Islands in the Sky

4.7

Cassa stood up. She went over to the door, and opened it, and said loudly, in case anyone was listening out in the hallway, “It was pleasant to spent a night with you, husband.”

Willem looked at her for a moment, and then seemed to understand. He stood up too, and went and got his coat from where he had left it on another chair last night. He found his shoes, and sat down again to pull them on, but Cassa didn’t begrudge him that since he was being quick about his dressing.

She stayed over at the door though anyway, holding it open and waiting. Deliberately, obviously waiting, to keep him moving, so he didn’t decide to take his time.

Willem fastened his shoes, and came over towards her, pulling on his coat. He seemed to have tried to be quick, once he understood what Cassa wanted, and she appreciated that.

Willem came over, and then stopped at the doorway.

“We should do this again,” he said quietly. “I should be here again. To show we are willing…”

Cassa nodded. “I know.”

“Perhaps tonight? If that will not inconvenience you? Perhaps we ought to spend the next several nights together, to make a demonstration of it, before we begin obviously living apart.”

Cassa thought. He was probably correct. “Very well,” she said.

“Tonight?”

“Yes, tonight,” Cassa said. “But actually tonight. Don’t come back until later. And only to sleep.”

Willem nodded.

“After dinner,” Cassa said, wanting to be clear.

“Very well,” Willem said. “I shall. Thank you.”

Willem stood there for a moment, and it seemed that he was about to leave, but he didn’t actually go. He just stood where he was, a little awkwardly, a little uncertainly. He stood there, apparently uncertain, and Cassa suddenly realized why. He was unsure how to bid her farewell. Unsure, she supposed, whether they should kiss, or not kiss, or quite what they ought to do.

Cassa leaned forward and kissed Willem’s cheek.

She kissed him because that was the custom among people such as them, even those who were not so recently married. The members of the tower name-families pretended politeness and a relationship as cousins., at least when their families were not at one another’s throats. In the usual course of things, if Cassa and Willem had met socially, they would probably have kissed on their cheeks. Or at least, Willem would have expected to kiss, and Cassa would have done her best to avoid it, as she did everyone, because she was aloof and unfriendly and cold-hearted, or actually, because she was far too aware of letting strangers close to her than anyone else ever seemed to be. But that was her, and she was unusual in that way, and most other people would kiss, so Cassa did.

She kissed Willem’s cheek, to be polite, to thank him for doing his best to make this not unpleasant between them. She knew Willem a little better now, so she didn’t see the harm. She kissed, and felt the odd scratchiness of his beard on her face, and then she stepped back again, making a clear space between them.

Then, looking at him carefully, she said, “Don’t assume.”

Willem looked back. “Assume what?”

“Assume anything. Assume about this, about me. I am in a good mood right now. So right now I shall do that.” She touched her mouth, and then his cheek. “But don’t assume.”

Willem nodded. “Of course not,” he said.

“Don’t assume about that,” Cassa said. “Or about anything else besides.”

“I won’t,” Willem said.

Cassa nodded, slowly. “Thank you.”

Willem hesitated, as if he felt her words needed something more from him, something of equal consequence. He hesitated, but perhaps couldn’t find anything weighty to say, because he simply nodded, and said thank you to her too and that he would see her later on, and then, with a smile, he left. And Cassa, relieved he had and that she was finally alone, bolted her door against nosy, prying, gossipy maids and went to wash.