"You haven't," he promises, putting his other arm around her and holding her closer. "I only worry for you, dear."

He knows and knows well that life isn't always the happiness he wishes for her, and he knows too that she's witnessed and felt tragedy and heartbreak, that she was taken from her world too young, hardly having lived at all.

But it doesn't stop him wishing. "It is a pretty day. But whenever you're ready, Su, pretty day or no, I'll listen. If you like."