“He laughed again. “Not boring and not dumb. That’s so much better than your boyfriend who both bored me and was dumb. To be honest I don’t know what you saw in him.” “Ex. Ex-boyfriend ” she said. “I swear to God I’m never going to live that down.”

“Nick as in my former boyfriend Nick. Ex-rat, ex-boyfriend, ex-alive if I ever got hold of him Nick.”

“She called me ‘my lady,’ ” she told him in a plaintive voice. “I don’t know who that is. I’m no lady.” The last of his fury faded away to be replaced with a quick gleam. He peered under the sheet. “I can attest to that.”

“Were you her lover? Did she cheat on you?” He paused. Rhoswen glared at him but remained silent. He said, “I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that’s a no. Did she really have to get rid of her servant just because I came along? Wait, here it comes again: no.”

“I will always come for you, always hold on to you. I swear it. I will never let go of you, never fail you, I will hold steady, no matter what.”

“She cradled his head and bowed over him, wiping her damp cheeks with one hand. "We're so different from each other.""We live a long time. It's good to not be bored.”

“For surely the gods would know better than she what to make of this hot, beautiful grief, the gods who had, after all, created her with such a fierce, lonesome soul.”