I have another snippet from The Merchant's Love for you today. This one takes place not long after last week's snippet. Faelen and Maxen didn't dance, but they do spend quite a while talking that night.
They walked the perimeter of the room in slow loops. Faelen had no idea how many, or how much time passed while they strolled and talked and sipped wine. Long enough that it was probably conspicuous, but no one interrupted them. Faelen didn’t think about it while they circled the room, but he certainly did when they stopped. And they might not have, might have just kept on until the ballroom emptied around them, if everyone hadn’t stopped what they were doing to wave Etan and Tristan goodbye.
Maxen looked as surprised and befuddled as Faelen felt, which went a long way toward reassuring Faelen—the obliviousness to the outside world hadn’t been only on his part.
“I suppose we should say good night,” Maxen said, though he didn’t look as if he wanted to do that at all.