I didn't want to give you the one last part of myself that I couldn't take back. And then you were gone... And I realized it was already yours. It had been since the beginning. Except that I hadn't told you. It drove me mad, the thought that you would never know.

“It’s all right,” the boy murmured as he felt her trembling. “My grandmother alw…”

“Beatrix,” Amelia said over her shoulder as they proceeded through the hallway. …”

“His quiet certainty made the ground beneath my feet feel solid. Like someday ev…”

“She heard the trace of fear in his voice. The fear that a small boy must have f…”