Marian had spent most of the last two months confined to a single bedroom or (when she was free of that) confined to the rooms of a house. It was the first time, in those long two months, that Marian had looked around herself and found no walls. Arizona stretched out around her in every direction and Marian took a deep breath, the air fresh in her lungs, the sun on her face, the breeze on her skin.
And then the Sheriff asked if she was okay.
Okay? Marian didn't even know how to describe what she felt, blessed by the open space once more.
Marian, for all her love of technology and gaming, was a person who craved the outdoors and the wilds. She spent every vacation going into the forest somewhere, hiking and feeling herself settle into nature. She was the lady of the greenwood and she needed that.
And now the sun was on her face and the breeze was on her skin and Marian started crying, unwilling to take her eyes off the vista before her.