Camille

Hell won't be so bad, you know. After all, I'll be there to keep you company.

He looked down at my fingers wrapped around his coat then lifted his eyes to mine. 'My tiny huntress, do you know what you've done to me?

My mind argued with itself about whether to adhere to proper etiquette or whether to fling aside all modesty and throw my arms around him. My feet chose the latter before my mind had a chance to settle it. I flew off the stool and landed in his embrace. Freezing rain drenched his coat and shirt. His arms wrapped around me tighter, and there was nothing so right as being pressed against Nathaniel Strider.

Nathaniel Strider could never love. He's obviously discovered early on that girls' hearts were vulnerable and all a lad needed was a penetrating gaze and a disarming smile and the world was at his feet.

I don't know how it happened. Through the din of the crowd, I heard this tiny scream. As small and distant as it was, it was like thunder in my head.' He looked up at me. Some of the blood had drained from his face making the dark circles under his eyes more pronounced. 'I knew it was you. I don't know how or why, but I knew it was you.

I fell back into my favorite chair and tucked my hands between my knees to stop them from shaking. I sucked in a deep breath, held it, and marveled at my own transformation into a ridiculous ninny.

His arms held me like a vice, and I wondered if he would crush the life from me, and it occurred to me that I didn’t care as long as I died in his arms...

Blasted grave marker. There sure are a bloody lot of them. They've got some nerve burying all these dead people here.

A paper man. How romantic. And when I tire of him, I can just crumple him into a huge ball.

Do I still 'ave an eye?" I laughed. "Still there." He straightened with a sigh. "Too bad. I hear girls take a liking to a man with an eye patch." "Yes, when the eye was lost in some wildly romantic fashion like a sword fight or pistol duel. Not from smacking it on the eyepiece of a microscope. And you hardly need any more help with the ladies.

If everything were explained by science and logic, what a dull world it would be.

Strider hovered over the scope and slammed his eye on it before jumping back with a hand over the squinting eye. "That bloody thing is dangerous.