Lucia novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Wedding Night Proper

I did not say yes right away.

I wanted every person in that hall to see me choose.

So I walked across the stone floor to him in my muddy green coat, with my braid coming loose.

I took both his hands and pulled him up from his knee.

"Stand up, Captain," I said. "You're not asking, you're being told."

A low laugh went around the hall.

"I chose you once because the law gave me a door," I said.

"I choose you now because I have ridden beside you, bled beside you, and learned what you sound like when you snore."

"I do not snore," Tobin said.

"You snore like a sawmill," Pia called from the back, and the courtyard roared.

"Yes," I said, over the noise. "Yes, Tobin. Here. Now. With all of them."

The priest who had overruled a prince was found drinking in a side chapel.

He came at a run, tucking his spectacles on his nose.

There were no linen strips this time, only my father's hand to give me away and Corradin standing at Tobin's shoulder.

The prince had asked, very stiffly, if he might.

Tobin had said, even more stiffly, that he supposed so.

When the priest asked who gave this woman, my father said, "She gave herself, and I came along."

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