Chapter 10: No Promise

I found him in his study with a map of the Cold Fen borders spread across the desk.

He looked up when I came in, and whatever he saw in my face made him put down his pen.

"Three lords bowed to me in the corridor," I said. "One asked whether I wanted my rooms moved next to yours."

"What did you tell him?"

"That I'd ask the man who made the promise."

"Then ask."

"Which is it, Thane? Your terms said one thing and your mouth said another. I walked in here thinking one of you was lying."

He stood.

"Neither. The terms were for a woman who might change her mind in a fever. I made the promise for the woman standing in front of me."

"That's not an answer either."

"It's the only one I have."

"My father says to ask who stood at the back of my wedding."

Thane went absolutely still.

"I did," he said. "I was there."

"Why did you leave?"

"Because something in me stood up when you walked in, and I told myself it was a headache."

I stared at him.

"The next morning I asked the Keeper what the Stone had read," he said. "She said Stanmore, and the bride. I took her word for eight months."

"And you never asked twice."

"I asked every night, in a bed with a hole in my chest," he said, and his voice cracked on it. "I just stopped asking out loud."

My eyes dropped to the place under his collar.

"Eight months," I said.

I stopped.

There was more to say after that, a great deal more, and my mouth had gone dry.

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