Chapter 11: The Night Before

He came through the green door at seven that night with his tie loosened and a folder under his arm.

I was waiting in the kitchen.

I had been waiting since five.

I'd changed my clothes three times and finally put on a green dress I had hemmed myself, with nothing underneath it.

Ewan stopped in the doorway of the glass kitchen.

His eyes went down me once, slowly, and then back to my face.

"The commission called me," he said. "I wasn't supposed to be told. The chair says it isn't close."

"I know."

"Briony, you were" His voice cracked, and he put the folder on the table.

"I stood at the back of that room and I thought, there she is."

"You look like death."

"I haven't slept."

"You swore," I said.

"Before I touch you."

"Yes."

"Then I'll tell you now." He took a step toward me, and his face was gray under the freckles. "In September I"

"Ewan."

He stopped.

I walked across the kitchen, and I put two fingers over his mouth.

"I know it's bad," I said. "I know Dexter's going to throw it at me tomorrow at ten with a megaphone.

"I know you swore.

"And I've spent five days being brave in front of people.

"Tonight I won something with my own hands, and I'm standing in a house on a lake with my husband.

"I'm giving you the oath back.

"You can tell me in the morning, at breakfast, over eggs, and I'll listen to every word.

"Tonight I want one night where nothing is wrong."

He held very still under my fingers.

I felt his breath against them, hot and uneven.

"You're releasing me," he said, muffled.

"I'm releasing you."

"Briony, if I touch you first"

"Then you touch me first."

I took my hand from his mouth, and his hands were on me before it had dropped.

He lifted me against the long glass wall, and the cold of the window struck through the thin green dress.

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