I'm not hopeless, that's the problem. I'm too hopeful, if anything ... I'm so thick-headed it's taken me this long to give up on men, but I can't give up completely, you know? So I ... I channel all my hope into an idea, to someone who can't reject me because he isn't real!

... and with my last thought I felt some real sympathy for those poor chickens.

Isi, I’m trying to say that you’ve been… no, you’re so, you’re–” He stopped. "You are,” he said. His hand found hers, and he held her finger tightly, as though he did not dare to do any more than hold her one hand, and look at her, and breathe deeply.

He smiled in a way that made me want to kiss him right on the spot. Or the lips. Whichever was closer.

And new, too. Remade. Ready to move again. Listening was the start, she decided. Doing was the next step.

She's as fetching as brown hair done up with ribbons blue The mountain, my lady She's as sweet as pink flowers made bright with morning dew, Mount Eskel, my lady

Clearly she was expected to say something, but panic at having to speak stole the thoughts from her head.