Violet spooned soup into her mouth and swallowed without tasting it. No thoughts crowded through her normally busy mind. Nothing coherent anyway. Physical sensations raged. Her face felt hot. A strange buzzing noise sounded in her ears. Her belly bounced up and down as though she had boarded a ship. But actual word-type thoughts ceased to exist. Long moments drew out while she stared into her bowl, examining each snippet of food as it floated up in the broth.
“Will you say nothing then?” Leontios asked at length.
“Nothing,” Violet agreed. “What on earth could I say to something like that? Eat your soup.”
Mercifully, he did.
With every bite, the words—the bomb he had just lobbed into the conversation—tried to bubble up. It required no effort for her to push it away. A plate of mental st
