It was all he could say in that moment when his heart was beating like a drum against her breast.

And then he felt the slow pressure of her hands against him, saw her white face, her wide, staring eyes within a few inches of his own, and she drew away from him, back against the wall, still huddled like a child on the bed, with her eyes fixed on him in a way that frightened him.

There were no tears in them.

She had not been crying.

But her face was as white as he had seen it down in Kedsty's room.