Sun Mote Copse worry never dies

To say that Eljay's rebuttal surprised her would be an understatement. Although Towhee couldn't hear the way his words gritted through his teeth, she could see their clench and knew the anger behind what amounted to accusations. Her mouth fell open and she stared at him, forgetting to take any offense at his words because it was that unexpectedly out of character for Eljay to speak this way at all.

When he finished, she clapped her mouth shut and continued to stare at him for several moments before coming up with a reply. "He is your son, he is a child," Towhee corrected him, not dignifying the implied inhumanity (inlupanity?) with a response. "You're right, I was supposed to look after him." But then the quakes had come and she'd been hurt badly, time after time after time. But she wasn't going to make excuses, not to Eljay. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to do my job in that regard," she said, tone as flat as ever but the glimmer in her orange eyes sincere and still more than a little astonished by Eljay's vehemence.

"Look," she said after another several beats, "this is an honest question, not an accusation. But why aren't you out there looking for him?"