Unintentionally and somewhat confusingly, this child's heart skipped a beat. I stood frozen, momentarily disconcerted. Claude furrowed his brows; then he raised his right hand and waved it too close to my face.
Of course, I blinked. I was caught off guard by that sudden action.
Claude pouted and squinted his eyes as he pulled back, saying, "Hmm… Maybe you're just pretending. Are you a thief?"
"What? Of course not!" I snapped.
He raised his eyebrow. I quickly looked away and continued, "What is there to steal in the burial mound anyway?"
His ancestor's corpse? What did he expect me to do with it? Make a bone soup?
He chuckled as though he understood what I was thinking. I looked at him again. He was smiling. When he asked me if I was a thief, his tone was teasing. He knew I wasn't a threat or anything bad.
Claude had a sharp sense after all.
