Alan was going to leave and he'd probably already made up his mind, or was about to, before trying to make her fall in love, before stealing her first kiss and her first chance to give out her soul never to recover it again. Now, he'd proposed that they accompany him, but not to her, to Joseph, and she and her sisters were only included out of pity, or solidarity - she didn't really care. The fact was that he had unmistakably showed how unimportant she had become for him, and she could only rejoice that she wasn't feeling truly hurt. She didn't know if Joseph would in the end agree to go, she didn't know if she and the girls would then also want to undertake that long journey. But, in any case, she could go to bed with the certainty that she was strong enough not to be harmed by Alan's charm - or that she was crazy enough about somebody else.

She then, began to wonder if it meant that Alan had once and for all ruled out the idea of talking to Adelle. After what she'd seen tonight, it might be best. She'd been too encapsulated to be able to interpret countless scenes, but she knew, because her aunt had considered it convenient to explain it to her, what it meant to be a prostitute. And that encounter, though it could represent several other things, also left the door open to Adelle, on this planet and after all these years, still being one. Lorraine had maintained the friendship with her by such brief meetings - because of Leonard's control - that she couldn't know whether the lady had managed to, and, or, decided to, make a living exclusively from her job as an innkeeper.

"Good luck, Alan, whatever it is that you find out; whatever it is that you resolve to."




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