She wriggled her shoulders uncomfortably. "I keep seeing things, shadows that shouldn't be there, reflections of nothing. Only, when I turn, they don't get out of the way fast enough to be nothing."
"They?" he repeated.
"I only see one at a time, but I don't know if it's always the same one." She shivered again.
"It must be your nerves." He went on resolutely, "Maybe you do need a change of scene." Actually it was absurd to feel so apprehensive about the Jump. She'd be safer in hyperspace in his ship than anywhere else in the universe. And a large metropolis might provide distractions to take her mind off—shadows. "How would you like to go to Burdon?"
"That would be real nice!" But she was not as enthusiastic about it as he had expected.
She laid a hesitant hand on his arm. "Honey," she began tentatively, "you—you seem to spend so much time all by yourself. Do I bore you?"
"Of course not, dear," he said awkwardly. "It just seems that way to you. Pressure of business...."
"But why do you play chess with yourself all the time?"