In Her Shadow Read Online Free PDF Page B

happening. There's nothing either of us can do but accept it. Why talk about it?"
    Britta set her fork down on her plate as gently as she could, afraid dropping it or slamming it might give the wrong impression. "It sounds like it bothers you–"
    "It doesn't. I'm neither for nor against it."
    "That sounds like a man who is angry."
    His eyes flickered up from his plate and his gaze met hers. "Does it? I don't mean it to be. It's a good thing for us to get married, to help secure the peace between our two peoples."
    "Okay," she said. "Peace between our two peoples. But what about us? We're going to have to live with this the rest of our lives. We should have some sort of discussion about how this affects us."
    "Should we?"
    Britta grit her teeth. What was his problem? "Yes, we should."
    Dux Lucius wiped his mouth with a napkin and leaned back in his chair. "Alright then," he said. "Talk."
    "Well. . ." Britta pushed her plate away as she turned her words over in her mind. She hadn't expected to be in this position, so she hadn't thought over what to say. What challenges might present themselves to two strangers forced into marriage? She'd been a fool not to have given this thought a long time before.
    "Well?" he said and went back to eating.
    "Children."
    Lucius's didn't answer right away, his mouth full of kale again. He chewed slowly, excruciatingly, as if giving himself time to think it over. Maybe. Maybe he was just a slow chewer. His expression was, as it had been throughout, inscrutable. "One," he said.
    "One? Only one? I thought you'd want more."
    For the first time, Lucius's expression broke, if only for a second: his brow furrowed like he'd smelled something unpleasant. "I have one child." He went back to picking at the leafy greens on his plate. "I thought that's what you were asking."
    "You do? I didn't know. That's the thing. I don't know anything about you. You don't know anything about me. We're going to have to find a way to make this work or we'll hate each other."
    "No we won't."
    Britta frowned. A strange thing to say. "We won't?"
    "Not each other. I won't hate you."
    "I don't understand."
    "Of course you don't. You're from Ankshara, City of Night, the Wicked City. You know nothing of our people or our ways."
    "I know you're conquerors."
    A second break in his expression, lips pursed and forehead creased. "Conquerors?"
    "You conquered us, didn't you? Laid siege to this city, starved out its people – my people – took them as slaves–"
    "And we were supposed to keep letting your pirates raid our merchant fleet?"
    "Pirates?"
    Before she could ask what he meant, Dux Lucius shoved back from the table and stood. "It's been nice meeting you," he said, voice cool and filled with military sternness. "I look forward to seeing you again on our wedding day. I'm sure it will be very pleasant."
    "Wait. . ."
    "What?"
    "Your father, the Governor, said to see me home."
    Dux Lucius's face remained impassive. "So he did. Excuse me, I'll just go get my sword."

Chapter 4
     
    The breeze drifting up from the sea was too warm to wear her cloak; while Dux Lucius strapped a sword to his waist, she doffed it, slinging it over her forearm.
    "Come along," he said, clipped as he tightened his belt and started for the front gate.
    "Slow down. We don't have to be in such a hurry."
    "This isn't a romantic moonlit stroll," he said.
    "No, I know. But it's a nice night. Maybe you can't enjoy it, but I can."
    "We need to move quickly and as silently as possible to avoid trouble," said Dux Lucius as they breezed past the empty guard post at the gates of the manse.
    "You people really have a messed up view of our city." Britta lifted her arm slightly to indicate her cloak to him. "No one would dare hurt us."
    "I know this city better than you think," he said. "And it's changing. Your people, I mean your sisters at the abbey, their power is waning–"
    Britta laughed, her voice echoing off the walls of the empty street. There was noise further