He hummed quietly as he pondered her proposition. Much of what she was suggesting was more or less fact; there were some details left out, and the part about keeping her around because it was the "honorable" thing was just wrong, but all together it was a solid plan. They had been seen together at the carnival, and moments before opening their letters they'd been seen outside her home. It wasn't as if society assumed them to be complete strangers—and they weren't. Edric knew, though, that he'd never be able to talk about her like she was an inconvenience—let alone treat her like one!—but he supposed a few rumors about their apparent emotional intimacy was better than literally ruining her life.

"Living a part-truth is better than living a complete lie," he agreed in a murmur, combing his fingers through her hair as she curled up into him. The hardest part would be getting the people closest to them to understand (and by that he meant the Lynch family, because Sydney already knew how he felt about February and his father wouldn't require much explaining.) "But no more talk of annulments, alright? We just got married." And he was home; he'd heard enough talk of annulments throughout the work day.

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