He dodged the lamp, sort of — it collided with his shoulder instead of his head. That would probably bruise later. He snatched a pillow up off the floor where it had fallen in the wake of Valencia's chaos (leaving his pants unbuttoned in the process) and held it like a shield in front of his torso, in case he needed to defend himself from any other thrown objects. He had some experience with this — probably more experience than someone ought to have dodging objects hurled at one's head.

"You don't have to be ruined," he argued. Ruined — nasty word, in English or Spanish. Ruined; what he'd done to Elfrieda. He was supposed to have learned something from that. He was supposed to be abroad atoning for his past mistakes. "We could just — carry on like before."

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