Metaphor
The Russian princess died long ago, before there were taps to run as this one was, before there were gas ovens to remember to turn off. Orlando turned the handle, listened to the tap dripping, thought she heard laughter and remembered sheets of ice floating down the Thames, and the people shouting, screaming as they were carried away from London--she remembered the earth under her bare feet when she ran to the tree; she remembered Shel finding her and being--for a few moments, anyway--something like safe.
But the Russian princess died; she turned off the tap entirely.
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