He smirked, but ignored the question.
After a few minutes of silence she decided to indulge her other curiosity. “Were you ever married?” she asked.
“No. You?”
She laughed. “Very funny.”
“How many men have asked?”
“A few,” she said, eating some wedges of a strange and lovely pink fruit.
“The magistrate?”
“No. He wants my sister, and it’s against the law for the same man to have us both. Even if only one is his wife.”
“Why’s that?”
“We own property. We each have to marry an Orium man who is himself a landowner.”
“Keep the wealth in the hands of the wealthy? Typical. And what if you don’t?”
“We can sell our land and leave.”
“And if you marry someone not from Orius without first selling?”
“Our property is forfeit. So I can’t marry you. Thanks for asking.”
He smiled. It was the first genuine smile she’d seen from him. It made his handsome face so appealing that her knees almost quaked.
“Why haven’t you been married?” she asked.
“The one I was supposed to marry did something foolish. Got herself killed.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. What happened?”
“She came looking for me in the wrong place. When someone grabbed her from a bar where she was singing for her supper, she fought. She was like that. Impulsive.”
“Any woman would fight if she was being abducted.”
“I taught her not to fight unless she could win. I taught her to wait for the right moment. Or to wait for me.”
“Maybe she couldn’t.”
“No, she couldn’t. She was wild and reckless. Canypscan down to the bone.”
She heard the admiration and affection in his tone. “You must have loved her a lot.”
“I did.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault.”
“Not yours either.”
He shrugged. “She wanted to come with me. I guess I should’ve let her.”
“Why didn’t you?”
