pink wine, eat cones, and think of her in his bed.
“Ah. You have to run,” she guessed.
“Indeed.” He rose. “Thank you. The cones were divine.”
She handed him the basket. “Take them.”
He hesitated.
She rose and pressed the basket into his hands. “You’re leaving the wine with me. It’s only fair.”
Outside the sunshine made him blink. He slipped the knife out and handed it to Romuld. “Find out who she is.”
Meli sat alone in the kitchen. She poured herself another mug. The wine was perfect, delicate, its bouquet leaving a symphony of complimenting flavors on her tongue.
A small part of her had hoped Celino would recognize her. But he didn’t. That was how little her existence had meant. She was nothing but a forgotten speck in his past life.
Meli drank the wine.
It had started with a veil.
She vividly remembered it. It was a diaphanous indigo veil that hid the bottom part of her face, leaving only her eyes exposed. When her mother had slipped it onto her, adjusting the band to fit under the knot of her hair, Meli could still see her features in the mirror, but her face seemed broken in half. There was the tan half with her eyes and then there was the lower half under the veil that seemed to belong to someone else.
“Why?” she asked.
Mother sat on the bed. “You are betrothed. The veil lets everyone know that you’re off-limits.”
The enormity of it failed to penetrate. “But I’m only ten.”
Mother sighed. “I voted against it. I think it’s a critical error in judgment and I think it will come back to haunt us all. But I was outvoted by the family counsel.”
Even at ten, Meli knew that family counsel was law.
“Who am I marrying?”
Mother snapped her fingers. The display hidden in the surface of the mirror ignited. “Engagement,” her mother said briskly. A file appeared, opened, and an image of Celino Carvanna filled the screen.
“But he’s old!”
“Don’t be melodramatic. He’s only sixteen. In eight years, when you marry him, you will be eighteen and he will be twenty-four. See, the difference is much less pronounced. And when you’re twenty-two and he’s twenty-eight, you’ll barely notice it.”
Meli stared at Celino’s face. He was handsome. She had seen him a few times at the garden parties. But he didn’t know she existed. “But he isn’t interested in me in that way.”
“Darling, you’re ten. Trust me, if I had any inkling that he was interested in you in that way at this point, they’d have to kill me and your father both to go through with this engagement. He is a very young man. Right now woman to Celino means a set of breasts and a plump bottom.”
Mother took her hands into hers.
“You’re not a woman yet, Meli. But one day you will be. You won’t be beautiful, but you will be attractive and men will flock to you. Me, your aunt Nez, your grandmother, we all have that something that makes men turn their heads and do silly things to entice us into their beds. Don’t worry, darling. He will notice you one day. You will hit him like a brick.”
The veil itched her chin. Meli scratched. “But why do I have to do this?”
“Because our family and the Carvannas have formed an alliance. On our own, we’re both too small to be a significant player in New Delphi, but together we can be a force. Our territory will double. We’re sharing technologies and manufacturing facilities. And your betrothal to Celino cements it together the way seal foam cements sections of the spacecraft together.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
Mother gathered her into her arms. They sat together looking at Celino.
“I will have to do it anyway, won’t I?”
“Yes.”
“What if he won’t like me?” Meli said softly.
Mother fell silent. “I have to be honest with you, Meli. He probably won’t like you. And it has absolutely nothing to do with you. As I said, he’s a very young man. He’s just now coming into his own. Before the engagement he could see freedom on the horizon: independence, however small, from the family. His own aerial. His own place. Freedom to find women and choose his destiny. Our family counsels took all of it away from him with this engagement. The world of his possibilities has been narrowed. He’s a gifted, independent boy and he will be bitter about this development. That we can’t help. And that’s why I didn’t want this engagement. I don’t want you to be married