Chapter 14: Terms, Wanning

At two in the morning Wanning put on her coat over her nightdress and went down the stairs in her slippers.

The poplars were black against the lamps, and the van was where he had left it.

She rapped on the back window with one knuckle.

He sat up at once, wide awake, with his coat sliding off his chest.

He opened the door and did not say anything.

"Your feet are hanging out of the door," she said.

"They don't fit anywhere."

"I know. I listened to them all last night."

She stood in the cold with her arms folded.

"You said I never asked who it was for," she said. "I didn't ask, because I'd stopped thinking there was anyone."

"Wanning."

"Let me finish. It was for a husband I thought I'd never have."

"Then a man I had never met hung it over my bed, and it looked right."

"That frightened me. So I threw you out for saying it."

He sat very still, with one hand open on his knee.

"I should not have said it like that," he said.

"No. You should have said it exactly like that, and I should have listened."

Her breath showed white between them.

"Come upstairs, Captain."

"Terms," he said, very low.

"Yes. Terms. Number two, separate beds." She took a step closer. "I'm breaking it. I'd like you to be there when I do."

He looked at her for a long moment. Then he got out of the van, stiff-legged, and stood in front of her with his head bent.

He did not touch her.

His hands stayed at his sides, and she saw what that cost him.

"Terms, Wanning," he said, and her knees went unsteady.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Only I Understand His Gentle Heart from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.