Chapter 22: New Terms

I found him in the corridor of the dock hall, alone, with his good hand on the window ledge.

"You came to the wrong one," I said. "I was at the cemetery at ten."

"I know. The eldest told me." He did not turn. "He said you were at a grave with your sister."

"Why didn't you tell me about the trust?"

"Because it wasn't a gift if you had to thank me for it."

"It's a very large thing to give a person without telling her."

"I told you in a letter."

"You told me to come and see it."

"Yes."

I stood beside him at the window.

Outside, the cranes stood over the water, and half of them were his now, and half were mine.

"The car is at the door," I said. "Take me to your house."

He turned then.

"Ilse."

"Take me home, Matthias."

The Kell house was dark when we came in, and the whole staff had been sent to bed.

I went down the ground-floor hall to the study with its light on, and he followed me.

His desk had been righted since that night, and the ledgers were back on their shelves.

On the blotter lay a sheet of heavy paper folded in three, soft along the creases.

"You kept it," I said.

"I kept all of it."

It was the council's seating chart, and on the back of it were the terms we had signed.

I unfolded it and laid it flat under the lamp.

Separate rooms.

Her lock, her key.

No hands unless the families watch.

Her share in her name.

A year, or the Reinholts finished.

I picked up his pen.

I drew a line through the first one, hard.

"Rooms," I said. "Every door in this house stays unlocked for me, and every door in mine stays unlocked for you."

I struck out the second.

"Keys, then. Ours."

"Ilse."

"No hands unless the families watch." I looked up. "The families are not here."

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