Alfred returned her kiss and was smiling as he came out of it. "Good," he said, without pressing for any more details. It was better when he didn't, he'd found — playing things by ear was better, with the way their relationship was now, because then he could be pleasantly surprised when an opportunity to see her arose instead of ticking off the days that he didn't get to see her and feeling sorry for himself.

"'Bye, Zelda," he said, leaning in to plant one last kiss on the edge of her cheek just in front of her ear. "You really do look beautiful. It's mad."