Not - [ another cough, but at least this wasn't quite so brutal to her, just something stuck and her voice grows thick with it. Hard to form a word through that, so she swallows and tries again. ] - like I have much choice about it, it seems.
[ She wants to take his hand, she thinks, she wants to but she won't, she never does often unless it matters more than comforting herself. She wants to set his fingers to her hair, and let him indulge himself for awhile in his apparent besotted adoration, she's sure he would have a bright little light of victory, or maybe she would surprise him and that would be twice a reward to her, but -
- but then she wouldn't be herself, would she? So she stays, and she does the only thing that comes as almost everything, almost like giving in, but not quite, is that she lets him just keep his hand there. It's almost nothing, except that it is everything. ]
Tell me what else has passed? The Count, the Countess, they are well?
no subject
[ She wants to take his hand, she thinks, she wants to but she won't, she never does often unless it matters more than comforting herself. She wants to set his fingers to her hair, and let him indulge himself for awhile in his apparent besotted adoration, she's sure he would have a bright little light of victory, or maybe she would surprise him and that would be twice a reward to her, but -
- but then she wouldn't be herself, would she? So she stays, and she does the only thing that comes as almost everything, almost like giving in, but not quite, is that she lets him just keep his hand there. It's almost nothing, except that it is everything. ]
Tell me what else has passed? The Count, the Countess, they are well?