“Right.” she said.
“Perfect.” he said.
She asked hesitantly, “where have you put the rest of it?”
A long pause was interupted by the sound of the chiming clock on the wall.
” You don’t need to know all the details right now. It’s late, we have an early day tomorow…lay your head down and we’ll rest a while”
Reluctanly, she settled into the musty smell of his overcoat. It was the one they had found in the last place.
The body of work lay on the floor surrounding the pair. The light began to fade outside the frosted windows of the cabin.
Words and images worth a thousand thoughts were now theirs for the taking, strewn about bare hallway floor like orfaned children.
He would certainly have offered them tea and talk literary marvels all evening. He would have even insisted that his young guests stay the night after having a few too many brandy with the old man.
But desert came quickly and death came quicker.