Fox's Glade something in the way

He was beloved. There were so many people with him, always, hanging suspended in the dust of his coat. Sanja was jealous of that, suddenly. She wanted a big family — she wanted her Bjarna home with her, and her blood children too, and wished she had been present to build all of that, properly. What sort of people did this man surround himself with? Able-bodies, to make up for his deficit. Maybe he spent all his time with children born to others? A good father.

All of these thoughts spun through her head less as concrete things, but more as gossamer, as feeling alone. He was so close she could taste his breath.

I want... She didn't know what she wanted, or what she was going to say. It was nice to have company. I want to not... be alone, she managed, quietly. There was a note of desperation in her voice that climbed its way up her throat, and then Sanja tried to swallow it down again.

That explained why she didn't want to leave him, she told herself. Loneliness.