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"Are you all right? Truly?"
"Yes, I’m fine" She nods, her face soft "Miriam, however, will probably have the vapors for a month" Then, hesitantly, she asks, "Hoas your trip?"
"Unproductive"
"Oh Does that ain?"
"Perhaps We’ll see" I shrug
I don’t knohy I say that--I’et to the real problemand my transformation into a horse’s arse is cooes hard as I lift it toward the infirmary door
Lenora blinks, the prettiest picture of pure innocence
"What hat about?"
"You and the guard You two seem awfullyclose Even more than before I left Is that why you toldon around here?"
"You can’t be serious" She looks at the door and then back at me, and her eyes darken to the color of sharpened lead "You leave, for weeks, and now you’re here andyou’re jealous of Winston?"
"I don’t get jealous, sweets But I’m not a fool either" I try another tack and point at the door "You realize he’s fucking your sister, don’t you?"
Lenora gasps, eyes going wide
"Oh, apparently, you didn’t"
Michael and I saw thearden a few days before I left Miriaet the sense she was being taken advantage of, so I ether--she is all my business
"You can ask Michael if you don’t believe uess it makes sense--she is the spare Or has he worked his way up through the ranks to you now? Is that how it goes?"
Her dainty hands clench into tight fists "The only fool here is me Because I was happy that you were hoain"
It’s the hurt in her voice that breaks through the asinine Heartbreak ? What the fuck a?
"Lenny, wait--"
"Go to hell"
"Lenora" I grab her arm, but I barely touch her before she cries out and her face pinches with pain I let go, breathing hard, looking for how I har with you?"
She lifts that stubborn chin "Nothing"
"Don’t lie to ht aran sweater
"Let go!"
And I pull it down her are wrapped around her bicep There’s a crih
It’s like I’ve taken a sledgehammer to the chest, the kind that shty You were shot?"
She yanks her arrazed me"
"Why wasn’t I told ih the sleeve of her sweater
"We thought it best to keep it out of the press"
"I’lares at me, all fiery defensiveness And then she throws my oords back at me