“Not hiding,” I said. “It’s just . . . sometimes it all gets a bit too much for me, and then I need to get away from it all. I took on running this family because I had to. But . . . I don’t know what I’m doing. I lived alone for ten years, and never had to worry about anyone but myself. Now I have all these people depending on me, and looking to me for answers and decisions that will shape the rest of their lives . . . I don’t want to let them down.”

“They let you down,” said Molly.

“They’re still keeping secrets from me,” I said. “Harry’s only the latest. And he’s all I needed; a rival pretender for the throne.”

“He hates you because he believes you killed his father,” said Molly. “He doesn’t know I killed James Drood.”

“No one can ever know that! It’s one thing for me to kill him in a duel. I’m family. But you’re an outsider; they’d kill you on the spot if they even suspected. And me too, for hiding the truth, and daring to care more about you than the family.”

Molly smiled at me. “Every now and again, you remind me of why I fell for you so hard. Come over here and sit down beside me.”

I sat down on the bed, by her side, and we put our arms around each other and snuggled close, and for a long time we didn’t want to say anything.

“You are allowed to hold me when you’re feeling down, you know,” said Molly. “It’s allowed, when you’re in a relationship.”

“So we are definitely in one of those relationship things, are we?” I said.

“Yeah. It sneaked up on me when I wasn’t looking. You can squeeze my boobies, if you like.”

“Good to know.”

“Roger and I were never close,” she said, not looking at me. “And we weren’t together long. I was just at the time in a girl’s life when she really feels like being mistreated by someone big and rough. Even though you know it’s bound to end in tears.”

"And did it?”

“Oh, yes. I caught him in bed with my best friend. And her brother. Something of an eye-opener . . . I set the bed on fire while they were all still in it, and walked out on him. I’m pretty sure I never really loved him. It was just . . . one of those things, you know?”

“I once had a brief relationship with a sex android from the twenty-third century,” I said. “Damn, but we’ve known some interesting times, haven’t we?”

We laughed together quietly. Our bodies moved easily against each other. I never really felt at home the way I did in Molly’s arms. Like I’d finally found out where I was supposed to be.

“Never leave me,” I said suddenly.