"We'd better eat something, I suppose," Belle said, thoughtfully. "I don't feel like eating, either, but I never realized until this minute just how much this has taken out of me and I'd better start putting it back in.... She did a wonderful job, Clee, even if she couldn't take it full shift toward the last."
"I'll say she did. I hated like the devil to let her work that way, but ... you knew I was scared witless every second until we topped off."
Exhausted and haggard as she was, Belle laughed. "I know damn-blasted well you weren't; but I know what you mean. Fighting something you don't know anything about, and can't guess what may happen next, is tough. Seconds count." Side by side, they strolled toward the alcove.
"I simply didn't think she had it in her," Belle marveled.
"She didn't. She hasn't. It'll take her a week to get back into shape."
"Right. She was going on pure nerve at the last—nothing else ... but she did a job, and she's so sweet and fine.... I wonder, Clee, if ... if I've been missing the boat...."
"You have not." Garlock sent the thought so solidly that Belle jumped. "If you'd just let yourself be, you'd be worth a million of her, just as you stand."
"Yes? You lie in your teeth, Cleander, but I love it.... Oh, I don't know what I want to eat—if anything."
"I'll think up yours, too, along with mine."
"Please. Something light, and just a little."