Sleepy Fox Hollow To the house in the pines where the road ends

Wylla swiped her tongue across her jowls and straightened while Mahler spoke, acknowledging her trip and requesting a walk. She was rigid for two beats—like the dreaded "we need to talk", she assumed nothing good could come of his request. It was wildly unfair of her to think the worst when it was she who had scorned him again and again and again, but there they were.

Guessing that he wouldn't look favourably upon her if she declined and knowing that she wished to stay, for reasons of her own, she said, sure, and gestured for him to lead the way. Once again she knew she was in the wrong and once again any attempt to apologize stuck in her throat.

So she looked expectantly to him, expecting a lecture, and said nothing herself.