Apparently, his doubts were founded as it wasn't just his tears that were falling.
In fact, Duke Leander hadn't even realized he was crying. Not truly. At least not until the sounds reached him. Not his own ragged breaths, but the shuddering sobs of Gisella and Ollie, one of whom was rarely associated with uncontrolled emotion, while the other was a fountain of feeling who didn't even try to stop it.
They wailed. Loudly. Freely. Ugly with joy.
And maybe that was what covered up his own sound, the trembling in his chest that wouldn't quite rise to his throat.
It was because the figure Gisella clung to had begun to move.
Leander actually didn't see it. His vision was clouded with tears that had nothing to do with the miraculous recovery happening over there.
Not at first.
But had he looked, he would've seen how the figure garbled a cough followed by a strained mumble for water.
