Aveline tried very hard not to cry again.
She really did.
But her lips trembled so badly that the sob she had been holding back only rose higher in her throat, hot and humiliating and impossible to swallow down.
"You still didn't have breakfast?" Theron asked.
That was all it took.
Aveline burst into loud, catastrophic tears.
The kind of tears that made the birds in the nearby trees scatter into the sky as if the forest itself had cracked open. Even the knights, who had probably seen wars, deaths, and scandals of all possible sizes, looked momentarily alarmed.
Theron, however, only drew her closer.
"There, there…" he murmured, patting her back in slow, steady circles. Then, as if that were not already enough to ruin her dignity completely, he bent and pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head. "I should not have left my little hare unattended. Oh, my poor little hare is so hungry…"
