Her apartment was one room.
A bed against the far wall, a kitchen along the left wall, a small table with two chairs by the window on the right. The window looked out on the courtyard. The window was open. The lamp on the table was on. The bed was made. The bedspread was a single color of dark green that Caleb had not expected.
She closed the door behind him.
She locked it.
She kept her back to him for a moment.
When she turned, she said: "Take your boots off."
He took his boots off.
He set them on the mat beside the door. He hung his coat on the hook. He took the folded paper out of the coat pocket and set it on the small table without opening it.
She watched him do this.
She did not ask what the paper was.
She brought him a cup of tea.
She had made it before he had arrived. She had been making tea since seventeen-hundred. She had drunk two cups already. The third was for him. The fourth was for her.
She sat down at the table across from him.
She set her cup beside his.
