Twenty-FourIt was just as well the Ebner was only a few steps further down the street from the confrontation with the gypsies because Seb doubted if Isabella could have held together for much longer than the time it took them to get back to their suite. She was drawing on her last reserves of strength and stoicism, he could see that. Her expression was curtained and blank; her eyes skated away into the middle distance, so different from her normal direct, crystal-clear gaze. Her balance was tentative and bumbling, lacking her assured grace.
“Sit down here, Isabella, and we’ll get some coffee. You need a boost after that ordeal.”
She sank into the chair, white-faced and distracted, seemingly deaf to his reassurances, staring at a spot on the floor. When she spoke it was in a plaintive, mu
