Tris glanced at Kiara. "Wonderful idea- especially if it keeps me off the dance floor."
Half a dozen soldiers escorted Tris and Kiara to their rooms. As Tris closed the door and locked it behind them, he wished that they might have the kind of total privacy a king could never enjoy.
"You go hard on your wardrobe," Kiara observed. Tris looked down at the shredded long coat with the glimmer of chainmail that showed through the ruined sleeves and sighed.
"Just one more reason I liked what we wore on the road. Cheaper to replace-and a lot more comfortable."
He laid aside the tattered coat. His shoulder was beginning to throb from the force of the magicked beast's strikes. Tris winced as Kiara helped him remove the torn shirt and the chainmail that clearly showed deep claw marks. His chest and arm were already darkening with bruises.
"Keeping you in one piece is going to be harder than I thought." Kiara's humor didn't reach her eyes.
Tris drew her toward him. "Second thoughts?" His fingers toyed with her long hair, and the scent of her perfume quickened his heartbeat.
"Not at all."
"Something's bothering you."
Kiara reddened. "It's nothing. Just-it seems so… public. The whole kingdom knows we're locked in here, trying to produce an heir!"
"Do you think it would be any different, if we were off in a village somewhere? It's the same for farmers or kings-except that farmers aren't surrounded by guards."
Her silk dress slipped across the bare skin of his chest and she wrapped her arms around his neck, laying her head on his shoulder. "Maybe so."
"Be grateful to my grandmother that she ended the whole custom of hanging a bed sheet out the window the next day to show that the bride was a virgin."
"Really?"
He shot her a wicked grin. "Carroway says that in the old days, many a couple brought along a rabbit.to sacrifice in order to bloody the sheet and save the bride's reputation. Grandmother said it was a barbaric custom and not suited to a modern kingdom. So we're spared that, at least." The laughter subsided. "Something else is on your mind."
"I don't want to disappoint you," she murmured. "The whole business of being betrothed from birth…I haven't, I mean, I don't-"
Tris drew back far enough to meet her eyes. "You couldn't possibly disappoint me-in any way," he said. "We're here. Together. Married. It's what I've wanted since Westmarch, even though it seemed too much to hope for." He paused. "I have an idea."
He stepped toward the large four-poster bed and let down the bed curtains, so that they