Wheeling Gull Isle tongkola

"bartholomew."
heda observed him. she worried her bottom lip with sharp teeth. 
she watched his breathing, watched bartholomew recover.
"what did you mean the other day, when you said you were a 'different man' here?"
her golden eyes were unveiled now, and worry lurked under her gaze. had he been the kind of person who would just leave? just wake up one morning and decide his life wasn't working out how he wanted, and that he needed to disappear?
what heda desperately wanted to ask was if he would leave her. it was a half-formed, wordless emotion, predicated both on her disillusionment and the blooming idea of investment. she did not want to invest in what would not come back to her. but she was young. heda could work with anything she thought might be a promise.
she waited, sitting half-above him as he returned to his abilities.