Free Matronly Duties by Melissa Kendall Page A

you can ask me anything. I want to get to know you, and I want you to know me. The real me.” He pauses, brows scrunched together like he is concentrating very hard. “I like you.”
    My heart skips a beat and I smile. “I like you, too.”
    He presses a brief kiss to my lips before he rests his forehead against mine. The thumb of the hand still on my cheek traces circles. When he draws back, I follow. I don’t want this to be over yet.
    “Soon,” he says, pulling away. “I didn’t bring you here so we could make out. I just wanted somewhere so we could talk alone.”
    “What do you want to talk about?”
    “Nothing, everything. I don’t know. You intrigue me. I find myself inexplicably drawn to you.”
    “I think I feel the same.”
    Howard is grinning like a Cheshire cat. He leans in close, and I think he is going to kiss me again but he stops short. “Tell me something, anything about you.”
    “Like what? I’m boring. I sleep and attend classes. That is the sum total of everything I do.”
    “Fine. Ask me something then. Anything you’re curious about?”
    Taking the opportunity given to me, I ask the one question I’ve been dying to know the answer to. “Okay . . . are you a traditionalist because of your parents, or do you really believe as they do?”
    Howard chuckles and pulls back to look me in the eye. “I really believe. I have seen too much not to.” His happy expression falls.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well . . .” he says, an I’m-thinking-hard scowl on his face. “Bethanie, I know you have lived a sheltered life, and you probably get to see the best of the government because you will be one of them and they take care of their own. However, for the rest of us, that isn’t the case. They say they are doing everything for the good of all citizens, but there are too many citizens going without for that to be the truth.” His voice has taken on an angry tone.
    “But why?” I ask. “The government central stores are almost full again. Sure, there have been some lean years, but there should be more than enough to go around.”
    “That they are, but what they allocate to the outlying areas is not enough. And those lean years you are talking about saw many in the outskirts die of starvation.”
    I gasp. “That can’t be true. There was never anything in the news. I don’t understand,” I say, perplexed as to why there are citizens going without.
    Where we were almost sitting on top of one another moments ago, Howard has now retreated. “I do. It comes down to beliefs. If you don’t believe as they do, then you go without. They think they can force us to change our beliefs by starving us.”
    I shake my head, refusing to believe what he says is true. However, if it is, all the cases of theft by the Trads make more sense.
    “I know this is hard to hear, but what motivation do I have to lie? You’ve seen the slums for yourself, Bethanie. We sat together in the empty food store.”
    I wipe the tears from my face. Howard puts his arm around my shoulder and pulls me close. “I realise the circumstances in which we’ve met are not the best, and tomorrow you’re going to go back to your life. We will probably never see one another again. All I ask is you don’t forget everything you’ve seen and learned while you’ve been here . . . or about me.”
    “I could never forget you,” I whisper, looking at my lap. My chest is tight, like a weight is threatening to crush it. The idea of never seeing him again leaves me sick to my stomach.
    Howard places a hand on my cheek, waiting until I meet his gaze. He’s grinning from ear to ear, and his eyes are almost sparkling. He tucks my hair behind my ear and leans in so slowly, the action so subtle, it’s not even clear he’s moving at first. His eyes stayed locked on mine the entire time, and when his lips meet mine, I whimper as heat flushes through me.
    He doesn’t say anything, just continues to kiss me. I enjoy the feel of