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"You found out ue darted out of heroff her bottom lip He wondered if her mouth tasted of cones and pink wine

"Would your men like some?"

"No," he said

"They’re on duty?"

He nodded and attacked the second cone

He had eaten three before Marcus leaned over to hi with the land owners started in less than twenty h time to reach the conference hall within his hotel

He didn’t want to leave He wanted to sit with her in the sunny kitchen, drink pink wine, eat cones, and think of her in his bed

"Ah You have to run," she guessed

"Indeed" He rose "Thank you The cones were divine"

She handed him the basket "Take them"

He hesitated

She rose and pressed the basket into his hands "You’re leaving the ith me It’s only fair"

Outside the sunshine made him blink He slipped the knife out and handed it to Romuld "Find out who she is"

Meli sat alone in the kitchen She poured herself anothera syue

A snize her But he didn’t That was how little her existence otten speck in his past life

Meli drank the wine

It had started with a veil

She vividly reo veil that hid the botto only her eyes exposed When herthe band to fit under the knot of her hair, Meli could still see her features in the mirror, but her face seemed broken in half There was the tan half with her eyes and then there was the lower half under the veil that see to someone else

"Why?" she asked

Mother sat on the bed "You are betrothed The veil lets everyone know that you’re off-limits"

The enormity of it failed to penetrate "But I’ainst it I think it’s a critical error in judgment and I think it will come back to haunt us all But I was outvoted by the family counsel"

Even at ten, Meli knew that fa?"

Mother snapped her fingers The display hidden in the surface of the ement," her e of Celino Carvanna filled the screen

"But he’s old!"

"Don’t be ht years, when you hteen and he will be twenty-four See, the difference is much less pronounced And when you’re twenty-two and he’s twenty-eight, you’ll barely notice it"