When it was all over, Samuel pulled his hand back away from Lydia's, reaching to brush his fingers through her hair and trying to keep his own relief to himself. He didn't want to overwhelm her, not when she looked so spent, and he was half certain that all that weight coming off his shoulders at once would have done just that, so he was at least trying to be careful.

"She's beautiful," he said after a moment, when he reopened his eyes after closing them a moment before.