Vanessa looked possibly even more startled by their disappearance than she had been by their appearance. It took her a few seconds to collect herself, and then she brought her cigarettes, and the ashtray, over to the coffee table by the sofa, to join him on it with them at hand.

"Rattled," she answered honestly, as she took a seat, glass in hand. Her fingers were tense on the fine glass. "As if I were on the edge of some precipice, and you were going to lift me up, or damn me to the abyss." More truth than he might have wanted, perhaps, and not the exact truth, anyway, so she shook her head minutely. "As if I might be about to do either of these myself."