Alice felt the weight of the pain lift slightly, looking at Laura with that curious gaze her eyes always held when they happened to be focused on something. She watched as she moved, feeling and actually responding to the sense of urgency in her mistress' voice.
"I'm sorry," she managed in a small voice. The tears were drying up. They hadn't spilled like she'd thought they might. The girl was clearly still in some pain from the shaky way that she moved and the degree to which her hand shook as she pointed to a simple collar of a dark color, something that wouldn't stand out but still looked pretty enough. "I wasn't going to make a sound."