“I’m certain you already have many women to f-fortify your vanity. You don’t need one more.”

“I always need one more, darling. That’s my problem.”

He took her back to the library, where she sat before the hearth for a few more minutes. Just as she began to doze in the chair, Woobin returned to take her outside. Groggily she went with him to a gleaming black rolls royce phantom in front of the house, and Woobin handed her inside the vehicle deftly. The plush cream-colored velvet upholstery inside was supremely impractical but magnificent, glowing in the soft light of a tiny car light. Shinhye experienced an unfamiliar sense of well-being as she settled back against a silk-fringed seat. Her mother’s family lived according to a narrow set of rules governing good taste, and they distrusted anything that smacked of excess. For Kim Woobin, however, she suspected that excess was commonplace, especially when it came to matters of bodily comfort.

A basket made of thin woven strips of leather had been set on the floor. Searching it tentatively, Shinhye found several napkin-wrapped sandwiches made of thick slices of buttermilk bread and filled with thin-sliced meats and cheeses. The scent of the smoked meat aroused a sudden overwhelming hunger, and she ate two of the sandwiches in rapid succession, nearly choking with ravenous eagerness.

Entering the car, Woobin folded his long, lean body into the opposite seat. He smiled slightly at the sight of Shinhye finishing the last few crumbs of a sandwich. “Feeling better?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Woobin opened the door of a compartment that had been cleverly built into the inner wall of the car and extracted a small crystal glass and a bottle of white wine that had been placed there by the maid. He filled the glass and gave it to her. After a cautious sip of the sweet, ice-cold vintage, Shinhye drank thirstily. Finishing the glass, she barely had time to wish for another before it was replenished. The car started with a gentle lurch, and the edge of Shinhye's teeth clicked lightly against the rim of the glass as the vehicle shoved along the street. Fearing that she might spill the wine on the cream velvet upholstery, she took a deep swallow, and heard Woobin's quiet laugh.

“Drink slowly, pet. We’ve a long journey ahead of us.” Relaxing back against the cushions, he looked like an idle pasha in one of the torrid novels that Bona adored. “Tell me, what would you have done had I not agreed to your proposition? Where would you have gone?”

“I suppose I would have gone to st-st-stay with Rachelle and Hyoshin.” Fleeing to Eunsang and Kim Tan had not been an option, as they were on their month-long honeymoon. And it would have been futile to approach the Chas…although Bona would have argued passionately in her favor, her parents would have wanted nothing to do with the situation.

“Why wasn’t that your first choice?”

Shinhye frowned. “It would have been difficult, if not impossible, for Rachelle and Hyoshin to keep my uncles from taking me back. I am far s-safer as your wife than as someone else’s house guest.” The wine made her pleasantly dizzy, and she sank lower in her seat.

Regarding her thoughtfully, Woobin leaned down to remove her shoes. “You’ll be more comfortable without these,” he said. “For God’s sake, don’t shy away. I’m not going to molest you in the car.” Freeing the straps, he continued in a silken tone, “And if I were so inclined it’s of little consequence, since we’re going to be married soon.” He grinned as she jerked her  foot away from him, and he reached for the other.

Allowing him to remove her remaining shoe, Shinhye forced herself to relax, though the brush of his fingers against her