CHAPTER 53 

The walls of the bedchamber counterfeited morning light. Dennis stretched luxuriously as Aria nuzzled his chest. 

As his wife nuzzled him. 

"I'd like to go see the, the pasture, this morning," he said. 

Aria lifted her head and pouted, mostly as a joke. "Two days and tired of me already?" she said. 

Dennis touched the white line on her upper lip, the only remaining sign of the cut she had received there. "Never, my love," he said. "Never." 

She didn't understand the significance of his touching her lip, but no one could doubt the sincerity in Dennis' voice. 

"Anyway," Dennis went on, "I thought you might come with me. There are some things I'd like to show you." 

"Outside..." Aria said in a tone that Dennis couldn't read. 

"It, ah..." Dennis said. "I suppose it could be dangerous. It could be dangerous." 

"More dangerous than beneath the city, with Rakastava?" 

"No, not—" he started to reply, but she smothered his seriousness with laughter and a kiss. 

After a time, they both got dressed.