A Trace of Smoke, Excerpt 23

NEWS: “A Trace of Smoke” is on page 25 of the March/April Writer’s Digest, on newsstands now. Wow!

 EXCERPT:
“You seem intent on hurling yourself down the stairs.”  He caught me easily and pushed his beautiful lips into a slow smile.  “Surely things cannot be so bad, young lady.”
No one had called me a young lady since before the war.  “Easy to say from inside such an expensive suit.”  I smiled back.
He retrieved my tattered sketchbook, open to the picture I’d drawn of him glaring at the rapist.  “A