I can’t tell you how nice it is to hear someone talking like the voices in my head,” Abigail said, linking arms with Jessica and heading toward the battlement door. “You’ll have to come visit – a lot. Miles will love it.” “Did you tell him about me?” “He guessed.” “He didn’t!” “Not much gets past the man.

But she had no hard cash. Not even a tissue in case she became hysterical.

It isn’t done easily,” he said with a half smile. “I’m just not one to complain overmuch.

Twenty-four years of sneaking cola drinks for breakfast had finally taken its toll, and she had been tossed into sugar-induced hallucination.

The more I see you,” he said quietly, “the more I want you.

Not all evil is final, nor is all suffering needless.

Richard opened the door, then stood back. “After you, my lady.” Jessica walked into the room and gasped. She turned around and around, trying to take in the entire view. He had painted the bedroom walls. Talk about an unobstructed ocean view. It was more magnificent than she ever could have imagined. She laughed and threw herself at him. “You’re amazing,” she said breathlessly. “It’s beautiful!” “Nay,” he said, shutting the door and bolting it. “You are the beautiful one.

He threw open the shutters and was silent. “There,” he said, pointing to a shooting star. “Wish to stay together. Hurry.” She watched the star’s arc fade and wished, secure in her love’s embrace. “I wish that we’ll be together forever,” she whispered. He pressed his lips against her ear. “I wish that we’ll be together forever,” he echoed. “Now it can’t help but come to pass.

If Jessica had been pleased with his work, that was enough. He had bent to his work and poured his entire soul, black as it might have been, into fashioning something beautiful for his lady. His lady. He could no longer think of her as anything else. And that was the thought that left him standing in the lists, useless and fair blinded by the thought of his poor heart being so exposed.

He can occasionally see to an enemy,” she conceded. “If he manages to get his sword pointed in the right direction and the enemy does him the favor of falling upon it in precisely the right way.