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“Can you keep those in the garden?”

Daurek glances up toward the eastern corridor. “I can stop new ones growing in the public passages.”

“Please. I enjoy kissing you. I’d rather not have the household counting how often.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

I look at the windows above us. The shutters are open, but no one is leaning out of them yet.

“You don’t have to stop kissing me.”

“I wasn’t planning to.”

He says it so readily that I forget the windows and catch his arm.

Daurek bends down. The kiss is quick, and I still want another when he straightens.

“I have to meet Reivaka,” he says.

“I know. She’s waiting under the arch.”

“Could you come to my room afterward?” I ask. “I’ve had a letter from Asha.”

“Before lunch?”

“Yes, please.”

“You’re still holding me.”

I let go, embarrassed enough to laugh.

He goes to her. I remain by the wall until they’ve left the courtyard, then take the stairs to my room.

The white flowers along the public corridor have stopped opening. Inside my door, the red flower on my writing ledge is still fresh.

Karev’s offer lies beside it.

Asha’s first letter arrived yesterday. Ziku collected it from the trade station after his morning run. By the time Daurek knocks late this morning, I’ve read it four times and written her name at the top of two otherwise empty pages.

He carries two cups of tea.

“Can you get the door?” he asks.

I hold the vines apart while he ducks inside. He puts the cups on the writing ledge and looks at the paper beneath my pen.

“Bad news?”

“Everyone is alive. Asha is angry enough to stay that way for years.”

I sit down beside the ledge. Daurek settles beside me on the floor.

The letter lies where I can read it. He doesn’t reach for it.

Vai,

The bondhouse man came the morning after the auction. I didn’t believe him until he showed me the stamp. Tovi cried. I didn’t, because someone had to open the stall.

Twenty silver arrived. I don’t want it. I’m keeping it in the tin under the counter until you come and take it back yourself.