The click of her bedroom door opening and Elizabeth could help the start that it gave her, she had decided to pretend to be asleep. It wasn't that hard for her to do, just keep her eyes closed and use a small involuntary movement to roll to her side as if she were startled, but not quite awake. She didn't really think it would work.
Sometimes, when she pretended to be asleep, Charles would slip in the bed beside her and carefully arrange himself to lie against her, stroking her hair or her back until he took one long involuntary breath, like a swimmer going underwater, and he would fall asleep himself.
Charles smiled at her little performance, he knew she wasn't asleep. She was pretending, faking sleep. Laying on her side, with her face in profile and her nose pressed against the f
