Chapter 12: The First Night

The surprise was waiting in the lobby.

A waiter in a white jacket stepped out from behind a pillar with a full glass of red wine.

He tripped over nothing.

The wine went down the front of my green dress from collar to hem.

Behind him, Delphine laughed.

It was a thin, bright sound, and the lobby heard it.

"Oh, Sister. I'm so sorry. What a shame. Now you'll have to take it off."

I looked down at the dress.

I looked at the stain, and then I looked at her.

"Thank you," I said. "I was going to."

Rowan's laugh was short, and it came out of him.

His driver had the car at the curb in under a minute.

Neither of us spoke on the drive.

In the dark of the back seat his hand lay on the seat between us, and I watched it the whole way.

At the grey house, he did not need the chair for the front steps.

He leaned on my shoulder, and the driver put the chair away without a word.

The bedroom door shut behind us.

He stood there, with one hand on the wall and his breath uneven.

"Needles first," I said.

"Faye."

"Your legs barely held in front of three hundred people, and you're going to pay for it tomorrow if I don't loosen them now. Sit."

He sat on the edge of the bed.

I knelt on the rug and drew the wine-wet hem of my dress up out of the way.

I worked fast.

Thigh, calf, the long muscle behind the knee.

Eight needles, and then the circle of my palm on his skin.

His whole body was tight.

"Done," I said, and drew the last one out.

I looked up.

He was not looking at his legs.

He was looking at me.

"Term one," he said, quietly. "A year, then we both walk away."

"I remember."

"I said I'd wait for one heartbeat. I waited on the road, and the road was a lot longer than a heartbeat."

"Rowan."

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