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‘Sam!’

‘Well, you objected toposterior yesterday’

‘I admit defeat’

‘You keep saying that and yet you persevere Go away, the sun is sinking and I want to finish this today’

He walked away and she felt the silence around her more keenly Contrarily she wished he had stayed Then she heard a grunt and the slither of sand and sain and she noticed a sht hand where he braced it on the roof beside her and she resisted the urge to reach out

‘You scratched your hand,’ she said instead and he raised his hand, inspecting it

‘So?’

‘So nothing It wasso you can berate me for that as well’

‘I can hardly blame you for my clumsiness’

‘It would not be the first tio?’

His frown fled before another of his surprising smiles

‘Good Lord, yes Well, that was your fault What the deuce did you think you would find cla over those piles of rubble?’

‘I thought I would reat discovery I did not expect to fall into a tomb and be attacked by bats’ She shuddered at the memory

‘Of course not Why would bats congregate in a dark, dank to, ould they take alarm when soht?’

‘I did not know there was a shaft entrance hidden under the rubble!’

‘Well, if you had not clied me into it as well’

‘I apologised Several times’

‘So you did So you should have’

‘You still hardly spoke to me for the rest of your stay’

‘I aarded that as a reward, not a punishht have led to a bout of fisticuffs with your brothers, it is good I held my peace You were a menace, Sam’