Yer timin stinks, he says.

She leans over an says things that make him throw his head back an laugh like he never heard nuthin so funny in his life. It’s sick-makin. Or it would be, if I cared. Which I don’t. Liar, whispers the voice inside my head. Liar, liar, liar.

Bloody Jack. What is it with him? What is it about him that he seems to charm everybody an everythin that crosses his path? Ash an pretty well every other Free Hawk, my sister an now my damn crow. I swear, if there was a rock in his path that he couldn’t be bothered steppin over, all he’d hafta do was give it one look an it’d roll outta the way.

All the time I’ve knowed you, Jack, you kept the door to that heart of yers locked up tight an the key hid away. Looks like she found it. He says nothing. Molly waits. Then: Keys ain’t her style, he says. She kicked the door down.

We ain’t got time fer you to yell at me or fer me to tell you everythin that’s happened, so I’m jest gonna cover the main points real quick an then I’m gonna kiss you, he says.

If yer after a husband, forget it, he says. I seen what you did to the last one.

Wisdom ain’t a virtue I ever aspired to.

It’s dangerous to let your enemy see weakness. Weakness can git you killed.

Life ain’t black an white. People ain’t neether. Family, friends, lovers. It’s all a lot more complicated. The longer I live, the more I see, the less I know fer sure. Especially when it comes to matters of the heart. So dry yer tears. Whoever he is, he won’t be cryin over you. Men never do. That’s the one thing I do know fer sure. Now, muck up them boots a bit.

Marry me, he says. I got all my own teeth, I wash twice a year an I’ll cut you in fer half the business here.