The Healer's Bargain

no one had ever needed to write it down: no one entered the west

ear, citing reasons so vague they were a kind of confession, and he had let

ing before the th

g on his plate, pushed into a small gray fortress. "Why

altimore, each more expensive than the last, each leaving the same polite verdict behind like a calling card. No structural c

oss the table and struck Th

e years old and grinning. "

ended negotiations in three languages. Milo's grin only widened, and the mai

lve years old, with jam on his cuff, and a grown

e could examine that. She was wringing a d

l of strangers. He had prepared for this. A frightened girl, most likely, fresh from a family that had sold her like a spare

g back down the long drive, its taillights shrinking betwee

ble entryway with a single worn bag at he

ross his hall the way his own did when he entered a room he didn't trust, counting exits, cataloguing obje

and. "I assume you've been told I'm

d been a substitutio

the words. She was watching for his reaction. Most people flinched when the subject was raised to his face. He gave her nothing. "Let's not waste time. I'm not marrying you for love, or for mone

uffled snort. Milo, eavesdropping, an

p to it. "It suits me. You should know that most people who wa

named

o of my wives died, and both deaths were ruled natural. One left in the night and has not been seen sinc

behind a door with three locks, and he had no intention o

the flinch.

n my experience, things people call natural rar

at a t

to those women, Mr. Cross. Whether or not it's my business. I'd rather

es of his past. Instead something loosened in his chest, small and unfamiliar. Being looked at directly,

ast his shoulder

oom. The boy's jaw was set, his eyes fixed on some point in the middle d

d so did Theo, and Theo hated it. What crossed her features w

w l

ould stop it. "The best doctors in the country have examined him

eled at him in years. "I was going to ask whether the best doctors in the country ever treated the atrophy with

t Draven si

promising miracles. I don't promise anything about a body. But I want his file before I agree to marry into a house where a child has been failed for two years by people too proud to try someth

er something to say t

ears, a feeling he did not trust. It was small and wa

our room," he said. "We'll di

. Pell toward the stairs, not looking

ng room, Milo's voice drifted out, thought

ur brea

nto his jacket pocket and closed it around the three brass keys that never le

n a room no one entered b

een afraid of what a

afrai