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ridiculously pleased.
    â€œOkay, hold still,” he said. “I have something for you.” He shifted his weight but still managed to keep her on his lap. Then he pulled a thin, braided band of red wool from his pocket.
    â€œWhat is it?” she asked.
    â€œHold out your hand,” he said. With both arms still around her, he tied the strings of the band around her left wrist. “I had Mlady Roxanne teach me how to make the stitches. See here?” He lightly touched a strand of gold that threaded through a wider part of the fabric bracelet. She frowned, holding her wrist toward the firelight so she could see the tiny characters.
    â€œIt says ‘orange,’” she said, awed. “When did you make it?” It was the loveliest thing she’d ever seen, both strong and delicate, with work as fine as any her father had ever done. She could hardly believe Leon had made it for her.
    â€œLast fall,” Leon said. “It took me about ten tries to get it right.”
    â€œAnd you’ve been carrying it around all this time?” she asked.
    â€œI was waiting for the right moment,” he said. “I have the feeling this will have to suffice.”
    She stilled her hand on the bracelet. “You were going to give it to me as an engagement present, weren’t you, like a ring?”
    â€œIt’s yours, Gaia. I just want you to have it.”
    She felt her eyes misting.
    â€œJust take it.” He kissed her cheek, and then her lips again. “You’ll say yes to me someday,” he said. “I know you will. As far as I’m concerned, we’re engaged.”
    A last, spindling thread of reservation unraveled inside her, allowing her heart to leap blindly forward. “Me, too. Of course I’ll marry you. Nothing would make me happier.”
    His eyes grew warmer and deeper than she’d ever seen them. “You mean this? You won’t take it back?”
    She laughed. “Yes. Really. You’re right. It’s ours, and I just have to learn to live with it.”
    â€œLike a curse or something.” He was nodding, and then he was shaking his head, too, like he could hardly believe her. Then he laughed. “When?”
    â€œI don’t know,” she said. “Whenever we get settled. Okay?”
    â€œWe’re pretty settled tonight. Right now, actually, come to think of it.”
    She laughed again. “You’d have to shave.”
    â€œI can shave. I’m very good at shaving.” He toppled slowly sideways to the blanket, bringing her with him and half squashing her.
    â€œWe agreed not to tease each other on trail,” she reminded him.
    â€œWe agreed not to tease each other too much ,” he said. “You’re mine now.” His voice dropped soft and close to her ear. “You’ve made a promise.”
    â€œI know. You have, too.”
    Leon shifted her more comfortably in his arms, and she snuggled near, feeling the warmth where her clothes met his and inhaling the warm, smoky scent of him. He somehow reminded her of cinnamon, even though she hadn’t tasted any in over a year. The idea of him being with her always, just like this, for the rest of her life, brought her a kind of wondering joy. Then, with an awful sense of premonition, she hugged him more tightly, peering past his shoulder to the black void of sky beyond the drifting campfire smoke, as if she might not get the chance to hold him again for a long time. Ignore the fear , she thought.
    She felt his finger move lightly along the chain of her necklace.
    â€œFinally,” he said tenderly, and for the first time, Gaia heard a new, ineffable sweetness in his voice.

 
    CHAPTER 4
    the crims’ deal
    T HE PACKED, WIND-SWEPT DIRT was parched and gray beneath Gaia’s boots, and the little clumps of sage and oat grass had turned almost colorless in their wasted, spindly grip upon the earth. Like us, Gaia thought. She was