Page 5

I look at it far too long.

I had tried to imagine sharing a bed with him during the journey. I’d pictured someone a little larger than Neimura.

He stops in front of me, and I have to tip my head back to see his face. One of his hands could cover most of my waist. The thought makes me press my wet coat closer, though I don’t think the rain is why I’m suddenly conscious of my breasts.

“Vaidemara?”

His voice is deep enough that I feel it under my ribs.

“Vai.” My voice comes out thin. I clear my throat. “Usually. Vaidemara takes too long when people are shouting.”

He doesn’t smile.

Neimura comes to stand beside him. “The registrar confirmed her choice. The payment has been made.”

Daurek turns toward him.

“You bought me a wife.”

I wait for Neimura to explain that this is how they speak to each other. Some old court joke I don’t understand.

“I acted under your seal,” Neimura says.

“I never told you to do this.”

The bag slides down my shoulder. I catch it against my chest.

“You said he agreed.”

Neimura looks at me, and I recognize the expression. Hadrin wore it the last time I asked when the grain would arrive.

I’ve done it again.

Daurek looks back at me. He takes in my soaked clothes, my muddy boots, the bag I’m holding against myself. I want to explain that I wouldn’t have come if I’d known. I can barely swallow.

His mouth hardens.

“Send her back.”

DAUREK

Vai steps away from me.

The movement is small. She has nowhere to go except back into the rain, and she stops when the water strikes her shoulder.

Neimura arranged the marriage. I told Neimura to send her back. Yet it is Vai who has moved, dragging that sodden bag with her. She heard me dismiss her before I had asked a single question.

Neimura reaches for her bag.

“Don’t touch it,” she says.

He stops.

She pulls the strap over her shoulder and faces me again. Rain-darkened auburn hair clings to her cheeks; beneath the coat, her whole body is shaking. There is dry ground within reach of my arm. I begin to reach for her, then remember how sharply she stopped Neimura.

“The purchase will be contested,” I tell Neimura. “Pay the penalties yourself. Arrange her journey home.”

“I can’t return her to Tesseny as an unmarried woman. The market has recorded her as your wife.”