A sudden silence fell. The man’s footsteps had paused on the edge of the wood. It was as though the life in both of them held its breath.
Eve turned. She had to turn to face something that was inevitable. He was coming down the bank, his face in the sunlight, his eyes staring straight at her as though there were nothing else in the whole world for him to look at.
Lynette’s voice broke the silence.
“Daddy, she wanted to run away!”
Eve bent over her.
“Oh, child, child!”
Her face hid itself for a moment in Lynette’s hair.
She heard Canterton speaking, and something in his voice helped and steadied her.
“Lynette has caught a fairy. She was always a very confident mortal. How are you—how are you?”
He held out his hand, the big brown hand she remembered so well, and hers went into it.