Page 146 of Carnage

"You're thinking," I say.

"Just about how I'm going to win this war."

I smile against his back. "That's very cocky."

He turns in my arms. Looks down at me. His dark eyes in the firelight, the thin scar above his eyebrow catching the light. "And so I should be." His mouth curves. A real smile. "Look at the woman I captured."

My chest swells. I smile back.

"Come to bed," I say.

He lets me lead him. Through the hallway with its fresh paint and bare walls where nothing hangs yet. Up the stairs that still creak in the wrong places because the builders haven't finished. Into the room at the end of the corridor, where the bed is made, and the window looks out over the garden and the land beyond it, dark and quiet under a sky full of stars.

Tomorrow, William has the council meeting. I have phone calls. A father arriving next week who needs to be faced, and a brother somewhere in Europe who needs to be mourned, and a name none of us have heard before that carries more weight than all the violence that came before it.

But that's tomorrow.

Tonight, William locks the door. Puts his back against it. Looks at me across the room with an expression I don't have a word for but feel in every part of my body.

I hold out my hand.

He crosses the room and takes it.

THE END