‘Obstinate, aren’t you,’ he murmured, holding her face close against his breast, for when he was doing that it was hidden, and it hurt him too desperately as yet to look at it, it made him too desperately want to cry himself. Of course presently ... when he had got more used....
‘You’ll have to grow out of that,’ he went on, ‘because we can’t both be obstinate, and have deadlocks.’
‘No, no—we won’t have deadlocks,’ said Catherine. ‘We’ll just——’
She was going to say, ‘love each other very much,’ but thought that might sound like making a claim, and stopped.
They were silent for a while, and so motionless that the rabbits began to think they weren’t there after all, and came lolloping up quite close.
Then he said very gently, ‘I’m going to take care of you, Catherine.’
And she said, her voice trembling a little, ‘Are you, Chris? I was thinking that that’s what I’m going to do to you.’
‘All right. We’ll do it to each other, then.’
And they both tried to laugh, but it was a shaky, uncertain laughter, for they were both afraid.