21Nati was sitting at a table finishing an afternoon meal when Ritter came through the door, pausing only to acknowledge the barkeeper's wave of welcome before he sat down, breathing hard.
“What's happened?”
She knew him well enough to read the signs. Indeed, from his agitated state, anyone with fairly good eyesight could have seen it. The sweat glistened across his forehead, his eyes darted, his mouth chewed at his own cheeks.
“We have to leave. And we have to leave now.”
She considered her half-eaten meal and sat back. Next to her, Jeremiah paused in the action of putting spoon into mouth.
The other man who sat at the table, mopping his bowl with a hunk of bread, stopped in mid-action.
And that's when Ritter noticed Nati was not alone, and he stared at her with the unspoken questio
