Page 49 of Alien Burn

“The sitting?”

“The conversation. I could manage it standing, if you preferred.”

That almost earned another laugh.

“Just us?”

“Just us.”

She looked down at the cup in her hand. Her thumb moved once along its rim.

“Yes,” she said. “I would.”

Dhomhes had made agreements that shifted fortunes. He had never been quite so pleased with one syllable.

From the upper path came the brisk sound of footsteps.

Sereya heard them too. Her smile faded before Roemary came into view.

“There you are,” Roemary said.

She was looking at him.

8

SEREYA

Sereya moved the cup to her other hand, though it did not need moving.

She could still feel his fingers.

We are in Courtship.

He had said it while holding her hand, and she was standing here trying to remember how to greet another person.

She resented Roemary's timing.

She wanted more of this. More of him.

More of understanding what passed between them now.

Roemary came down the shallow steps in a pale dress that caught the light as she walked. Sereya had helped fasten the clasp at the back of her neck, standing close enough to see the small red mark where Roemary had scratched herself in her impatience.

Now she was all warmth.

“I was beginning to think you'd escaped us altogether, Gol-Vett.”

Dhomhes greeted her. Pleasantly. The same voice he had used in the breakfast gallery, polished enough to give nothing away.

Sereya knew the difference now.

She wished she didn't. It made her want the other voice back.

“We've hardly seen you,” Roemary went on. “You must let us persuade you to stay for a meal. Sereya can find out what's being served.”

Sereya's feet almost obeyed before the sentence ended.

“I have a family visit to arrange,” he said. “I'm afraid I can't promise dinner.”