Chapter 23: Her Answer

"No," I said.

Rocco's face didn't move, but his hand closed slowly around the little box.

"No to what?" he asked.

"No to the debt. No to being handed over, no to a wedding my father arranged, no to being a peace treaty."

"Okay."

"And yes to you."

He looked up.

"I'd have said it in the car," I said. "I'd have said it at the dinner, if I'd known how. I'm saying it now, on my own, with nobody telling me to."

He didn't speak.

I took the tin ring out of the box and pushed it onto my own finger, and it was a little too big.

"It fits," I lied.

"It doesn't."

"It will. Ask me again on Sunday, remember?"

"I love you," he said.

"I know. You said it in a shower."

"Say it back."

"I love you, you idiot."

He laughed, and it was wet and cracked.

Then he picked me up off the ground and kissed me in the rain.

The gatehouse had a slate roof, a woodstove, and one big bed with an iron frame.

I had put four bolts on the door that morning, and I shot every one of them behind us.

"That's a lot of bolts," Rocco said.

"I'm thorough."

He backed me against the wall and I pulled his wet jacket off.

He lifted my vest over my head, slowly, and set it on a chair.

"You know," I said, "I've never once taken that off for you in daylight."

"The curtains are open."

"There's only a lawn."

"Then take it all off."

Keep reading free with an account. Start She Tried to Poison Me, but My Plant Died First! from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.