I said the words I knew I must. “Thank you, sir.”
He turned to look over his shoulder. I followed his gaze through the blowing rain to where Celerity gazed at us. Her father gave her a tiny nod, and her smile broke like the sun from behind a cloud. Faith, watching her, said something, and Celerity turned blushing to give her sister a push. My guts turned to ice when Brawndy told me, “You may bid my daughter farewell, if you wish.”
There were few things I wished less to do. But I would not undo what Kettricken had so laboriously wrought. I could not. So I bowed and excused myself, and forced myself to cross the rain-pelted garden to present myself to Celerity. Faith and Shells immediately withdrew to a not-quite-discreet distance to watch us.
I bowed to her with absolute correctness. “Lady Celerity, I must thank you again for the scroll you sent me,” I said awkwardly. My heart was pounding. As was hers, I am sure, for a completely different reason.
She smiled at me through the falling rain. “I was glad to send it, and gladder of your reply. My father explained it to me. I hope you do not take it amiss that I showed it to him. I did not understand why you would belittle yourself so. He said, `The man who must brag for himself knows that no one else will.’ Then he told me there is no better way to learn the sea than at the oar of a boat. And that, in his younger years, the ax was always his weapon, too. He has promised my sisters and me a dory of our own, next summer, that we can take out on the sea on fine days ….” She faltered suddenly. “I chatter, do I not?”