Aiden
The woman remembered his name.
Aiden had helped her and her child reach the lower court during the attack. At the time, he had been thinking about the pressure behind him and the man who had fallen near the ramp. He hadn't expected to meet either of them again over breakfast.
She stopped beside his table with her son holding her sleeve.
"He wanted to thank you himself."
The boy stared at Aiden's cup.
"Thank you," he said.
Aiden put the cup down. "You stayed with your mother. That helped."
The boy looked up, visibly pleased to discover he had contributed something besides being frightened.
The mother let the boy finish without supplying another sentence for him. When Aiden smiled, the child loosened his grip on her sleeve.
"Were you going somewhere?" Aiden asked.
She nodded toward the room behind them. They had stopped on their way through, not come to ask him for anything else. That made the visit easier to accept.
