"Are you tired?" Ruvon asked softly against her temple.
She'd been tired for hours.
She'd been on her feet since five that morning, alternately laughing, crying, dancing, and posing for photographs since the ceremony had ended. She had eaten about a third of what she had been served because her stomach was still being a coward, and there was a part of her that wanted, more than almost anything, to sit down somewhere quiet and take off her shoes.
She could take them off now as her mother had suggested, but she wasn't ready to do that yet.
"I'm tired," she admitted. "But tonight is our night. No matter what."
He laughed, a small soft laugh that she felt against the side of her head.
"It doesn't have to be the night."
"Yes, it does."
"It really doesn't. We have the rest of our lives ahead of us. If you want to take a bath and go to sleep, I am perfectly fine with that."
"No."
"No?"
"No. I am tired, but I am not that tired. Tonight is the night. I've decided."
He chuckled. "All right, then." He kissed the top of her head.
The cart turned onto the small bridge that separated Kalugal's section of the village from the rest of it, and the hollow rumble of the wheels over the wooden boards changed Anandur's song briefly, the rhythm of it adjusting to accommodate the percussion of the bridge. On the other side, Kalugal's section looked different than the rest of the village, the houses larger and set further apart.
Ruvon's house came into view at the end of the lane.
Arezoo sat up.
It had been decorated.
The front pathway had been lined with blue and white balloons, dozens of them, tied along the path at intervals so that theybobbed in the slight breeze. Ribbons were strung between the trees on either side, white and blue and pale gold, and there was a banner above the door that readCongratulations.
"Did you do that?" she asked Ruvon.
"No. It wasn't there when I left the house earlier."
"Who did it?"
"No clue, but it was nice of them."
Anandur pulled the cart to a stop, got out, and came around to give her a hand.
She hadn't removed her shoes as her mother had instructed, and she intended to walk into her new house on her own two feet.
"Thank you, Anandur," she said.
"My pleasure."
"For driving us and for the song. It was beautiful."
He grinned, and for a moment there was a shadow of the goofy Anandur she had expected, and then it passed, and he just nodded. "My brother is the true singer in the family but thank you for the compliment." He tipped two fingers to his forehead in a salute. "Good night, you two," he called as he climbed back up into the driver's seat. "Congratulations."
"Thank you," Ruvon said.
He turned the cart in a small circle at the end of the lane, waved once over his shoulder, and drove away.
