Chapter 425 Lori's Wonder:>46

• Back in the village, in the safety of her sprawling old house, Aunt Sybil was understanding, welcoming, and sympathetic, her motherliness making Lori break down in floods of tears, that and delayed shock, so Jimmy, Rosie, and I sat in the kitchen with our coffee while Sybil put her in one of the bedrooms and generally fussed over her. She rejoined us after about 20 minutes.
• "Well she's asleep, David, and you could have told me she's expecting, you know, count yourself lucky I don't smack you across the back of your head! If you'd said something I'd never have let you take her back to that creepy horror-show; really, David, the very idea, I mean, what on earth were you thinking? She's dog-tired, poor thing, she had hardly any rest last night, and then the shock this morning, well...anyway, let her rest for a few hours, and you can take us out to dinner tonight as your penance for dropping her unprepared into that horrible place. In the meantime, breakfast is going to be a little sparse unless you'd like to pop over to the shops, Rosie...?"
• Rosie grinned and pulled Jimmy away from the table, 'to escort her' the hundred yards or so to the village grocery store. Sybil smiled after her, then turned to me when she and Jimmy had left.