The Chocolatier's Wife (13 page)

She looked at the neighbor.
“And what if you don’t
have
family?”

“You
hope
that
the
bloke
in
the
cell
next
to
you
has
a
soft
heart
and a mutton head,” he said ruefully.

“Then
I
shall
have
to
remember
to
bring plenty
of
food
with
me tonight.”

“So you will come back?”

“Of
course.
But
I
shall
leave
soon
and
get
myself
cleaned
up
and
settled in
from
the
trip.
My
mode
of
travel
was
fast
but
not
always
as
clean
as
one would like.”

“You did manage to make
the
trip with
marvelous
speed. I
thought you
flew.”

“After
a
fashion.”
She
grinned
at
his
expression.
“Anyway,
do
you
have any
sugge
s
tions
as
to
where
I
should
make
my
berth? That
is
the
sailing term for
it,
aye?”

“Indeed.”
He
returned
her
smile,
then,
a
little
uncomfortably, “I
have bought
the
whole
building
in
which
our
shop
resides.
You
could,
if
you
like, stay
in
our
apar
t
ments
above.” She
was
surprised
that
he
would
suggest such
a
thing,
not
by
her
own
objection,
but
from
her
understanding
that
the Southern
people
could
be
terribly
prim. Her
face
must
have
betrayed
her surprise,
for
he rushed to say,
“I
do understand that you should not stay in our
home
before
we
are
truly
wed,
but
it
may
be
less
uncomfor
t
able
for
you,
and
it might not be untoward to have
someone taking
residence again.”

“So
you
don’t
think your
mother
is
going
to
sprinkle
rose
petals
upon my
path
and
sing
my
praises?”
Tasmin
said
wryly,
and
he
sighed,
which
was all
the
answer
she
needed.
“Please,
I
am
only
trying,
foolishly,
to
lighten
the mood. I
will
be
pleased
to
sleep
in
the
place
that
my
intended
has
chosen for
us.”
She
recalled
that
his
mother
was,
in
William’s
own
words,
“exacting because
life
has
not
always
been
kind
to
her.”
He
had
never said
why,
but she felt badly if he thought she was mocking
the older woman.

He
managed
a
smile.
“I
know,
and
think
it
most
good
of
you,
but
I
cannot help
feeling
sorry.
Our
marriage
was
doomed
to
be
hard
in
the
beginning, simply
because
our
people
are
so
different,
but
now
the
weight
of
these events
will
make
it
even
worse.
I
would
not
have
pulled
you
into
this
mess for
all the world.”

“Mess?
And here
I
thought
this
little
adventure
was
your
wedding present to me.
I
am
quite disappointed, William.”

He
rolled
his
eyes.
“Nay, my
dear, I
am
supposed
to
slay
dragons
for you,
not
de
a
cons.
But
you
look
like
you
could
use
a
rest.
The
guard
has
my personal
effects.
If
you
please,
tell
him
you
have my
permission
to
claim them
all,
and
among
them
you
will
find the
key
to
the
front
door
of
the shop.
My
brother
will
bring
me
dinner
at
a
qua
r
ter
after
four.
Were
you
to come and
meet him,
I’d
be quite grateful.”

“I
would
be
most
honored. I
shall
return
then.
Have
you
any
wish
for aught, while I’m at your home?” There were two books on his bed; he took one
and
handed
it
through
the
bars.
She
took
it:
Creighton’s
Mysteries
volume one.
“Reading about the unseen world,
Mister Almsley?”

“It is part of your world,
is it not?”

She
shook
her
head.
“Haunted
temples
and
people
who
claim
to
have
been able to step back into time is not exactly my field.”

“Says
she
who
has
never
read
it.
There’s
a
whole
chapter
on
stone
lore in
that
book. He
traveled
the
world
and
wrote
down
all
these
stories
that happened
but
could
not
be
rationally
explained.
It
is
diverting, if
nothing else, to see the patterns of it.”

“Are
there
more
than
two
volumes?”
It
was
hard
to
be
entirely
approving of
his
choice
in
reading
material.
Magic
should
be
rational,
not
the
province of
well-meaning
crack-pots
who
collected
shiny
bits
of
information like
a jackdaw.

He
shook
his
head.
“Nay,
but
I
was
hoping
you
would
bring
me
another book,
I
am
almost
done
with
the
second
Creighton’s.
He
wrote
a
rather
lurid chapter on ancient cocoa rites that I’m in the middle of now, so I
would like something gentler, perhaps some verse?”

“Of
course.
I
shall
return
presently.”
She
smiled
and
raised
her
hood again.

“Tasmin...”

She peered at him
from
the depths of her cloak.

“Thank
you.
And
please, take care.
You will promise me?”

She
laughed
despite
herself.
“Oh,
William.
All
I’m
doing
is
supporting you.
I
shall be utterly safe.”

Chapter
7

Junair
fourteenth, Gold Moon Quarter 1788

Dear
William,

I
have
not been
able
to write for lack
of
words. The
necklace you
sent
is the
most marvelous, the
most beautiful
thing
I
have ever
seen!
I
simply never
believed
I
could possess something
so fantastic.
I
have
tried it on
but once
to experience
it, for the tem
p
tation
was
more
than
I
could
bear,
but
now
have
determined to place it aside in a safe place, so that the first
time the world
sees
it upon me is the
day
I
become
your wife.