffure tilted alarly, and then, as he freed a particularly crucial bit of iron, her hair tumbled down to her shoulders

"What do you intend?" she asked

"I ae" He found one last pin, dangling in her curls, and set this against the others that he’d gathered He arranged the to consue," she repeated