Away from the bright motion of the party, she carried her sadness like a dark stone clenched in her palm.

He had never even glimpsed her.

...bleak territory of the heart.

So something had begun, and now she could not stop it. Twin threads ran through her: fear and excitement. She could leave this place today. She could start a new life somewhere else.

Then she had been a fiancee, a young wife, and a mother, and she had discovered that these words were far too small ever to contain the experience.

It wasn't right. He knew that, but it was like falling: once you started you couldn't stop until something stopped you.

I've been accused of trying too hard to rescue people