The Almighty Dominance novel Chapter 796

She looked at the two beds. One was by the window. One was by the wall, where the cold came through the bricks.

"You take the window," she said firmly.

"It's your wedding night," Alexander said, surprised. "You should have the window."

"I had a window for two years," she said quietly. "It had bars on it. I don't want to look out of one for a while." She nodded at it. "And you keep looking at it. You did it in the hall, too. Every time a door opened, you looked at the way out."

He was quiet.

"I'm not asking why," she said gently. "I'm only saying, take it."

"Thank you," he said, and meant it.

The tap dripped. Somewhere in the house, a door slammed, and somebody laughed, a long way off.

"I'll fix that tomorrow," Serena said briskly, nodding at the tap.

"You can fix taps?" he asked, surprised.

"I spent two years in a tower listening to one," she said dryly. "I know exactly what's wrong with it. The washer's gone, and somebody tightened it too hard to hide it."

"That sounds like this house," Alexander said mildly.

She almost laughed. She caught it just in time.

"Can I tell you my trouble?" she asked, hesitant. "Since we're starting honestly."

"Please," he said softly.

"There's talk in the trade," Serena said, low. "My father hears things in this house. Nobody ever notices he's in the room. Halcyon Group is buying one perfume house on this coast. Only one. Whoever they pick will be rich for twenty years. Whoever they don't will be finished."

"And the house will send you?" he asked.

"No." Her mouth went thin. "The house will send Patricia. And Patricia will send my notebooks."

He waited.

"Tonight," Serena said, "at the feast, I could smell my own work. On the guests. A green fig and a cold iron note I made blind, in the tower, two winters ago. I wrote it in my notebook by feel. Four women at that table were wearing it." Her hands tightened in her lap. "It's called Patricia's Garden now. It sells in the capital."

"She took it from your room," Alexander said, very low.

"She took everything from my room. Grandmother says the notebooks come back tomorrow." Serena looked at him. "Some of them won't. You'll see."

"What will you do?" he asked, curious.

"Make something new," she said fiercely. "Something she's never smelled. And make it so well she can't copy it in time."

He didn't say anything for a while.

"Can I ask you something?" he said at last, careful.

"You can ask," she said warily.

"Why did you choose me?" Alexander asked quietly. "Julian was a better bargain. Everyone said so. Even Julian."

Serena looked at the jam jar on the windowsill for a long time.

“Let say, my heart chooses you without my mind know the reason."

“You are going to regret it.” Alexander said.

“So far, my heart is happy with you.”

“All newlyweds are blissfully happy during the first month—ask them again in ten years.”

She laughed. It burst out of her, rusty and surprised, and she clapped a hand over her mouth and looked at him over it with narrowed eyes.

"You do that on purpose," she said, accusing.

"Do what?" he asked innocently.

"Make me laugh, then look innocent," she said.

"I'm an idiot," he said humbly. "I can't do anything on purpose."

"Hm." She didn't believe him. He could see her not believing him. Then she breathed in, without meaning to, and frowned. "You smell like a ship."

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