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She tipped his head back to reach his throat He steadied his breathing, fighting the urge to s as she scraped over his pulse Grief changespeople How could it not? He realized no unfair he’d been to Joss, denying hie It was only now that he could understand it, when the very idea of losing this wo his eyes, he reached up to squeeze her free hand "Let us speak of happier things"

"Very well" He heard the smile in her voice "Where shall we honeymoon? Will you take me to Italy, to see the Botticellis?"

"I will take you anywhere you wish Anywhere under the sky"

A tender kiss landed on his eyelid Then she fell silent, working toward the center of his chin, dipping the blade in a basin at his side between short, sure strokes She was concentrating, he realized, working carefully around his scar At last she set aside the razor, letting it sink into the basin with a soft splash, then dried his face with a cloth

"Stay still" Her fingers ran lightly over his face, as if testing for any rough spots she’d missed She traced the thin scar from his chin to his mouth

"So if this scar was self-inflicted, occasioned by vanity"--her hand slid down to the scar on his chest--"what of this? Not vanity, I think"

He shook his head, laying one hand over hers "Pure stupidity, that one But self-inflicted, just the same"

"It looks like a burn"

"It is"

Silence His heart thuainst her palm

"You don’t have to tell me," she finally whispered

"I want to," he replied, surprised to find it was the truth How could he expect her to share her own secrets, if he withheld his? "But it’s a long story"

"We have all night" He cocked his head and frowned up at her "When I went to the galley, I told O’Shea you were ill," she adht land"

He rolled onto his side and propped himself on one elbow, uncertain whether to scold or kiss her She solved the dile into the bed beside hi his head to her shoulder

"Between keeping watch and keeping a mistress, you’ve scarcely slept in a week"

"You’re not my mistress, you’re my future wife"

"We’re not married yet And don’t spoil my fun It’s e joy swelled his heart He wrapped an arm about her waist "Yes, it is"

Gray held her in silence, considering the story he meant to tell It was a story he scarcely understood hi it for his own benefit athered that Joss’s mother was my father’s mistress One of his mistresses, at any rate She was a slave"

"I see" She stroked his hair

"Froed Joss openly as his son This was after my own mother’s death, and before his bastards nu the the day Played together, dined together, took our lessons together By night I stayed in the house, and Joss went to his mother in her quarters"

He frowned "It’s so odd now, to rees I enjoyed, with none of the expectations To me, Joss seemed at home everywhere It was only , he scrubbed a hand over his freshly shaven face "It should not have been surprising, I suppose, that he grew to resentland, to university--all I wished was to trade places with Joss and stay at houed all the time, and came to blows s," she interjected "My sister and I quarreled constantly at that age"

"I suppose you’re right In the end, it was another fight that drew the line between us On his way ho side of some drunken louts They decided it was time to put my brother in his place, so they beat and branded him"

Her hand froze in his hair "Branded hi the owner’s mark into their shoulder A repulsive practice--not that slavery itself is not a repulsive practice in its own right Branding has been out of favor on Tortola for generations, but Joss’s attackers decided to resurrect the tradition" A wave of nausea rolled through hi prostrate in his recovery bed for days on end The odor of charred flesh giving way to the sickly smell of infection, then the sweet stench of laudanu all These parts of the story, he would not share