I let him fuss over every inch of me, because he needs it, and because I like his hands on me. Both feel like excellent reasons.
When we come downstairs, Darina is in the kitchen, scrubbing a counter that’s already clean. Nim crouches on the table beside her, tail wrapped around her paws, watching Darina with worried eyes.
Darina turns. She sees me and exhales, long and loud. Then she crosses the kitchen and hugs me so hard that my feet nearly leave the floor.
“You’re all right,” she says into my hair. “You’re all right. I’ve been worried sick this whole time.”
“I’m better than all right,” I chuckle, blushing.
She pulls back, holds me at arm’s length, and looks me over from head to toe. Then she looks past me at Osric.
“Is it done?” she asks him. “Are you truly together now? Mated?”
My face goes hot. Beside me, Osric shifts his weight and studies the floor – the most dangerous creature in Otheera, embarrassed by a question about his mate. We’re both fools.
“Yes,” we say, almost together.
Darina lets out a long sigh.
“Good. Then go and sit in the dining room, both of you. I’ve been cooking like a mad person from the stress. There’s enough food in here for a wedding feast, and someone has to eat it.”
“I’m starving,” Osric says.
“You’ve barely eaten in three days,” I tell him, steering him toward the dining room.
Darina carries out bowls and platters until the table can’t hold any more. The three of us sit down together. Osric eats fast and single-minded, reaching for the next dish before he’s finishedthe last. Darina keeps refilling his plate without being asked. I eat slower and watch them both, and I think this is the strangest, sweetest meal of my life. Also, the most ordinary.
Halfway through, warm fur brushes my ankle. I go still. Under the table, a small body winds between my legs, once, twice, pressing against my shins with her whole side.
“Nim’s rubbing against my legs,” I announce, and I can hear how delighted I sound. It’s embarrassing, but I don’t care. “She finally likes me!”
Darina laughs. Osric doesn’t. He lowers his fork and looks at me across the table, quiet and intent, and says nothing. I feel too special to ask.
Darina sets down the bread she’s holding.
“I’m happy for you,” she says. “Truly, I am. But you’re newly mated now. You might want the house to yourselves. Just the two of you, without me underfoot.”
“Stop right there,” I say. “You’re not underfoot, and you’re not going anywhere. You’re not some servant to be dismissed now that I have a husband. You’re my friend.” I turn to Osric. “And she can’t keep doing servant work in this house. She cooks, cleans, she does everything. That has to end.”
“Agreed,” Osric says immediately. “I’ll hire help. Whatever you need. Now that I’m mated, I can return to the city guard, and on a guard’s pay, we can afford proper staff.”
“Would that mean moving into Haara?”
“Only if you want to.”
I think of the black cliffs breathing around me.
“I like this house,” I say. “It’s more isolated, and it’s more ours.”
“Then we stay.”
Darina raises both hands.
“You shouldn’t trouble yourselves over me. I like the work. I’ve always worked.”
“No way,” I say. “You can work if it makes you happy, but not because you must, and not for us. Friend, not servant. Say it back to me.”
She rolls her eyes, but she’s half smiling when she says it.
