Cort drove and Shadrack was in the front with him, while Ritter and I sat on the floor in the back, where the seats had been removed to fit more workers. I felt content for the moment to lie back against him with his arms around me. When I told Ritter that I regretted making him wait, I meant that I should have married him the first moment I knew what he meant to me. But marriage to him, an Unbounded, meant a lot longer than I could even fathom. I’d been so afraid that in a hundred years, I’d want out of the deal or that I’d regret making the commitment. Or that maybe I’d wished to have spent time with Keene, whose demands never frightened me like Ritter’s. Keene asked for nothing; Ritter asked for it all. We hit a bump in the road and Ritter’s arms tighten around me, giving me strength to be honest with myself. Sure, Ritter asked for it all, but wasn’t that what I wanted? Maybe the real truth was that Ritter was so much a part of me and our lives so filled with turmoil, that I was afraid of losing him—and therefore myself.
