“Maybe it will be good for you to disappear from the Ward for a month,” he said. “If you’re not here, the militia can’t question you. They are still going door to door, asking about the night of the moon festival, and that soldier’s murder.” He saw me twitch at the word murder. “Don’t worry, Nirrim. This will all blow over. There is no proof the man didn’t just fall to his death.”

“Except the testimony of your friend.”

“Let me deal with him.” He kissed me again. “Nirrim, I want you to miss me.”

I took a breath. “I will miss you. And I’ll return with enough money for us to start a life together.”

His smile was broad. “Is that a yes? Are you saying yes, you will marry me?”

I swallowed hard. Sid would leave this city and I would stay. It was so easy to disappoint Raven. What if she tired of me? What home would I have then? Aden was ready to be with me always. “Yes,” I said, and meant it.

Although all the other girls thought he was the best boy in the Ward, I knew he was the best I could do.

He picked me up and whirled me around the room.

As I approached Sid, who stood outside the gate to the Middling quarter, she made a show of taking a little gold watch out of her pocket. It was a man’s watch, to match her man’s clothes. She opened the watch and widened her eyes in comic disbelief at the time she saw there. She squinted at the watch, looked at me, looked back at her watch, letting her full mouth part in mock outrage.

“All right, all right,” I said.

“Took your sweet time,” she said.

“Let’s go.”

“And was it? Sweet, that is?” She flicked a lock of hair away from my neck and saw a mark that Aden’s kisses had left. “Ah, I see it was.”

I batted away her hand.

“Ooh, touchy,” she said. She looked me over, noting the knapsack I carried. “That’s it?”

“Not all of us need an entire wardrobe of women’s and men’s clothes.”

“May I peek?” She reached for the knapsack.

“No.” I pulled it out of reach.

“What’s in there?”

Two dresses. A set of tools for forging. Sid’s letter written in her language. And a little packet of poison.