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I kneas just a silly girl’s dreas like that don’t happen in real life But oh, hoished they would

Randal was already hard at hen I arrived Thesun warm, with a breeze that cooledthe trunk of a tree into a post, then setting it in the space where rotten one had long ago fallen away He seemed farther away today, so orked without ainst hout the day, but he kept distance and I wondered if he regretted what had happened between us Though I knew little of courtship, it was hard for et to know each other better than they would working together on a far the fruits of all that hard work

As the day passed, things seeet closer to me, and I to him

We stopped our work in the late afternoon only this ti I noticed that he brought the finest cider in all the land, ’s seal on the label

“Where on earth did you get these?” I asked

He looked at the bottle and paused “At the market?”

No market I had ever been to

He didn’t even sound particularly sure himself Why did he ask it like it was a question? But cider was one of my few secret pleasures and I was determined to knohere it came from

“In Aramoor City? Which stall?”

He shrugged and grinned in this boyish, char about you”

I nearly swooned

And yet, whenever I tried to send him a hint that my heart actually ached when I looked at hi for him, he didn’t see too subtle, but I was too e to say exactly what I felt

“You don’t have to do all this for ht, catching a trickle of juice on my chin before it ran down onto my chest

He didn’t answer right away, but smiled at me in a way that I don’t think anybody ever had before In his eyes, I saw such adoration—and so much affection—that it made my cheeks bloom in embarrassment