It was those small gestures that reassured her as to the respect that Oliver Patrick had. He was a man of strong feelings at times, and other times, the most incredible degree of subtlety. It was hard exactly to tell what he was feeling, unless he was wound up in his passion.
It was by Captain Lombard's grave that he knelt on that day. They'd erected another gravestone for him, at the Blackwell residence, after returning from campaign, and they'd done the same for Tolsey. Alongside the two of them, there was buried Yorick and Volguard. Oliver had wept before those graves in his silence, thinking that none could see. And those times when Nila did chance across him, she pretended not to know, for fear that he might try to hide it from her in future.
She made her footsteps loud as she approached him in the snow, so as not to catch him off guard. He didn't turn to look at her, but the way he stiffened his shoulders let Nila know that she'd been spotted.
