Chapter 9
But Bardino Nuovo hadn’t cleared away the deeper silences behind Erica’s eyes. Ridley saw shadows of it slipping in and slipping away over the next few days. He tried to coax it out a few times, but Erica didn’t even appear to be aware of it. He was right, it had gone deep and he didn’t have any experience in this kind of fishing.
One day, she simply came to a halt. She sat in a chair at that tiny table they’d first shared and simply stopped moving except for occasionally sipping the cup of tea that Hal had served her.
“You okay, Princess?” he had settled beside her.
“Sure. Just thought it might be fun to sit and watch the world go by rather than racing through it.” And that was all she’d done. He’d have believed her, if not for her fingers idly rubbing the stones of her neck
