“Molly?” I asked in surprise as I sat up to look at her. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” Her voice went high on the words. She took a shuddering breath. “You lie beside me and tell me you are promised to another. And then you ask me what’s wrong?”
“The only one I am promised to is you,” I said firmly.
“It’s not that simple, FitzChivalry.” Her eyes were very wide and serious. “What will you do when the King tells you that you must court her?”
“Stop bathing?” I asked.
I had hoped she would laugh. Instead she pulled away from me. She looked at me with a world of sorrow in her eyes. “We haven’t got a chance. Not a hope.”
As if to prove her words, the sky darkened suddenly above us and the squall winds rose. Molly leaped to her feet, snatching up her cloak and shaking sand from it. “I’m going to get soaked. I should have been back to Buckkeep hours ago.” She spoke flatly, as if those two things were the only concerns that she had.
“Molly, they would have to kill me to keep me from you,” I said angrily.
She gathered up her market purchases. “Fitz, you sound like a child,” she said quietly. “A foolish, stubborn child.” With a pattering like flung pebbles, the first raindrops began to hit. They made dimples in the sand and swept across the rain in sheets. Her words had left me speechless. I could not think of a worse thing for her to have said to me.
I gathered up the red blanket, shook sand from it. She pulled her cloak tight against the wind that whipped at it. “Best we don’t go back together,” she observed. She came close to me, stood on tiptoe to kiss the angle of my jaw. I could not decide who I was angrier at, King Shrewd for creating this mess, or Molly for believing in it. I did not turn to her kiss. She said nothing of that, but only hurried away, to scrabble lightly up the rock chimney and vanish from sight.